Strategies for Preserving and Arranging Special Photographs

Taking care of and Preserving Photographs

It really is truly essential to properly care for and handle your cherished or vintage photos to preserve those valuable photo memories.

To minimize damage from harsh light, rotate framed photographs a few times each year that are subjected to sunlight and make new arrangements with the picture frames.

If you have photographs that you don't view regularly, store them in sturdy, flat archival boxes. For additional protection, layer museum-quailty matte board or acid-free tissue in between your photographs.

Where sunlight is unavoidable, use today's scanning technology to make duplicates of your treasured photographs for displaying while the originals are stored away safely.

Photographs that aren't displayed in frames may be exhibited in albums with acid-free pages and photo corners that hold the images without adhesives. In case you have any photo albums which were made through the 1960s, they have highly acidic paper, so any photographs saved in them should be removed and placed into albums with archival-quality paper.

The biggest threat to photographs is sunlight, so any framed original photos ought to be placed directly under Plexiglas or glass sporting a layer of defense against Uv rays. As previously mentioned, if subjected to sunlight, rotate where it's hung so that it is not constantly subjected to damaging sun light.

Arranging Your Photographs on the Wall

A number of people find it hard to create a nice-looking wall display when hanging several pieces, but using a few simple guidelines make creating attractive displays easy. These techniques can be used when hanging artwork, photographs, paintings, or drawings - or anything that can be placed in a picture frame.

Gather together each of the pieces you need to hang, then lay them on a flat surface. Place in an arrangement, then move them around until you are happy with how it looks. For best results, also to make it a little easier, work your arrangement within a geometric frame (triangle, rectangle, circle, square, etc.) as this will help keep groupings from looking too plain or rigid. Your arrangement should appear balanced, and this can be accomplished by being sure that you set sets of smaller pieces opposite larger pieces. It's okay to have arrangements which include different sizes of frames, but the frames should all go together like having them be all different kinds of silver metal picture frames. When the artwork you're hanging has different sized mats, hanging them in rows will unify the look.

Selecting Art for Your SpaceTips For Selecting Art for Your Space

If you're looking for some kind of artwork to hang and don't own anything suitable, consider textiles. You can easily hang a stunning tapestry above a buffet or a table and it can give a nice blend of texture, pattern, and color.

If you're lucky enough to have built-in cubbies in your room, choose objects that have curvy shapes to put in them, and this will add interest rather than competing with the powerful architectural lines inherent in the cubby.

In case you are displaying an item on a pedestal, an effective way to make the displayed object part of an overall arrangement, instead of something that distracts the attention, is to hang framed prints low on the wall behind or next to the pedestal.


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Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames. Display your favorite photos in one of our beautiful bamboo picture frames that are available in a wide variety of styles, colors and sizes. Shop online and see our picture frames online now or call 800-780-0699.