Canvas gallery wraps from Costco

I just tried out the new Canvas gallery wrap printing option at Costco, and am very impressed with the quality and affordability. If you have images you've always wanted to display larger, this is a great option. From what I gather, the canvas prints are not actually printed in your local warehouse store, but rather fullfilled via a company in LA called "YPOC - Your photos on canvas™". It's worth noting that your Costco membership gives you substantial savings on printing. The 24x32 is lists for $134.95 at YPOC, but is only $79.99 thru Costco.

The image I printed was from a trip to Arizona this past summer. The photo is of a windswept wall inside Antelope canyon, looking up towards the sun as light filters down from above. This was one of my favorite shots from the trip and I've been wanting to get it printed large for quite some time.

There is a large 'gallery space' in our front livingroom that we periodically update with our artwork. The problem is that creating large prints always seems to be cost prohibitive, not because of the print prices, but the mounting and framing. Since the canvas gallery wraps come pre-stretched on frames ready to hang, you don't need to worry about this extra time and expense.

For this space I actually ended up spanning the single image across three 24x32 prints to create a final image size of 72x32. This creates a kind of triptych, but with a single image, and seamless gaps.

It took a bit of finessing in Photoshop to work out where to crop the images to account for the image 'wrapping' around the sides, and still look seamless from the fronts. I don't think it's quite perfect, but it looks great from normal viewing distance.

The good news is I saved the Photoshop template, so next time I print new images, it will be easy. It will also be fun to experiment with this triptych format with separate images in from series — slightly smaller prints with larger gaps inbetween. My wife has a great series of floral still lifes that would look great here.

So in summary, if you have photographs you've always wanted to print large, but have been disuaded by printing and mounting costs, I suggest you take a look at this Canvas printing option from Costco.

Comments

[Dennis Rainville]

Dave, first thanks or the review of Costco's canvas prints. Your triptych looks fantastic!

Can you share how much overlap you used between frames?

Thanks in advance for your help

Dennis

[Dave Brinda]

Thanks for the comment Dennis.To get the overlap perfect, I took the full image into Photoshop and cut out the exact crops that would align properly. Then with each individual image, I added empty space around each edge to match the print I was going to make (1") — then copy/flipped/pasted strips around all the edges. So the end result is the front faces all align perfectly, and the edges 'wrap' the color, tone, texture of the image, but are mirrored. From normal viewing distance you can't even tell. FYI, if you don't want to do the Photoshop work manually, I think there is a plugin/utility that will expand and mirror automatically.

Hope that helps,
Dave

[Ruby]

All I say "Perfect". Very creative and unique arts.

Photos on Canvas is very special event today especially the Christmas session is near. This is the time for being kind, to forgive and to love. We can do all this in a simply way by giving a unique and wonderful photos on canvas to your love ones. This good for decoration display in your home/room and best for memorable gift photos.

Ruby <a href="http://www.digitalphotosoncanvas.com/">Digital Photos on Canvas</a>

[Robin Kaspar]

Dave, did you have any concerns about color reproduction? I don't have a colorimeter yet (keep seeing conflicting info about whether they do any good on laptops) and I did a test with a Costco canvas since I had a $10 coupon. I'm familiar with the Costco photo center website but I don't remember seeing anything about color correction in the wrap order process. So not surprisingly, the color is not right in my test.

What can I do in future to make sure I get accurate color? I use PS CS5 and LR3.