I recently discovered the amazing advantages of printing your images on canvas for display. Not only do you have a finished product ready to hang but there is less weight and no glass to worry about breaking. You also save a ton of money on framing costs, especially when your images are large. They also look spectacular on your wall.

In the last few years of having a SmugMug account I have uploaded many photos, but I had never taken advantage of ordering canvas images online from them. Seven business days ago I decided to try out the printing services of SmugMug and Bay Photo. SmugMug offers the choice of using two different labs ezprints and Bay Photo. Both labs offer exceptional printing services through SmugMug but Bay Photo has more size options for their Giclée Canvas printing, available in wrapped, board and stretched. I chose to order two of my prints in the wrapped format which comes to you on a thick wood frame with the edges of your image wrapped around the sides. The rest of my order was printed in the stretched canvas format. This format is perfect for most images because the image just goes to the edge and the sides are left white. You do not have to worry about creating extra image for the wrap or if something important in your image will be wrapped around the edge.

Here are the two large boxes that arrived this morning via courier. Nicely red stamped all over with “Photos do not bend”

Once I opened the first box I was pleasantly greeted with generous packing around the perimeter of the box.

Each canvas print is separated by cardboard and secured by thick clear tape to make sure that it stays in the center of the box and does not slide around during shipping. The packing tape that is used is very secure but is also easy to remove.

Each print is then individually bagged in clear plastic and taped shut. This print is one of the two wrapped prints that I ordered and it is 16″x24″

On the wrapped canvas prints the back is sealed with black paper and has metal hanging hardware at the top as well as two felt circles on the bottom corners to protect your wall.

Here is a close up detail of how the image wraps around the edge on the second canvas wrapped image that I ordered. In this case I used the templates provided by Bay Photo on their website to determine where the image needed to be extended. I ended up mirroring the image on the edge instead of cropping off important parts of the image.

mirrored edges

original image

Here is what the back of a stretched canvas looks like. They do not have any hanging hardware or felt pads but I have a feeling this is because you can then choose to frame the outside in wood if you like. I am just going to add picture hanging wire and my own pads on the corners so it can be hung as is. The hardware for picture hanging can be purchased at just about any dollar store.

The front of another 16″x24″ stretched canvas print.

A 12″x24″ print and two 12″x18″ prints that I purchased from another photographer who uses SmugMug, Greg Hinson. I saw Greg’s images posted here and fell in love with them. What is really cool about the images from Greg is they were not even taken with a DSLR and the resolution was not super big but even at 12×18 they look awesome on canvas!

I also had ordered some 5″x7″ metallic prints from Bay Photo to see what both Black and White and Color images looked like on this special paper. Even these were shrink wrapped in cardboard and bagged in an archival plastic sleeve. I must say that these metallic prints are amazing they have a luminous 3D quality look to them.

I also ordered two other canvas prints that turned out amazing! If you want to see any of the images larger and the other prints you can see the whole gallery here.

Overall I am super impressed with the whole process of ordering online with SmugMug. The giclée canvas prints arrived safely and packaged amazingly well. The quality of the printing is top notch and gives you a ready to hang product that either you or your customers will be proud to have on your wall. This was a large order, in all there was 17 separate prints, this did not seem to slow down the shipping process at all. Once I had received the shipping email the boxes arrived at my door two business days later. These were shipped from the US into Canada and the total time from order to unwrapping was 7 days.

I highly recommend SmugMug, both to house your photos online and to order the prints and fine art that should be adorning your walls.

Thanks SmugMug!