YourDailyPhotograph, Dec 2

Print Sizes
(excerpt from page 39, The Compact Guide to Collecting Fine Art Photography
 

There’s been a tendency in recent years to produce larger and larger photographic prints. This trend has primarily been driven by technical advances in digital printing machines combined with people who live in larger homes feeling the need to fill empty wall space with some type of art.

Many of the world’s most valuable photographs were created before large format printing technology was perfected, and you can’t accurately calculate the value of a photograph by its size. Bigger isn’t always better, as they say.

Remember that photographs are traditionally sold by the size of the piece of paper they’re printed on rather than the size of the image. The images are usually slightly smaller to allow for a white border, which helps with framing and notations or signatures on the front of prints. Smaller prints are popular in cities like New York, Paris, and San Francisco, where many people live in apartments where wall space is limited. People living in areas with large homes often have expansive wall space that can accommodate larger prints. It’s important to remember that pricing does not always correlate to print size.