[alt-photo] Re: bottom-weighting mats

[Francesco Fragomeni]

Hi Christina,

I absolutely bottom weight. Failing to do so will cause a print to look
poorly matted (in my opinion). Bottom weighting provides a compensation for
the eyes tendency to see the image as too low in the matte. This was
explained to me in detail a while back by a photographer who was also a eye
doctor. I don't recall the specifics of it but it has something to do with
the curvature of our field of view and how we perceive balance. Bottom
weighting the print in the matt is what actually makes it look balanced and
it looks like it is in the center. A bit of heavy bottom weighting is also
acceptable and the eye prefers heavy bottom weighting far more then no
bottom weighting or God forbid top weighting (unless your going for
something avant-garde and against traditional presentation). More then
anything, I study the print and use my eye to determine the weighting but
over all it ends up being pretty much the same between like prints
(consistency confirms what the eye wants to see). As far as a measurement
goes, I'll have to check when I get home to give you an exact measurement
but I can tell you that different size prints will require different
degrees of bottom weighting. That's my take on it.

-Francesco
www.francescofragomeni.com

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Christina Anderson <zphoto at montana.net>wrote:

> How many of you bottom weight your mats and if so by how much? I have been
> told that contemporary work has abandoned that practice, but uses mats of
> equal size all the way around. Short of bringing a tape measure with me to
> galleries, input on both sides of this issue much appreciated.
> Christina Z. Anderson
> christinaZanderson.com
>
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