From: Etienne Garbaux (photographeur@softhome.net)
Date: 10/26/03-03:37:37 PM Z
Robin wrote:
> What about the glass?
>
> Any thoughts on this aspect of framing?
I've never been satisfied with matte "anti-glare" glass, nor with any of
the plastics I've seen, including anti-reflection coated polycarbonate
[caveat: I'm sure there are many plastics that I have not seen].
Anti-reflection coated glass is the hands-down winner, in my opinion. The
largest supplier in North America is Denglas, a division of the optical
coating company Denton Vacuum:
Denglas has lots of distributors worldwide:
http://www.denglas.com/prod/framing/distributors.html
and has the museum market here all but exclusively to itself.
The material is expensive compared to float glass from the hardware store,
but not so much compared to other materials sold for framing (in
particular, the "optical plastics"). The Denglas coating is tough and easy
to clean.
On the other hand:
If you have control over the display conditions, you can hang and light
regular glass so that reflections are not troublesome. The trick is to
make sure that whatever the viewer would see in the glass if it were a
mirror must be much less bright than the illuminated artwork.
I often hang artwork roughly at eye level, with the top of the frame 2-3"
(5-8 cm) from the wall [more for large pieces -- I almost never use frames
larger than 16x20" (40x50 cm)]. With spot lighting from above striking the
art at a shallow, glancing angle (lights near the ceiling, not far from the
wall the art hangs on), the reflection from the glass hits the floor not
far from the wall. Neither the light itself nor the light reflected by the
glass illuminates the viewer's body (which is what the viewer would see in
the glass-as-mirror). If you keep general room lighting low and make the
walls relatively dark, reflections are not a problem. If there are windows
in the room, particularly on the wall opposite the display wall, you may
need to angle the art more steeply (top edge farther from the wall) and/or
drape the windows.
Best regards,
etienne
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