I saw this idea on the Roost blog and thought it was worth a look. The author, Marissa Waddell, suggests laying-out your pictures on the floor upside down and placing a large sheet of waxed paper over them (in this case, three long sheets that she has taped together). She then was able to use a sharpie to trace the outside of the frames and mark exactly where the hanging-points were on the frames.
…then use wax paper to lay-out a salon wall of different sized frames.
If we had all the time in the world, massive amounts of waxed-paper, and lots of space then we might use this technique. Probably not though. Experience has shown us that no matter how nice something looks on the floor, the process of hanging it on a wall inevitably changes the outcome. A spatial relationship that seemed appealing while looking straight down on the grouping starts to seem constrained when seen head-on.
That where the on-the-fly edits come-in to create an appealing final product. I think in the grouping below there aren’t any major changes, as no photos changed positions, but the relationships of the photos and their spacing certainly changed from moment to moment in the transition from floor to wall. No real tips here, just experience 😉
