Creating something new is the most important ingredient for making art. But we can’t create something new when we just capture a scene in reality. The trick is bringing an artistic concept to your photographs.
Finding success in a single area of the photography industry is no small task. And yet, R. J. Kern has managed to find success not only as a wedding photographer but now as a fine art photographer as well. I sat down with him one afternoon to pick his brain on his top five tips for emerging fine art photographers.
A frequent refrain among photographers is that the area around their home is just too boring to photograph. Here are a couple of ideas to help you find engaging and meaningful photographic projects in locations that feel completely uninspiring.
Follow along with this tutorial to discover how to transform lifeless color photographs into black and white fine art photos in just nine simple steps with Photoshop CC.
Ask 100 photographers what started them to pursue the medium, and you will hear 100 different answers. Follow up that question with what drives each of them to keep pursuing photography, and you again will find 100 different responses.
No landscape photographer is as iconic to the genre as Ansel Adams. But can someone who worked primarily in black and white and whose heyday was over half a century ago still teach us anything today?
An important part of growing as a photographer is shooting personal projects. If you are a food photographer, it can be extremely easy to get stuck in a rut because you are shooting the same modern images over and over. An easy and important way to combat this is to shoot food as fine art.
Frank Lee blends mundane domestic visuals against the backdrop of equally repetitive sounds to create not mere actuality, but reality.
Self-portraits tend to get a somewhat bad rap, in part because of the selfie craze. But, self-portraits can be an incredibly beneficial process for photographers that can lead to great growth and skill development.
Taking something that you love to do and making it a money-making endeavor fundamentally changes your relationship to it and will require way more from you than you think. If that is something you want to do, it’s worthwhile to ask yourself: “am I really ready for that?"
Multiple exposures are a relatively straightforward and fun way to make interesting and unique photographs. While you can easily blend images during the editing process, creating successful multiple exposures in-camera can be a good challenge and a way to flex those creative skills.
Whalebone Magazine (the self-proclaimed ninth-best magazine in the world) just wrapped up their Second Annual Whalebone Photo Contest, leading up to the release of their aptly named Photo Issue. Categories included Water, Adventure, Human, Motion, Joy, and Weather — whatever those things mean to you.
Myra Holt is a fine art photographer and educator currently based in Kansas City. Her work explores a range of concepts, but they all stem from the broader idea of connection to places, people, and nature. I spent a morning chatting with her to learn more about two of her bodies of work and what advice she has for newer photographers wanting to create photographic series.
Marc Klaus is one artist who has a voice uniquely his own. He has used visuals and storytelling to create a meta-narrative; the video has no words but acts as a deeply insightful look into Klaus's process through clever camera work, in-camera collage, and performance art.
Photography struggles with truth as a concept. With other art forms, truth is generally a non-issue. We do not question whether a painting is real. We do not question whether a dance is real. We are generally able to discern fictional texts from nonfiction; furthermore, we’re generally able to sift through multiple nonfiction texts and combine them with our own experiences to arrive at a conclusion of truth. But not with photography.
Photography is a language that can be used quite powerfully. Learning how to use elements of this language to create meaning will certainly improve your images. Check out this great video to delve into the five most common elements of this beautiful tongue – photography.
The fact that the focal plane of a picture must always be parallel to the sensor plane is so obvious to most photographers that they don't even bother questioning that fact. Here's what happens when you do question it and how modern mirrorless cameras can help you do it.
The horizon element in an image can be used in a variety of ways to accentuate a scene, whether it's a dramatic sunset or a glorious sunrise. But have you ever thought of removing them to create fine art minimalist photos?
There are a lot of ways to learn photography these days outside of a traditional photography degree, but one of the things that have been lost for a lot of younger photographers is the history of photography courses that most art college students take. Examinations of the body of work and life of great photographers like Saul Leiter are a great step towards getting that part of education back in our digital age.
You probably know Jason Lee from his many roles in TV and movies but did you also know he is a talented photographer? Yes that Jason Lee The star of "My Name is Earl," Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, and my personal favorite "Mallrats."
Minimalism is a fascinating genre of photography and one, which can deliver some incredible and powerful photos. This is the genre where “less is more” really shines. Here I share five steps you can take to create incredible minimalist photos.
What the heck is minimalist photography? How do I take minimalist photos? And what kind of gear do I need to do it? Well, read on to find out the answers to those questions and more.
Edward Hopper’s paintings are renowned for their use of light, color, and composition. As photographers, what can we take from his work?
Has it been 25 years? Amazing. I remember when Nils Kokemohr founded Nik Multimedia in 1995, which later became Nik Software in 2006. The package included plugins for color management and editing, another for enhancing or creating black and white images, sharpening tools, and later HDR software to help photographers increase the dynamic range of their images.
Architecture is one of the most complex subjects to post-process. It involves a lot of planning from shoot to edit. But there are also other ways to edit these images, so let's try to simplify it, shall we?
Black and white and Minimalism is a great style that can be applicable to any genre in photography. It is also a great discipline to practice, especially in landscape photography by maximizing the use of long exposures.
Minimalist photography is all about removing all the distractions so the eye focuses solely on the subject. But what does it take to make a minimalist photo?
It's always nice to capture a subject in its purest form, presenting it powerfully. However, shooting an abstract photo can turn an ordinarily drab subject into a work of art.
Luminar software from Skylum has had a tremendous impact with many photo editors, bringing a lot of Photoshop and Lightroom-esque features along with some one-of-a-kind capabilities like one-click sky replacement and AI-based features for landscape and portrait photographers.
Stop worrying so much about your skills, and learn to think creatively. That was my favorite piece of advice from photographer and artist Pauline Goyard.
I recently used one of my quarantine nights to create an art project for myself. A few weeks ago the rules were stricter about staying home and I used it as an opportunity to expand my own skills and vision. I encourage photographers who are stuck at home either because of the quarantine or protest curfews to push their limits and try new things.
For many, the name "Minecraft" evokes images of 12-year-olds toiling away in a cube-like virtual world. The image is surely foreign to much of our readership. But the foreign and new are now commonplace, and we are sure to see new uses for virtual worlds of all kinds — even art galleries and fundraisers.
While people’s physical health has been hard to ignore, the impact of the global pandemic on mental wellbeing is definitely being felt, but often goes unseen and undocumented. One artist’s project has evolved under lockdown, giving a means of expressing how mental health may affect us long after the stay-at-home orders have been lifted.
Long exposure photography is a fascinating discipline. It can be used in many ways and to great effect if you want to bring some mood and mystery into your photography.
Scotiabank’s Contact Photography Festival is one of the biggest photography festivals in the world. This year, in the wake of COVID-19, it’s going to be run online. If you’re looking for inspiration, this is where to go.
If like so many of us you find yourself at home with a lot of time on your hands, consider using that time to experiment with different art papers and print some of your favorite images from your hard drives.
Despite museums, galleries, and cooperatives temporarily shuttering due to the coronavirus crisis, cultural institutions are finding ways to allow audiences to view their curated displays. One such establishment in Denver, Colorado has generously uploaded its 180-artist collection for viewers to peruse online.
Printing is hard. Rather, printing well is hard. It's been a little bit science. It's been a little bit art. Trying to make digital prints look like traditional darkroom prints is even harder still. But is it possible?
Spending your Covid-19 isolation time working on your business now could mean art sales later. Seattle-based Fine Art Photographer Jason Matias, who runs a program that helps artists sell their art, has a few tips for how to go about snagging those sales.
The words “fine art” have got to be some of the most misused and abused in photography. For a term that is pretty much meaningless, it’s quite impressive.
When you're looking to have your work printed for display on your own wall, in your client's home, or in a gallery you have a myriad of choices and formats that you can print on. Today I'm taking a close look at one option, the brushed metal print.
Before you click the shutter, you likely think about shutter speed and aperture. You likely think about what you want the image to look like. But, do you imagine it displayed? When you shoot, do you take the time to think about what the finished product will be?
Optical printing is a dirty and time-consuming process. The chemicals involved in printing are bad for you and bad for the environment. Digital printing hasn’t changed much of this impact for the better. The chemicals used to treat photographic printer paper aren’t great for the environment. The paper itself uses a significant amount of resources to cultivate. Do you ever wonder if there is a better alternative?
If you're ready to check out a few more fantasy portrait photographers, then you're in the right place. This time around, the goal is to find and highlight a few folks that you're probably not already following but are definitely worth a look.
I reviewed the newly revived Nik Collection in June. It was nice to have the collection back, after Google bought it and then let it sit idle. Now it's been sold to DXO, and it's compatible with the latest PC and Mac operating systems.
Call it a personal project or way of finding the calm again in photographs, lately I've been shooting a portrait style “sad flower” collection and I love it. Check out the how and why and if it tickles your fancy you can give it a try too.
I am lucky enough to have hosted or been a part of workshops around the world. One thing I teach in my workshops is that photographers should not look at other photography to be inspired.
One thing many of us struggle with in our journeys as photographers and filmmakers is finding what we want to say and then expressing it effectively through our chosen medium. In this short documentary about Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen, we get a look into what informs a photographers choice of subject matter and method of expression.
When it comes to a handmade fine art paper, this is one that absolutely does not mess around, and with the right image, it can stop a viewer dead in their tracks. In fact, it's so serious that this paper is sold by the individual sheet.
Based on feedback I received about my article investigating the most expensive photobooks ever sold, I reached out to the two largest auction houses in the World to provide a more authoritative list of photobooks sold at auction. What do you expect to see in this list?
