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Are you one of those photographers who has that one image that just completely defines you? The image you’re completely proud of and would die if anything ever happened to it? Sure, other images in your portfolio are great, but this one is special.

A great way to show off that photo is with a canvas gallery wrap. If you’ve never heard of these, here’s your chance to check out a great product. A gallery wrap is simply a photograph printed on canvas, then wrapped around a wooden frame. But rather than having the image stop at the edges like traditional canvas, the image wraps around the top, bottom, and sides and the staples are in the back.

When you display these, no frame is necessary, in fact you’d ruin the effect. Gallery wraps are a high class display that stand wonderfully all on their own.

Gallery wraps come in different thicknesses, usually 1-1/8 inches or 2-1/2 inches.

Cost

While gallery wraps are certainly a step up from your standard print, they also have a price increase to match. You can expect to pay around $100 for a 16×20 from a pro lab. Some labs offer a protective smooth coating for an extra $20 or so. But if you want to splurge on that one image, this just might do the trick.

Will Your Photo Work?

One of the things to keep in mind when determining if a photo will work as a gallery wrap is the loss of photograph around the edges. A significant portion of your image is going to be taken up by the sides of the wrap. You need to carefully consider whether your image will work as a gallery wrap. You wouldn’t want to cut the main subject’s forehead off on the top of the picture. Any lab that does gallery wraps has software or can help you figure out if you’ll have a problem or not. Many labs use software called ROES, which shoes you the edges and what will be cut off.

Here’s a cool little demo I found at Collages.net which allows you to rotate and look at a gallery wrap in 3D. I tried it in Firefox and it didn’t work, so you Windows users will need to use Internet Explorer, or have some special plugin that I don’t have installed.

Have you already taken the plunge into gallery wraps? What did you think? Let us know in the comments.