Printing Panos on Canvas
After my trip to St. Lucia, I wanted to send the owners of the resort a canvas gallery wrap print of the pano I took from room during the workshop, to thank them for their hospitality.
The full image is over 5-feet long, and MPIX only does Gallery Wraps up to 36″, so I had to find someone to print it as a stretched gallery wrap at over 60 inches wide. RC has a similar-sized pano of the New York Skyline at night hanging on his office wall (he took it the night that Matt and I ran out of memory cards—here’s that story), so I went to ask RC where he had it printed. He told me he had it made by Artistic Photo Canvas, and he raved about their quality and service, so I ordered two of them (one for the resort owners, and one for myself—shown above with RC. Photo by Brad Moore).
I uploaded the image to their site (very simple process), and this is going to sound silly, but one thing I particularly liked is that they will prep the photo to make the image wrap around the canvas without losing any of the image area for you for free.
I actually know how to prep a photo in Photoshop for a canvas wrap, in fact I actually taught the technique in my “How to show your work” class at Photoshop World (I originally learned the technique from Photoshop World instructor Randy Hufford), but since they routinely do this image adjustment for their customers, I thought “what the heck—that’s less that I have to mess with,” and I let them do it for me (sweet!).
Anyway, the gallery wrapped pano just came in (about two days turnaround), and I can’t get over what a great job the folks at APC did. I was really impressed with the printing and the fit and finish to the pano, and the protective coating they add to the finished gallery wrap. Everyone that’s come by my office in the last day or so has made a fuss at how great it came out.
The canvas pano was 62″ x 16″ and runs $185, including the protective coating which (according to APC) “….not only protects the canvas from fading caused by UV, it also repels moisture and offers some abrasion resistance as well.”
This was my first time using APC, but it certainly won’t be my last, since I’m a pano lovin’ guy (even more so since I learned that Pano shooting/stitching tip I a share on this Thursday’s episode of D-TownTV), but I really haven’t been printing enough of them, because I didn’t have a source (well, I do now!).
My thanks to the folks at APC for your great service and an awesome job on the pano. Here’s the link to their site (highly recommended).




















Brilliant Scott! Looks amazing.
I love the shot!!!
I’ve heard good things about APC too – looking forward to the Guest Blogger post tomorrow – I first learned about Bill’s work from a post I read on The Online Photographer last year (http://tinyurl.com/nrnl6y). Great shot too – that scene was definitely screaming to become a pano!
Scott, glad to hear. My first canvas from them comes in today, I cant wait! Like you after hearing RC rave about them I just had to check them out and the 20% off the gave photowalkers from your WW photowalk made it a no brainer.
Scott, it’s like you’re reading my mind!! I take a beautiful pano (IMHO) during the Photowalk, but I didn’t know where to print it. The only problem is APC don’t send their work to Europe (I lived in Spain)
I regularly do 40″ by 60″ gallery wrapped canvases through Genius Printing in Australia. Their service and quality is fantastic and the average price I pay is just over $400 aussie delivered to my (or my customer’s) door. The cool thing is if I ship to my customer it’s labelled as though it’s come from me.
Scott what size is your print and what was the approx cost ?
Hi Sully:
The size of the gallery wrap canvas pano was 62″ x 16″ and it costs $185.
Hope that helps.
-Scott
scott didn’t see a custom size for a gallery wrap. They list a 60×40 for $380 and 2 day shipping for over $70. Please let me know how you got the gallery wrap for $188
thx
scott
When you go to their pricing page, there are links to the left of the sizes for “square,” “pano,” “large,” etc… It defaults to the most popular sizes.
Hey Scott, I was just re-reading your post about that memory card you forgot and since I’m going to NYC in a few weeks, I was actually wondering where that “magic spot in New Jersey” was. Would you care to share it with us?
Thanks in advance
Hi on the river in Hoboken, New Jersey. As soon as you come out of the Lincoln tunnel; take the signs for Willow Street, and after you cross an overpass, hang a left toward the water. You’ll see a pier that goes out into the water.
Bonus: If you want to shoot Manhattan from the opposite side, do a Google search for Gantry State Park in Queens.
Hope that helps.
-Scott
I think I know exactly where that spot is… if I’m not mistaken it is right where a restaurant called Shanghai Reds was (or is) back in the mid 80’s. It was a popular “prom date” sort of place with a great view. It is a great shooting location for the city skyline… wish I was into photography back then!
Thank you so much Scott, it will surely help when I’ll go there to have all this info on hand!
Are you by chance ever going to SELL that print? I would love to see that hanging on my wall since there’s probably never a chance that I could go there!
Thank you so much for this post Scott. I have a pano that I was considering getting gallery wrapped but I did not know of a company that would do it as wide as I wanted to.
Now I know where to go! I have asked for a quote but do you know by chance how wide they can print? I am sure others here would like to know too.
Hi Scott,
I’m a Sacramento based wedding photographer and would like to discuss with you (via email) a situation that came up a couple of Saturday’s ago with several amateur photographers (wearing your Photo Walk shirts) swarming around my wedding party photo shoot.
Could not find your email address to send the email directly to you. Sorry!
Thanks!
Gino
Great job on the pano, Scott. For those living in Canada, and the States for that matter, The Giclée Factory (http://www.giclee-factory.com/) can also do an excellent job printing extra large canvas wraps and their prices can’t be beat. I have no connection with the company other than being a very satisfied customer.
I have to admit, they are hard to beat!
Especially since they’re in Quebec city, my home town, it’s gonna mean lightning fast shipping
Loving the pano, simply beautiful, but where did you get the easel?
Two day turn around?!? Wow!
I just waited three WEEKS for a canvas from a different company!
Off to check them out.
Thanks!
Scott, how about a quick Kelby Training video on preping your image for a gallery wrap? Missed the session at PSW, but would really like to know an easy way to do that when making them myself. Have one from Savannah I’m doing, but just cropping it to work.
Great pic, btw.
Thanks.
Hey it would be great for a tutorial to be written on how you prep for a panorama. I have dozens of panoramas just sitting on my computer and I would love to have them printed out, but I lack the knowledge how to. just an idea.
Thanks
Jason
Thank you Scott for sharing this! I’ve been wanting to print canvas panos for a long time and now thanks to you I finally know where to get them done! Thank you so much! Brad
Here’s another vote for a posting on how to prep a pano!
I might have missed it somewhere… what lens/camera were you using to shoot the pano. I remember reading it was hand held and 17 shots. Just curious. Thanks.
Thanks for the shot with you and RC holding the pano. I know how long 62″ is but there is nothing like seeing it.
We’ve used White House Custom Color for our studio canvas gallery wraps. Quality is excellent and they go as large as 40×60. Here’s one better – they have a 20% off sale through Sunday Aug 2nd. We have a 40×60 hanging in our front window, the image coming from our Nikon D3 and the quality is amazing.
Looks great Scott!
I’ve got a “small” print shop here in AZ (my primary business, the photography is secondary), and the largest I’ve done so far was a 39×72″. Custom request fitting a very specific place in a home. Can’t say 2 day turn around, as the client kept changing the size right before I printed. So, it was a 3 day instead!
I’ve checked out APC, and they sure have it all together for web presence and availability. I’ll look forward to the day when they call me a serious online competitor!
Got some web availability work to do for sure!
Off to continue sorting photos from my quick trip to Lake Powell.
Man oh man, I could have used this post about 7 days ago as I’ve had the darndest time trying to find someone to do a 72 x 24 for me. I spent way to much money doing it another way. Thank you for the great tip.
Thanks
The other Scott
Hi there,
Great post, photo really stands out on canvas.
I was just wondering whether you could please share what things you edited in the photos and and in what software (e.g. auto colour in Photoshop)?
Well done again!
Nathan
Scott,
You might look into Simply Canvas (http://www.simplycanvas.com) . You can choose any custom size you want to print and they will do it. I think their motto is something like “any size, any image, on canvas.” You can even choose to have a black, or any other colour, edge wrap if your image won’t crop right because of the amount that wraps around the stretcher. Pretty cool stuff. I print all my canvas their and have been incredibly happy.
Anyway take care,
Luke
Beautiful finished result!
Thanks for the store recommendation, Scott. Another place to try is Aspen Creek Photo (http://www.aspencreekphoto.com/). They were started by the folks at West Coast Imaging (http://www.westcoastimaging.com/). They are very knowledgeable, quite helpful, and do great work. Disclaimer – I get nothing for recommending them!
Hey Scott,
thanks for sharing the about the online printer, now i can go out and make my own pano to hang in the living room. awesome photo!
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Hi Scott,
I just got mine today (http://blog.ladasoukup.cz/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_0008.JPG) and it looks really great at this size. I liked the photo before, but now… when i see it on canvas with 150×50cm (about 60×20 inches) in size… I just love the photo
btw: taken in Prague on Photowalk
Can you give me link to the episode you mention in this quote from a July 28th blog posting?
This was my first time using APC, but it certainly won’t be my last, since I’m a pano lovin’ guy (even more so since I learned that Pano shooting/stitching tip I a share on this Thursday’s episode of D-TownTV), but I really haven’t been printing enough of them, because I didn’t have a source (well, I do now!).