Artwork—the personal kind that makes your decor look inviting and complete—can be pricey and difficult to select . And family photos are usually too small to display as wall art. Fortunately, digital technology and some handy online resources are making it easier and more affordable than ever to supersize your cherished images, then frame and enjoy them as focal points in your rooms. The jump in scale has surprising impact, elevating the everyday into objets d'art.
To create the large-scale artwork shown left, I started with a snapshot of my mother taken when she was a teenager. I chose this particular image because it's very nicely composed, with a range of tones from crisp white to velvety black. The pattern in her dress mirrors the slightly out of focus background, and the old-fashioned deckle edge of the picture and the date stamp add vintage interest.
If you do not already have a digital version of the photo you'll be enlarging, such as one taken with a digital camera, your local FedEx Kinko's (fedex.kinkos.com) can create one for about $17 by scanning a conventional print at high resolution (300 dpi). Once you have your digital file, there are several options for enlarging it:
Pictureframes.com is an online supplier with an easy to follow, step-by-step process to enlarge and frame your files. After uploading your file to the site, you can experiment with different matting, paper types, and framing choices. You can crop, rotate, and add effects to your picture, then preview the final result.
If you just want to enlarge the image now and frame it later, try:
shutterfly.com, duggal.com, and snapfish.com/helpposters.
Prices vary but expect to pay about $20 to $23 for a 20 by 30 inch print. — Angela Riechers, Art Director
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