Thoughts on Borders

[Mad Aussie]

I notice several people are displaying their photos in the forum with borders.

I've usually avoided them because I felt they artificially tended to add (or distract) to the photo itself and I wanted the photo to stand alone on it's merits.

Having said that though I think the bordered photos I see here at ph.ca look nice.

Do they help to generate more comments at times I wonder? I don't want to suggest that a photo wouldn't on it's own though because I'm certain many I've seen with borders certainly would be popular with or without a border for sure.

Presentation is certainly important in many facets of our lives and photos certainly aren't to be excluded. We frame photos when we print them out and they go on our walls so why not online as well right?



And if we all start putting borders on our images are we simply going to spoil the technique by over-use?
Or is it simply a great way to present an image in every way and we all should be doing it?

What do people think?

[JAS_Photo]

I think the simple black borders help make the photo pop in the same way that looking at it on a black background would.

[MoinMoin]

Ohhh – that’s a difficult theme among photographers. Either you like borders or not – it’s the same in my german forum ;-).
Sometimes a border can destroy a photo by overwhelming it or it can give the last special touch.
I think it is also a question of individual taste – what I like another won’t.

But the frame above ist just my taste - very elegant!

[AntZ]

For me it used to be a way or controlling the immediate area around the photo as this can affect how a photo looks. But the Top/Bottom border I am currently using doesn't serve that purpose very well, but I like the look.
It also serves as somewhere to put a watermark without impinging on the photo itself. The last time I had large photos printed I added the border so I had someway to mount them without losing any of the photo itself.

[F8&Bthere]

... We frame photos when we print them out and they go on our walls so why not online as well right?

And if we all start putting borders on our images are we simply going to spoil the technique by over-use?
Or is it simply a great way to present an image in every way and we all should be doing it?

What do people think?

I'm a bit puzzled that you would post this as a question- it seems obvious there's no right or wrong and you'll get a mixed bag of responses based on personal taste. But my personal taste is that it's just as you said, and Raiven added, that the black border makes it look finished like a frame for hanging art on the wall, and makes it pop a bit more like viewing it on screen with a black background- like used in editing software or some photo gallery websites. What gets me is when amateurs (like myself) plaster a huge watermark or logo across their posted images.

And the comment about over-use... I think with affordable digital cameras and easy access to software and the internet, anything and everything is a potential candidate for overuse these days- bug/flower macros, waterfall shots, HDR, framing, token poignant shot of weathered old person, nightime cityscapes, strawberry dropping in a glass a milk, one light fruit bowl still life, on and on. When everyone and their dog's a photographer before too long everything seems kinda cliche, lol

[Marko]

I like that border MA and I use a 2-4 pixel black border on 95% of my shots. It just holds the shot better against any background.
It's something else that I've been meaning to play with more elaborately.

[kat]

I like the look of it. So I've started doing it again. It's like a picture frame and make images pop.

[Gem]

I like the white border look on my photos; to me, they look like the pictures we have from way back when we used film and they developed it the white bordering. I like the old fashioned/class look it gives the pics (especially the B&W ones!). And like someone mentioned, it makes the photo POP

[mindforge]

I love the borders that a holga puts on images. When I use borders I try and emulate the look.

[little laker]

I hope that you don't mind a newbie piping in, but I wanted to say that I like being a little more creative than most people with my borders.
When I use them.

Here's an example, or 2




It just taken a moment in PS, and a little imagination.