Fine Art Photography is a term that’s hard to define. However, there are some parameters that can help us understand this medium. Usually, it’s a photograph or series of images that bring to life something that exists in the photographer’s mind. It’s highly subjective, but usually, it’s photography that’s created with the photographer’s artistic vision in mind. Fine Art Photography is often highly emotive, expressing ideas or messages.

One way of defining the genre of photography is when the photographer alters the composition or image to make it sellable to someone who wouldn’t usually buy that genre of photography.

How to Create Fine Art Photography

The way you approach your photography will depend largely on the situation and subject you choose to shoot. However, one this is certain; you’ll need to have your equipment setup planned out ahead of time. For example, if you’re shooting landscapes, you’ll need a wide angle lens, tripod, and remote trigger.

Try playing around with various angles and formats when you’re shooting. For example, adjust the shutter speed to get longer exposures. Once you’ve taken a selection of images, you’ll be able to adjust them using post-processing in programmes such as Lightroom and Photoshop. This is where you can add real value to your compositions.

Post-Processing

There are a few steps you’ll need to take to improve your photos enough to consider selling them. We’ve outlined these below. They can be done in ACR or Lightroom:

• Tick the ‘Remove Chromatic Aberration’ and ‘Enable Profile Corrections’ boxes.
• Crop the image to suit your artistic vision. Choose your preferred aspect ratio.
• Choose your main focal point.
• Use the histogram and associated sliders and options.
• Start by selecting the correct white balance. This applies even if you’re converting the image to black and white.
• Work your way down the various settings (Exposure, Contrast, etc.) and make small adjustments to see how it impacts your photograph. Again, this process is subjective; experiment to see what works for you and your vision.
• Play around with the colours as well, but go steady with the changes here; you can easily over-process things at this stage.

Once you’ve made the initial adjustments, you can assess whether you need to make further changes. Any significant changes you can make in Photoshop after the initial processing in ACR. Again, some ideas are outlined below:

• Clean up the image as much as possible. There are several tools you can use to do this. Ideally, you’ll want to create a new layer in Photoshop to make these changes.
• Use the Spot Healing brush to clean up areas that you feel need attention. This will remove any blemishes from your image sensor.
• You can also use either Spot Healing or Patch Healing to remove any unwanted elements from the image. Again, you’ll need to take your time and use your judgement here.
• Use the Marquee Tool to select areas and the free transform tool to balance out your photograph and remove any parts you feel detract from the overall effect.

Final Thoughts

Much of this process is subjective and down to artistic interpretation. It takes time and patience to get the right results, as well as plenty of experimentation. Play around with different shots until you create something that expresses your artistic vision. If you’re looking for a place to sell your photos, why not try ClickASnap?