Giant Tiled Photo Art

Have you ever wanted to print a color photograph really big but changed your mind once you found out how much it would cost to have something printed that size? I know I have. Thankfully, there is a sneaky way to get around that problem, and we're teaming up with Canon USA to show how you can actually create the effect of the extra large photos from home instead. Since we've been shuffling office spaces around the studio lately, we needed some fun art that both the girls and the guys would equally enjoy. And what's one thing that all of us can agree on? Donuts! Of course you don't have to use donuts for your print, but here's how you can make your own giant tiled wall art:

Supplies:
-Canon PIXMA iP8720 printer
-13" x 19" photo paper (we used matte, but you could use semi-gloss as well)
-photo editing software (I used Photoshop, but Photoshop Elements should work just fine as well)
-X-Acto knife and metal ruler
-cutting mat
-4 frames

First you'll want to take your photo and open it in Photoshop. Crop your picture as needed, and check your photo resolution. If your image resolution isn't 300 dpi, you'll want to change your image resolution by slow increments of 10% at a time. So if you start at 72 dpi, you'll want to change it to 79, then 87, then 95, then 104, etc., until you reach 300 dpi. Once you have the correct photo resolution, you can resize the dimensions of the photo to its final size (my four frames were 11" x 14" so my overall photo size was 22" x 28"). Once sized, use guidelines to mark off four equal sections of your photo (these sections should be the size of your four frames) and open four new documents that are the size of those sections (so 11" x 14" for me). Use the marquee tool and select the first tiled section of your photograph. Copy the section and paste it to one of the new blank documents you created at the same size.

Repeat the process with the other three tiled sections, and print each section onto photo paper. With these being such large prints, we used our Canon PIXMA iP8720, which allows you to print photos up to 13" x 19". This thing is amazing!

Once printed, use your X-Acto knife, ruler, and mat to trim the photos down to size, and place each photo in a frame.

Cut four paper rectangles the same size as your frames out of craft paper, and use them to find the best placing for your wall art. Measure the locations of your nail hangers on the back of your frames, and install nails in the corresponding locations on your paper mock-ups. Remove the paper, hang your frames in the correct order, and you're done!

We are all really happy with how our donut art came out, and it totally feels like the photo is a window into a magical world of giant donuts. It also didn't hurt that we had to go and buy a bunch of donuts in order to take the picture. Man, the difficult things that we have to do for our jobs, right? What photo would you like to turn into your own tiled photo art? xo. Laura

Credits // Authors: Laura Gummerman. Photography: Sarah Rhodes. Photos edited with Stella from the Signature Collection.