Fine Art Photography

What is your definition of fine art photography? The Wikipedia definition is "photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist." This is the definition that I like. To me it is also any piece of beautiful artistic photographic work that is non-commercial that can be a landscape, a portrait, an abstract image or a macro image of some kind.



Different people have different definitions of what fine art photography is, some say it has to be black and white or monochrome, others say that the print has to be matted for framing before it can be called fine art. I do not subscribe to these at all. In truth fine art can be black and white / monochrome or color but I must admit that I do prefer black and white. My own fine art images are exclusively in black and white as I prefer this format for printing and framing. To say though that the photograph must be matted is a little obscure in my view. Surely it is about the image at the end of the day?



One thing I do see on a regular basis are personal photography websites touting themselves as fine art photographers and offering so-called fine art prints. Unfortunately many of these lack any artistic quality whatsoever and are merely record shots or snapshots. I doubt very much if they will see many sales of these! At the other end of the spectrum I also see truly fantastic photographic art on display in photography magazine reader galleries, that the photographer is not promoting or offering for sale or for print from their own site. I'm pretty sure this is down to lack of confidence from the photographer in their own work.

The Mourne mountains (and B&W conversions)

I went back to one of my favorite photographic haunts this weekend, the Mourne mountain range in Northern Ireland! I have been there many times in the past but it has actually been a year since my last visit. I've had several ideas for pictures in the past but on every visit the weather just hasn't played ball! (does ever in the UK?)



The weather forecast looked like it could be promising with the chance of some of that type of weather that produces excellent conditions for 'god rays'. But unfortunately it wasn't to be. It stayed overcast so I put my B&W head on for the evening!

It's true that most good color pictures make good B&W ones, but overcast conditions make excellent B&W one's and poor color ones!

B&W Conversions
How do you do your B&W conversions? As we all know B&W is all about contrast so after you have added your B&W adjustment layer how do you adjust contrast locally?



There are no right or wrong ways here but some methods are 'cleaner' than others. I used to always have a separate layer for dodge and burn, but I found this time consuming and can sometimes produce a 'patchy' result.
I don't use these tools at all now, not since I realized that these tools are just contrast adjustments in the same way that the curves tool is. Dodging and burning with curves is far easier, quicker and cleaner than the said dedicated tools. The best method I have found is to break your photo into sections such as sky, foreground, background etc, then apply different curves adjustment layers to each. To dodge, simply boost the highlights at the top end of the curve until you get the effect your after, then do the same for the shadows by attenuating the curve at the bottom end.

A variety of black and white / monochrome conversions can be seen in the Mournes in monochrome gallery and the Monochrome landscape and macro gallery.

Bye for now!