Matting Your Own Prints
In the time that I have been shooting with my DSLR, I have shot approximately 9200 images (at least that what the camera counter says). In that time, very few photos have ever actually been printed. I have four stuck to the wall next to my computer, a few more framed in the bedroom, one stuck on the fridge. What I didn’t have, until today, was a print that had been properly matted.
I had attempted to mat a photo of mine a year ago, but using a sharp cutting knife was not nearly as easy as some web sites would have you believe. Sure the but was mostly straight, but cutting the mat at anything other than 90 degrees quickly degraded that straight cut into something more resembling jagged wound. The problem was, a 90 degree cut just doesn’t have the lovely look matting boards get when the window has been cut at a 45 degree angle.
Well, I shot a triptych a while back, and had even gotten a set of prints made over a year ago. 
They had however sat in the cardboard tube they arrived in, since I couldn’t mount them, and didn’t have the heard to just stick them on the wall. So today I purchased a hand held mat cutter, the OLFA MC-45
While no where near as stable and easy as a larger, much more expensive, table top mat cutter; this little device is still well worth owning. All that was needed was the cutter, a large A0 piece of matting board, a pencil, ruler, & a table to work on. A few hours and I had my first properly matted print.
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