Photo on Canvas -- Selecting the Best Canvas Shape for Your Photos

Do you have a fantastic digital photo you would like to get printed onto a canvas to hang on your wall or give as a gift? And do you just want to easily order your photo canvas online, but you’re not sure what orientation, size and shape you should choose for your canvas?

This article gives you some useful pointers to select the right canvas shape for your image.

Regular Rectangle Canvas Shape

Since most digital photos are rectangular in shape, this orientation suits most images taken with a regular digital camera. Depending on the orientation of your photo, the image can be printed in landscape or portrait format (horizontal or vertical shape). Make sure the focal points of the image are not too close to the edge, as they will disappear from the front view when you choose a gallery wrap style canvas.

Square Canvas Shape

Square photo canvases are quite popular, and if your image is already completely square, you have no problem. However, if your photo is a rectangle, like most normal digital photos, the image will need to be professionally cropped.

It is essential that the important subjects or persons you want to get on the canvas are in the centre of the photo. If they are positioned towards the sides of the image, they may get cropped out of the image or end up too close to the edge of the square canvas.

With professional photo canvas printers, you can ask them to crop the sides and show you a sample of what the photo will look like as a square shape before you give the go-ahead to print it onto the canvas.

Panorama Canvas Shape

Panoramic canvas shapes are most commonly used for scenic and landscaped images and artwork. Panoramas can be very impressive, but you’ll need to take a few things into consideration before you select a panoramic canvas shape. Because most digital photos are normal rectangles, parts of the top and/or bottom will need to be cropped off to turn the image into a panorama.

If you have an image that you would like to print as a panorama or landscape canvas, visualise the image being cropped at the top or bottom, or both, and decide whether the part of the photo that remains in view still shows off the main focus of the image.

Skylines, country fields and sunsets often make excellent panorama photos because you can easily crop off parts of the land or sea below and sky above without losing any focus on the important elements in the middle.

If you’re unsure, you should request a sample from your professional photo printer to see how your image will turn out if it’s made into a panoramic canvas, before you have it printed.

Canvas Sizes

The best canvas size to choose depends on what you want on your wall, but also on the quality and resolution of your digital photo. If the image resolution is quite low, you can’t have a large canvas that is clear and sharp. Enlarging an image means that it will become pixelated (where you can see the individual pixels rather than a smooth and sharp image).

Again, if you are unsure of how large you can go with your image without compromising the quality, get it appraised by your professional photo printer.