One of my favorite things I’ve ever found on the internet was Chris Love’s Julia’s strategy for getting large-scale prints for just a few bucks. Our family room has big, empty walls and when we moved in I wondered how the heck I was going to fill up all that space.
After reading Julia’s post, I got out my camera, stuck our kids in front of a blank wall, and hoped for the best. I wanted these pictures to seem more casual, so I didn’t necessarily ask them to smile or do a certain pose; I just took pictures of whatever they were doing. Here are the original pictures I took:
One quick suggestion is to have your kids stand away from the wall. Hank kept wanting to lean back on it and they weren’t quite as good. I cannot get over his hands in his pockets!
The next thing I did was head over to the Lightroom app on my computer. If you’re taking these photos with an iPhone, you can download and use it for free! Below is what I did to edit my photos. This is personal preference, so just play with the photo until it’s the style you want.
- Change photo to black and white
- +.85 exposure
- -4 contrast
- -4 highlights
- -12 shadows
- +17 blacks
- -13 texture
- +8 clarity
- +5 dehaze
- 41 noise
- Healing tool: select eyes, + exposure
Here are the photos after their edits:
After I was satisfied with my edits, I went to Staples.com and under Services clicked on Blueprints.
From there you upload your photos and choose your size. Our photos are 24×36 at just $6.36 apiece! *When you go to check out, I had the option of doing in-store pickup or getting ours shipped. I originally tried in-store pickup so I could get them faster, but they called me right away and said they don’t print blueprints in store, so they cancelled my order and I had to go back in and order online. The same thing happened to my sister and friend, so beware that if you try in-store pickup this may happen to you, too.*
Adding the Magic Light Trick
Before Grace was born and Adeline and Hank’s photos were the only ones up there, I had hung a sconce and put some magnolia leaves in it to add some color. I really liked how that looked, and I realized that once all three kids’ pictures were up there, I wanted to add something extra again to break up the number of prints in a row, especially if you include the wall perpendicular to this one. Here’s a picture of it, along with a very clean and tidy family room.
Now, enter the Magic Light Trick I found on Nesting With Grace’s page. She had the clever idea of adding a puck light to a wall sconce so you get the look without having to hire an electrician.
Here are the supplies I used:
- Sconces from Amazon
- Puck lights
- Adapter
- Glue
I first began by gluing the adapter to the puck light. The glue I used calls for the curing to take place for 24 hours. I then took my measurements and decided where I wanted my lights to hang.
When it came time to hang the lights, I asked a friend to help me because I was having trouble with the anchors and didn’t want to mess up. Thanks, Youngzee! We got them hung, and I am loving the look of sconce’s without the hassle of hiring an electrician.
Now time to put the toys back. It was fun while it lasted!
Update
I recently tried printing updated blueprints from Staples, but got this email:
Since the blueprint method is no longer an option, I decided to print from Walgreens using their in-store pickup service. I still edited my photos the same way, and a 24×36 poster print was roughly $12. Luckily, the day I ordered they were running a sale at 50% off, so $6 per photo wasn’t bad!
Kelsey
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