How much of a print to show

[Bob F.]

The borders are usually just distracting and I care not a fig whether the photographer cropped or not, so, in general, I don't like to see film borders.

On Polaroid T-55 it is certainly popular to show the ragged border and a quick check in the Gallery here suggests it's about 50/50 border/no border for APUG posters (including one by me...). I doubt the general public would know T-55 from a hole in the head, so it must be aimed at fellow photogs and serious collectors: a sort of masonic handshake, a nudge and a wink, "we know, don't we?"...

Cheers, Bob.

 

[Charles Webb]

Some well thought out comments here, here is mine though it wont count since I am not an artist. I don't care for the proof factor that since an image shows it's borders it is more "pure" than one that is cropped. A print in my opinion looks very amateurish with the border left intact in the print.
The photographers of the past who were my teachers went to great lengths to mask the borders on their 8x contact prints. Any print printed that still
had the hold down borders and code notches etc were considered to be a "proof" by most buyers and D R technicians. In the mid fifties or so the "purity" of an image began to be challenged by a small group of "artists" that if it did not show the borders you had done something unsanitary or unclean by cropping the negatives gender. (border to me) There fore any thing with out the negatives edges was automacally a second or third class image. The only good or great image had to show it in it's entirety. That small group I mentioned is now a much larger group including many of the large Format camera operators.

I will not leave the border on my prints, but I really don't care much what others do. I still look at a print with edges showing as a "proof" or unfinished.

 

[John Bartley]

Thank you all for your comments. Having read these comments and then having looked at my prints both with and without the film holder outline showing, I've decided that I like the way a print looks when it focusses on the image without the distraction of the border. As Charles does, I've slowly come to view prints with the holder border showing as test or proof prints.

cheers and thank you

 

[roteague]

I've seen it done by some photographers printing B&W, but never on a color image. I think it is a personal preference thing.