Photo Mosaics

Our unique photo mosaics are created from your own collection of photographs.

The more pictures you can provide the better the definition of the finished mosaic - as a rule of thumb we'd like around 1,500 pictures to work into a 1 metre square image.

However, if you can’t provide that many there are ways we can artifically increase the number, using sophisticated software to create new pictures from existing images, for example by automatically recognising faces in wedding photos and creating extra crops, zooming in on them.

Click here to read more in the Photo Mosaic Q & A

Holly, in Deep Zoom

In most browsers, you should be able to see a mosaic below although you might need to download Microsoft's "Silverlight" add-in, which is a tiny download and allows web page designers to achieve better graphics.

If you click on the picture it'll zoom closer; spin the mouse wheel and it'll retreat...

How Does the Mosaic Process Work?

Firstly we discuss an appropriate base image for the "big" picture with you.

This image is then sized and divided into ‘cells’. The optimal number of cells in the finished mosaic depends on the chosen substrate we’ll be printing onto (canvas, photographic paper, acrylic...), the size and quality of the pictures provided, and the finished size of the artwork.

Next we process the photographs provided into a catalogue of images. The software then divides the base image into its cells and trawls the catalogue of images to find the best match of colours, texture and shading to fit each one.

It’s at this stage a lovely human being takes over and, casting an artistic eye over the computer's creation, examines each cell to ensure the image is appropriate (no missing heads...) and moves the images around to maximise their use.

We take out any images that look out of place, and replace them by eye from the remaining catalogue. Sometimes it's better to use an image more than once but we avoid this where possible.

Then we send a digital version of the image to the customer for checking and approval before the finished article goes to print. Click here to see more examples!