V1 Issue 1

Icing On
The Cake
By Sam Tarrel, M.Photog.Cr, CPP, FP-OR
has always been a reference used to
“The icing on the cake” describe that little extra bit of goodness
an item or given situation may have. I think we can all agree that cake is usually pretty good, but having
that icing really puts it over the edge as far as sweet indulgences go. The same thing applies to one of the
most overlooked elements in image competition: Presentation.
Presentation is one of those elements that many people, particularly newer competitors, don’t understand.
This lack of understanding usually leads to frustration, which usually leads to dismissal. However, while
dismissing this seemingly innocuous little twelfth element may not make or break an image, it certainly
does not HELP an image.
The goal with any presentation is to enhance an image and its strengths, while not distracting from the
image or exposing weaknesses in it. The rule of thumb to achieve this can be summed up in one word:
Subtlety.
All presentations need to be subtle, and save for rare occasions, a bold, in-your-face presentation will
usually do nothing but hurt what could otherwise be a great image! This subtlety comes in two forms:
1. The size of the mat and keyline
2. The color of the mat and keyline.
First, it might be helpful to understand exactly what a mat and keyline are. By definition, a mat is a piece
of material placed over or under a photograph to serve as a frame, or provide a border between the
picture and the frame. A keyline is defined as a yellow lime with a bitter rather than sour taste . . . . oh
wait, no no no – that’s a key LIME. A keyline, in graphic design, is a boundary line that separates color and
monochromatic areas or differently colored areas.
So, does size matter? For image competition, I would certainly say, yes! When it comes to the size of the
mat, this can vary depending on the feel you’re trying to convey through the image. If you have an image
that you’re trying to convey space, uncertainty, inadequateness, being small or insignificant then a larger
mat may be a great tool to help enhance those feelings within an image. If the opposite were your goal
however, where you wanted to give a feeling of grandeur, confidence, size and intensity, then a smaller
mat may be a great choice to help enhance that!
As a standard though, a mat shouldn’t be too big or too small (insert Goldilocks reference here). The image
below has a very “standard” sized mat, and you will notice that it doesn’t exactly enhance any feature of the
image itself, but simply provides a nice frame for which the image to exist in.
Sam Tarrel
When it comes to color choices of mats and keylines, both
should be colors sampled from within the image, but the mat
in particular should almost act as an extension of the image
itself. This certainly isn’t always the case, but a good mat
color is one that is predominant usually in the background
elements of the image. It’s also important to keep the mat
and keylines “in key” with the image. For most images that
are mid to low-key, this means your mat should be sampled
from a darker area of the image. If the image is a high-key
image, then the opposite would be true, and you would
want to sample from a brighter point in the image for the
mat color.
You’ll also notice how thin the size of the
keyline is. A thin keyline, and in this case,
a double keyline should serve to simply
give finality to the world within which the
image exists. It shows us where the image
starts, and where it stops. If the image
to the left didn’t have a keyline, it would
look as if the subjects were just cut in half
and disappeared from the waist down. By
having the keyline there, it tells the viewer
that there is more to this world that we
just cannot see, and helps keep the eye
in the image where it belongs. However,
if the size of the keyline were much larger,
as pictured in the image below, it begins
to draw our eye to the line itself, and take
us out of the image, which is the opposite
of what a properly done keyline should
do.
Sam Tarrel
When choosing a keyline color, it should be something that isn’t far off
from the mat color. Often times keeping the color the same, and simply
choosing a slightly brighter, or in the case of a high-key image - a darker
color, for the keyline is the best course of action. Notice in the image to
the left, we have a double mat along with a keyline, but the colors that
make up all three are very similar with just a slight variance in tonality.
Sam Tarrel
18 • FOCUS OREGON
SPRING 2018 FOCUS OREGON • 19