My friend Rachel takes great photos with her assortment of cameras (her April 2011 album is a personal favorite). Landscapes, her kids, self-portraits, you name it, her albums are always striking (and the fact that she’s self-taught forever gives me the inspiration to keep learning how to use my own Canon Rebel better). When Easy Canvas Prints contacted me about reviewing one of their custom pieces, an 11″x14″ canvas, I accepted knowing that it was something I wanted to pass along to her and her family (it amounted to a $62.03 product value). Rachel supplied me with one of her favorite photos, a candid of her 1-year old daughter, and I sent it off for ECP to do their thing.
What came in the mail this week is really quite stunning. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the kid was photographed in a moment of maximum baby happiness:
I do have a few comments about the product itself (they wanted my review, after all):
- The online ordering system is actually really great. Both easy to use and very user-friendly, it really stands out in my mind as making this a good experience. I’m a tough judge when it comes to this kind of thing.
- The quality of the canvas is very nice, and the material and frame feel better than retail versions that I’ve inspected. Not wonky. Taut fabric.
- I do question the value of something like this. $62 (plus $10 shipping, also waived in my case) is a lot of money to me for what the product is, especially when I could order a flat print in the same size for $6.99 from my favorite go-to photo printing place. I guess I’m just a mat-and-frame girl at heart. I like the idea of an oversized canvas to be a full-wall focal point, but this 11″x14″ is a little too small to achieve that. (ECP does offer sizing up to 30″x40″ but the pricing starts at $170, unless you order right now and happen to get a 25% discount).
This post was made possible by Easy Canvas Prints, who produced and shipped this custom product to me in exchange for an honest product review. The product review is based on my opinion only. The photo printed is property of Rachel Jones Photography.
6 Comments
Hello Emily,
Its possible that the cost factor involves either manual labor or special machinery to mount at a production level. Also since it is a unique product and may not be offered by a lot of places they can charge a bit more? The output process, since it’s on a canvas material, could be from a inkjet printer which always takes more time to produce as opposed to a chemical based photo system. This sort of product isn’t standard run-of-the-mill. Maybe all of these reasons equal the higher cost?
Good considerations, Scott! Thanks for those thoughts. How do you think they stand up to sunlight compared to normal framed photos (with or without UV-blocking glass)?
Cant wait to see it in person! And thanks for the review! I love this age… My goal is to have the boys on some canvas too… As 1 yr olds :-)
Excited for you to have it too, Rach.
Oh and again…. Big thank you!
Cute kid, great photo :) I can see how the price might be a turn off, but if it’s a high-quality way to display your photos I can see how it would be worth it.