The post How to Make Money With Your Photography (From Fine Art America) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
Have you ever wanted to sell your photos, but the process seemed too time-consuming or even overwhelming? Does making stress-free money from your images sound appealing?
Then you should explore Fine Art America, a company that takes artists from creators to full-blown entrepreneurs – practically overnight.
Fine Art America is designed to get photography businesses off the ground. FAA lets you sell photos online and create merchandise directly from its online platform with zero hassle, zero equipment, and zero time spent performing thankless customer service tasks.
Instead, with Fine Art America, you can concentrate on making (and uploading) great art. Best of all, it’s free.
So how can you get started making money with Fine Art America? Below, I share the simple, four-step process to create an account and add products. It takes about sixty seconds, so there’s no reason not to do it – just follow the instructions below and sell some art!
(By the way, if you’re an art buyer and you’d like to see some of the best work Fine Art America has to offer, then check out their featured artists.)
Step 1: Create a Fine Art America account
A Standard Fine Art America account is free, and it’s insanely easy to set up.
Simply head over to the FAA website, then identify yourself as an artist:
Add your name, address, and email:
Then set up your artist profile:
You can invite other photographers to join Fine Art America, so feel free to add emails and hit the Invite Friends button:
Step 2: Upload images to sell
Now that your account is active, you can add a profile picture, join groups, and join contests. You can also create content for your profile page, such as an About section, events, or even blog posts.
However, if you’d like to start selling right away, tap the Upload Image button.
Use the browser to upload the image you’d like to sell, then add a title, medium, category, and more:
At this point, you have the option to simply submit your work with the default products and markups. However, I highly recommend you check out your list of options, as I explain in the next section:
Step 3: Determine your products and markup
Here’s where things get exciting, because in this section of the selling process, you set your own prices; you can also customize your products as you see fit.
Scroll down and you’ll notice plenty of product types, including:
Prints
Greeting cards
Throw pillows
Tote bags
Phone cases
T-shirts
Towels
Coffee mugs
For nearly every product, you have the option to make adjustments. For instance, you can change the image size, the product color, and (sometimes) the image orientation.
You also get to determine the product prices. Here, Fine Art America displays the product base price (which includes the cost of materials, handling, etc.), and you get to add markup, the money that will go directly to you when a purchase is made.
You can set a custom markup for every product, but that would take a long time. My recommendation is to use the default, or recommended, markup for your products unless you feel very strongly that it needs adjusting.
Once you’re pleased with your decisions, go ahead and tap Submit:
And your photo will instantly go up for sale. If you have more photos to upload, you can always select the Upload Image option again, or even the Upload Multiple Images option (which is a slightly faster way of handling up to five files).
Note that, when an order is placed, you don’t do any of the processing, packaging, or shipping. Fine Art America handles all the heavy lifting, while you simply enjoy!
Step 4: Promote your products with social media, your own website, and more
At this point, you have the option to sit back, relax, and wait. But if you’re serious about making sales, I’d recommend taking a more proactive approach and marketing your products.
Fortunately, Fine Art America features plenty of promotional tools. In addition to selling through the FAA website, you can promote your work on Facebook, add an FAA-linked shopping cart to your own website, design emails to send out to prospective buyers, and post press releases on the Fine Art America press release page.
Remember how I said that Fine Art America is free? Well, it is – but you can upgrade to a Premium account, which offers a few benefits over the Standard (free) account.
For $ 30 USD per year, a Premium account lets you use the website shopping cart feature I mentioned above, and it provides access to the marketing email function. It also lets you design your own website (which you can use to sell prints and merchandise). And with a Premium account, you have no product cap; uploads are unlimited.
The Premium account isn’t for everyone – after all, you get most of the same features with a free account – but if you’re interested in selling via a website of your own or you want to create marketing emails, the Premium account is a must-have.
How to make money with your photography: final words
If you’re like many photographers, Fine Art America is exactly what you’ve been looking for: an easy way to sell images without tons of product costs, time on the job, etc.
And if you’ve made it this far, you know that getting started with FAA is painless (and maybe even a little fun!).
So head over to FAA and make an account. It’s quick, it’s easy, and you’ve got nothing to lose!
Plus, while you’re at it, check out the Fine Art America best artists; they’re sure to offer plenty of inspiration.
Fine Art America is a paid partner of dPS.
The post How to Make Money With Your Photography (From Fine Art America) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post Photo Contest Alert: Announcing a (Free!) Billboard Contest From Fine Art America appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
Have you ever dreamed of seeing your art displayed large – for everyone to admire?
Then you’ll love Fine Art America’s new Billboard Contest, which will award a giant billboard display to 20 artists. Win the contest, and your eye-catching work will be featured on a 24-foot billboard in a major city, such as Chicago, Atlanta, or Los Angeles, accompanied by a title plus your name or social media handle.
Here’s the type of stunning showcase winners can expect:
Each billboard will stay up for a month, giving viewers plenty of time to appreciate the winning art.
How to take part
The contest is currently open and free to enter. Simply create a Fine Art America account and upload one to three files on the contest page. The contest closes on August 31st, and the winners will be announced on September 15th.
Note that entry is not exclusive to photographers; Fine Art America accepts submissions from all 2D artists, including painters, graphic designers, and illustrators.
Vote, vote, vote: the selection process, explained
After you’ve submitted your entries, you can encourage family, friends, and followers to vote for your art on Fine Art America’s website. All entries receiving 100 votes will then proceed to the next round, where contest judges will choose the top 20 pieces for billboard display.
There are also a number of fun prizes and promotions along the way:
Get 25 votes, and you’ll receive a Pixels t-shirt
Get 100 votes, and your image will be featured on the Fine Art America Instagram account
Get 250 votes, and you’ll receive a free 24’’ x 36’’ canvas print of an image of your choosing
It all comes down to the voting – so as soon as you’ve uploaded your entries, head over to social media and drum up some interest!
By the way, if you’re looking for contest inspiration or you simply want to vote for your favorite art, you can see all current entries here. Click on each piece to view its vote count and register a vote of your own, and don’t forget to check out the top-voted artwork here (you’ll find plenty of stunning bird photos, landscapes shots, paintings, and more!).
What is Fine Art America?
Billed as “the world’s largest online art marketplace,” the company’s website, fineartamerica.com, acts as a one-stop shop for photographers, painters, illustrators, graphic designers, and more – and it also welcomes non-artists who simply appreciate great art.
On the Fine Art America website, you can:
Order custom prints of your own art, including posters, metal prints, wood prints, canvas prints, printed t-shirts, and printed smartphone cases
Sell your art to interested buyers as prints, t-shirts, greeting cards, etc.
Buy beautiful art sold by artists around the world
The Fine Art America Billboard Contest is yet another example of the company’s dedication to artists. As explained by the CEO, Sean Broihier, “For 15+ years, we’ve been promoting our artists and their incredible artwork almost exclusively online. It’s time to showcase them in the real world. Our upcoming billboard campaign gives us an incredible opportunity to reach a new audience of art buyers, build brand awareness for Fine Art America, and introduce the incredibly talented artists who use Fine Art America to sell canvas prints, framed prints, greeting cards, and more.”
So take a look at Fine Art America – and in the meantime, be sure to enter the Billboard Contest. Remember: It’s open until August 31st and the entry process only takes a few minutes, so give it your best shot!
Fine Art America is a paid partner of dPS.
The post Photo Contest Alert: Announcing a (Free!) Billboard Contest From Fine Art America appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.
The post Fine Art Landscape Photography: The Complete Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
Perhaps you’ve heard the term fine art landscape photography.
But is fine art landscape photography something you should aspire to make? And what distinguishes a fine art photograph from a snapshot?
In this article, I’m going to explain everything you need to know about fine art landscape shooting. I’ll start by explaining what it actually is – and I’ll go on to give you plenty of tips you can use to improve your own landscape photos!
Let’s get started.
What is fine art landscape photography?
Some terms are hard to define, and fine art photography falls into that category.
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”
— Ansel Adams
That said, fine art photography is less about the subject and more about the photographer. Your goal in fine art landscape photography is not to simply to show your viewer what you saw; it’s to communicate how it felt to be there and how the scene made you feel.
It was subzero the morning I made this shot in Yellowstone National Park. I added a blueish tone to help the viewer experience the cold I felt when making the image.
“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
— Don McCullin
So how do you communicate feelings through photographs?
Here are some tips to consider when capturing fine art landscape photography.
This image is a favorite because of how it “feels.” I think it does a nice job of conveying the cold, wet, foggy atmosphere of a morning in the Columbia Gorge of Oregon, a place where the fog often hangs thick.
1. Think about what would make your image unique
Have you ever been making a landscape photo at a location where other photographers are lined up next to you also working the scene?
Most of us have.
The question to be asked is:
How will your photo be different, unique, special? What is it about your image that will stand out? How can you put your unique signature on the shot?
The choices you make to create an image that is uniquely yours matter. Any cook can follow a recipe, and if a dozen cooks all work from that same recipe, the dishes will be essentially indistinguishable. The gourmet chef making their signature dish, however, will strive to make the meal unique.
And as a fine art landscape photographer, your objective ought to be the same.
Almost everyone loves a sunset photo, probably because of how they make us feel. Injecting feeling in your landscape photos is a large part of what takes an image into the “fine art” realm.
“Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”
— Peter Adams
2. Be intentional and deliberate
When the light is rapidly changing, a landscape photographer might need to move quickly. However, most landscape photography can be done at a slow and thoughtful pace.
Rather than simply seeing a scene, positioning your tripod, shooting first and asking questions later, do the opposite. Before even touching your camera, thoughtfully observe the scene. Slow down.
Ask yourself what first attracted you to the scene. How does it make you feel? How can you best compose the shot? What if you moved higher, lower, to a different vantage point, used a different lens? What can you do to best capture your feelings in the frame?
The morning light, the fog, and the forest all combined to make it a magical morning when I had the opportunity to shoot in the Groton State Forest in Vermont.
Never be a one-and-done shooter. Take advantage of the instant playback capability of your camera, evaluate your image, and decide what might be better.
Then make a few more shots.
While he’s not a photographer and not talking about fine art landscape photography, famed hockey player Wayne Gretsky still offers advice photographers would do well to remember:
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretsky
3. Practice previsualization
You will know your skills are growing as a photographer when you can see your photograph before you even put your eye to the viewfinder.
Eventually, you should previsualize your finished image, have the vision, and then simply use the camera as an instrument to capture that vision.
It’s a beautiful loop:
The more you photograph, the better you become at seeing – and the better you become at seeing, the better your photographs will become.
I had been to this location many times, and so I had a good idea of what I wanted when I went there to make this blue hour image. I helped it a little more with a split-toned edit.
“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
— Dorothea Lange
But while previsualization is important, fine art landscape photography should always be open to serendipity: those unexpected moments when the light changes, the angels sing, and the miraculous appears for a brief moment for you to capture.
There have often been times when I’ve previsualized a shot, got set up, and waited for the light, only to have something amazing appear behind me out of the blue.
Practice working with your camera controls so that, when such a moment occurs, you can respond quickly and get the shot.
I was busy making the first shot, which was nice and even had a rainbow. Then I turned around and there was a second great opportunity. Always be ready for that serendipitous moment.
4. Fine art landscapes aren’t just monochrome
Google “fine art photography,” and you will mostly see black and white (monochrome) images. Due, perhaps, to its long existence, as well as a good number of early photographers for whom black and white was the only option, monochrome photographs may outnumber color images in the world of fine art.
But that’s not to say that color images can’t also be considered fine art photographs.
Circle back to our definition: Fine art photography is more about the artist/photographer and their vision than the content of the photograph. Whether color or monochrome, the best way to portray a vision will depend on the maker’s intent.
I had already decided this photo of an old snag should be monochrome when I made it. You can see the color version is just okay. The split-toned monochrome shot better exemplifies a fine art image.
“What I love about black and white photographs is that they’re more like reading the book than seeing the movie.”
– Jennifer Price
Now, bear in mind the strengths of black and white photography. Without the addition of color, monochrome images rely more on the basics, the “bones” of a good photo: line, shape, form, tone, and texture.
Black and white images are typically simpler, with greater attention paid to the subject. Sometimes, a monochrome image can convey a look or mood better than its color counterpart.
I like both the color and black and white versions of this shot and think either could be classified as fine art landscape photography.
When deciding whether an image might be best in color or black and white, the fine art photographer needs to come back to the objective, and ask themselves:
Which version best conveys the feelings and vision I had when making the image?
That, and not some notion that fine art photographs are always monochrome, should dictate the direction the photographer takes.
One advantage of monochrome is that it can get down to the “bones” of a good image – line, shape, form, tone, and texture – while stripping away color that would distract from those basics.
5. Don’t be afraid to alter reality
We talked about fine art photography being less about an accurate interpretation of a subject and more about the photographer’s feelings and vision.
So who says you can’t completely change your image to better convey those things?
Techniques like long shutter speeds to blur moving objects and very fast shutter speeds to totally freeze rapidly moving objects are right at home in fine art photography.
Learn how to use long shutter speeds to take your images from simple snapshots to fine art photography.
So is purposely blurring scenes with intentional camera movement (ICM) and using special digital tools to give an image a “painterly” look.
Infrared photography or other techniques that shift colors? Sure!
Art is totally subjective, and so is fine art landscape photography.
How you choose to portray a scene is your prerogative, where the “right way” is whatever best communicates your feelings and message.
I wanted to do two things with this image: Emphasize the cold, which I did with a white balance skewed toward the blue tones, and emphasize the frozen, static ice against the flow of the river, which I did with a long shutter speed. Use your camera as a tool to capture your vision.
“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”
— Diane Arbus
Go abstract with your fine art photography and give abstract images a try. Intentional camera movement (ICM) can give you some beautiful results.
6. Experiment with interpretive editing
I’ve read much about the phrase “getting it right in camera,” something with which I both agree and disagree. Yes, I do believe one should master their camera controls so as to get the best possible exposure of an image while in the field.
I made this shot of Grand Fountain Geyser in Yellowstone National Park a little earlier in the evening. In post-processing, I took the color toward the cooler tones.
Yes, making the best possible image in the field is important. Never should an editing session be a rescue mission where you try to overcome mistakes made when shooting. Fixing an image in Photoshop is an option, but usually not a good one.
A little later in the evening, I made this second shot, and I edited it with warmer tones!
However, enhancing an image with dodging, burning, or any of dozens of other editing techniques is the mark of a skilled fine art photographer. Using editing skills to further interpret an image, to convey feelings and intent, is part of the craft.
People who like to brag that their images are unedited and straight-out-of-camera have likely never studied the work of perhaps the most renowned landscape photographer of all time, Ansel Adams. He didn’t have the advantage of digital editing software to edit his images, yet that didn’t deter him.
Take a look at some of his before and after images, and you will marvel at how much change there was between the camera-captured negative and the final print.
I was going for an Ansel Adams-like editing style with this shot of “Moonlight Over the Eastern Sierra.” How’d I do?
7. Put in the time
Fine art landscape photography isn’t done in a hurry.
I’ve seen software makers claiming their programs will allow you to work faster using artificial intelligence. While these programs have come a long way, I’m not convinced that they can yet equal the quality of old-school human intelligence and a more careful, though slower, style of editing.
You might be able to get some interesting results with a one-click preset, but will it result in an image that communicates your unique vision? If you replace a sky with something “canned,” it might be more dramatic, but is it still your photograph?
Artificial intelligence (AI) editing is making inroads, but what’s wrong with taking your time, using human intelligence, and learning to edit the old-school way?
I also have to ask: What’s the hurry?
I enjoy photo editing, seeing where I can take an image with some thoughtful work. I know there are those that don’t care for editing, and I guess that’s okay. I just believe that most carefully-crafted art takes time.
I have used such software on occasion, and so can you. But rather than just learn the tricks of the trade, how about putting in the time and effort to learn the trade itself?
If fine art landscape photography that has your own personal style and signature look is your objective, there are no shortcuts. One-click presets will only make your work look like everyone else’s!
“Once you learn to care, you can record images with your mind or on film. There is no difference between the two.”
— Anonymous
8. See(k)ing the light
I enjoy various kinds of photography, from table-top still life and macro photography to flash-lit work and especially landscapes. What differentiates landscape photography from many of these other genres is the lighting, the degree of control the photographer has over the scene, and the ease of creating the desired look.
I can previsualize the look I want for a tabletop still life shot, set it up on the kitchen counter, light it, make adjustments, and tweak until I get the shot I like.
Not so for landscape photography.
Instead, I must travel to the area I want to photograph, be there when the weather is cooperative, the light is right, the foliage is in season, and everything else (none of it in my control) all comes together. If it ever does.
But this is also the joy of fine art landscape photography.
Sometimes you just gotta wait…and wait…and wait some more. It had been overcast all day, but just a few moments before sunset, as the sun neared the horizon, the sky broke out with this unique light. I love the mood of this Oregon coast shot.
It might mean sitting patiently in the pre-dawn chill, hoping the clouds come in just right and the sunrise hits just so. You might hike miles to get to that overlook for a sunset that never comes, or get lucky and have a sudden thunderstorm come in over the canyon with dramatic clouds and lightning.
The lack of control is part of the attraction of landscape photography, the knowledge that luck really is when preparation meets opportunity.
“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.”
— Steve McCurry
So if you want to be a great fine art landscape photographer, then you’ll have to work at it. You’ll need to sacrifice a bit, get up before sunrise, stay well after the sun has set, hike into difficult spots, seek places drive-by photographers will never see, and strive to be different with your images, capturing not just what you see, but what you feel.
A stormy, moody sky and a weird, twisted tree reaching for the light. I like the feel of this shot, which I call “The Creature Rises.”
9. Shoot to a theme
Sometimes, a good way to stimulate your creative juices is to shoot to a theme. Rather than simply grabbing your gear and going to a location to do some landscape photography with whatever you see, decide that you’re going to make all of your images fit a theme.
Visually describe a concept or maybe make photos as if you were doing an article on a place or a single subject. Then, use the “visual vocabulary” that are your photographs to describe and define that subject.
Add your own style as a fine art landscape photographer to determine what you want your viewer to know and feel about your subject.
I like the serene feeling of these fallen autumn leaves floating in the still, dark waters of a river eddy. I spent over an hour working this theme and making many images.
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”
— Elliott Erwitt
10. The print is the performance
Today, most photos that are made are probably never printed. Instead, they’re viewed only on monitors or LCD screens, and sometimes projected. In the film days, photographers had no such options. After shooting and developing their film, they were only halfway to being able to show their photograph to viewers. Prints were mandatory.
Ansel Adams viewed it this way:
The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.
– Ansel Adams
When discussing fine art landscape photography, I must raise the question:
Can a photograph be considered fine art if it is only viewed on a monitor and never printed?
If you’ve spent any time at all in a photo gallery and closely looked at printed photographs, you will know there is no comparison between seeing a printed photograph and seeing that same image on a monitor. Prints can render so much more detail, color, and tone.
Even the type and texture of the paper or other substrate on which a photograph is printed can make a huge difference.
Finally, when viewing photographs on a screen, the light is produced by the screen itself, whereas when you view a print, the light is reflected. It changes the way you view the shot.
This is a nice image on-screen, but to really appreciate it, you’d have to see a print. Then, depending on the paper type, or maybe even as a print on acrylic or aluminum, it would really pop.
So to repeat my question in a different way:
Must a photograph be printed to be considered fine art?
I could argue either side, but I must confess that I’m a big proponent of printing. Yes, learning to make good prints yourself is a whole other skill, and not an easy one to learn. Simply getting the color and brightness of a printed image to approximately match what you see on your monitor is a challenge.
But I would argue that learning to print is part of the photographic craft.
You might also choose to hand off your photos to a professional printer whose specialty is knowing how to get the most from your image. That’s okay, too. I guess my point is that the difference between a printed fine art landscape photograph and the same image viewed on a monitor is almost as great as the difference between going to a concert and just watching one on TV.
“Fine art prints created by the artist, or the artist’s collaborator, are important because they best represent the artist’s vision. Images displayed on digital devices are subject to the non-uniform nature of different displays and they may appear radically different than the artist intended.”
– Mac Holbert
11. Your photos are about you
What you see, what attracts your eye and your camera, and how you choose to interpret a subject says a lot about you.
Even if you haven’t consciously defined a “photographic vision” for yourself, chances are good that, if you review your archives, you will be able to identify commonalities in your work.
Hopefully, you will have developed a rating system (perhaps color coding or star rating as can be done in Lightroom) so you can determine which photos you consider to be your favorites. Take some time to look through your best shots and perhaps make some notes about defining styles, features, or techniques.
What are you consistently doing that works, and what signature style do you have?
“Only photograph what you love.”
— Tim Walker
The predawn shot on the left required shivering in the cold of a mountain morning. The mist was hanging low over Little Redfish Lake in Idaho. In the shot on the right, I can still feel the crisp autumn air and the sound of the rustling leaves in the aspen grove. Hopefully, a viewer will get some sense of those moments in my images.
Focus specifically on your landscape images and look for commonalities. What has worked well? What hasn’t worked? How can you find ways to build on your successes and also further define and develop your personal style so that your images communicate with your viewer?
“We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.”
— Ralph Hattersley
When considering the subject of fine art landscape photography, you may be asking, “Does my work measure up? Am I good enough that my photographs could be considered fine art? Do I belong in the elite club of fine art photographers?”
I would suggest that what constitutes a fine art photograph is less about the quality of the image, and much more about the photographer’s success communicating something to the viewer.
I know the backstory behind this image, but you, as a viewer, don’t. Does this image speak to you? What does it say? What do you think and feel when you see it? Good photographs speak to the viewer.
“Good photographs are like good jokes. If you have to explain them, they aren’t very good.”
Anonymous
If you want to be successful in fine art landscape photography, or any other genre of photography, for that matter, teach your photos to speak for themselves. If they were displayed in a gallery without you there to say a word, what would they say to a viewer? What would a person feel when viewing them?
Yes, a photo can be worth 1000 words, maybe more. But it has to speak for itself!
Fine art landscape photography: Conclusion
Now that you’ve finished this article, you know all about fine art landscape photography.
And you know how to create some beautiful fine art landscape shots of your own!
So get out and get shooting. Best wishes in your photographic endeavors!
The cold blue of an Idaho winter day with just a pop of red on a distant barn. This one says a lot about me, where I live, what I love, what images I like to make. What do your photos say about you?
Fine art landscape photography FAQs
What is fine art photography?
This Wikipedia description sums it up nicely: “Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion.”
Must an image be black and white to be considered a fine art photograph?
While many photographers choose to use black and white when making fine art landscape photos, and while traditional images were made that way, it’s not a requirement. The photographer should choose whatever representation best conveys their intention for the image.
How can previsualization help me make fine art photographs?
Good photos are made in the mind, and the camera then becomes a tool for capturing what the photographer has already “seen.”
Must a photograph be printed to be considered “fine art?”
No, but a print can do much more to convey the photographer’s message to the viewer as a tangible, physical object with much greater subtlety of color, tone, and higher resolution. Further, while every display device will affect how the image is seen, a print retains the look of the image as the photographer intended. Printing is also part of the art and craft of photography.
If you could only give one tip about making fine art landscape photographs, what would that be?
Determine what you want your viewer to see, think, and feel when looking at your image, and imbue your photograph with those qualities such that it can speak on its own to the viewer.
The post Fine Art Landscape Photography: The Complete Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.
6th annual Fine Art Photography Awards winners and finalists
Last week, winners and finalists of the 6th annual Fine Art Photography Awards (FAPA) were announced. Dutch portrait artist Ewa Cwikla won $ 3,000 in prize money and the title of Professional Fine Art Photographer of the Year for her photo ‘Candy Smoke.’ Greek photographer Ioanna Natsikou was declared Amateur Fine Art Photographer of the Year. She received $ 2,000 in prize money for her series ‘Interlude in the Blue.’
The competition received 4,300 entries from 89 countries across 20 categories including abstract, architecture, night photography, and travel. Winners and nominees were selected by a panel of international judges including Marietta Varga, Per Schorn, Simon Åslund, Julien Palast, Ekaterina Busygina, Per Kasch, Dainius Sciuka, Aleksei Boiko, and Salvatore Matarazzo.
FAPA is now accepting entries for their 7th annual competition. In the spirit of discovering emerging talent, per the organization’s press release, it is open to professional and amateur photographers from all countries. This year’s full professional winners gallery and full amateur winners gallery are currently available to view on FAPA’s official site.
Grand Prize, Professional Fine Art Photographer of the Year: ‘Candy Smoke’ by Ewa Cwikla
Artist statement:
Amateur Fine Art Photographer of the Year: ‘Interlude in Blue (Series)’ by Ioanna Natsikou
Artist Statement: ‘Interlude in Blue’ is a body of work that portrays the female figure in personal spaces enclosed in a world of silence and desire, touching upon themes of loneliness, isolation and alienation.
Through the repetitive process of ‘iteration,’ the viewer can see all these phenomenologically identical, yet different unidentified female characters unfold; an attempt to puzzle out, discover and understand the enigma and the complexity of identity; how many different personas can I/we be on the ‘stage’ of everyday life?
This series seeks to engage the viewer in a private world of reverie and self-absorption.
1st Place Winner, Professional Category, Abstract: Micro Images of Teepee Canyon Agate (Series) by Randy Fullbright
Artist Statement: These images are an exploration of the varied and incredible patterns In Tepee Canyon Agate from South Dakota USA using a 10 power microscope objective and focus stacking to gain depth of field. I have always been amazed by the patterns in agate that are not visible to the human eye. When I discovered Micro Photography it opened up an entirely new range of possibilities and discoveries with my photography.
1st Place Winner, Professional Category, Architecture: ‘Building Constructs (Series)’ by Tom Leighton
Artist Statement: In my ‘Building Constructs’ series of work, my intention is to focus in on individual buildings, their architectural form and defining features, accentuating these elements through distortion and manipulation. This allows a freedom from concern for logistics and practicality, but the images are nevertheless a tribute to the minds that go into creating functioning superstructures, a celebration of the boundaries being pushed by the evermore gravity-defying architecture of the world.
1st Place Winner, Professional Category, Wildlife/Animals: ‘Rays of Light’ by Nadia Aly
Artist Statement: Rays of Light showcases the astonishing annual aggregation of mobula rays off the coat of Baja Mexico.
1st Place Winner, Professional Category, Fashion: ‘The Fire Within (Series)’ by Tonya Polskaya
Artist Statement: ‘The fire within’ is a story about emotions penetrating physical structure and setting blood vessels aflame. It is about adaptation to one’s self and the new habitat. The flame is a metaphor of purification and rebirth, and ascendance to one’s true self.
Professional Nominee, Photojournalism: ‘Under High Tension (Series)’ by Alexandra Berger
Artist Statement: The intention behind this series is not to show crime or poverty, this is obvious. The idea behind these photos is to generate empathy and understanding for people in other life situations and to break down prejudices against others.The series shows the daily life of a family living illegally in the electromagnetic field of overhead power lines in Playa del Carmen / Mexico.
Flor and Romero, originally from Chiapas, have arrived 5 years ago, together with their 6 sons to ‘Las Torres’ a squatter settlement under high voltage towers in Playa del Carmen / Mexico. It is an area that has been invaded by 700 families in the right-of-way of the overhead electric power lines and spreads over 10 km. The series shows moments of their lives under this ‘charged’ circumstances.
A life in a legal blackhole which makes it one of the most dangerous parts of the city, neither police nor ambulances dare to enter. Due to the Mexican law, that forbids housing under the electromagnetic field of the high voltage cables, the government doesn’t provide basic requirements, like water, electricity and a sewerage system.
Giving up is not an option.
Professional Nominee, Travel: ‘Way Back’ by Tuan Nguyen Tan
Artist Statement: The Cham girl is returning home with herds of sheep in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam.
2nd Place Winner, Amateur Category, Abstract: ‘Mar De Plástico’ by Agustin Busselo Ortega
Artist Statement: The presence of plastic in the sea represents a serious problem in our habitat. The purpose of this photography is to represent the sea through plastic sheets, but from a creative point of view.
Amateur Nominee, Fine Art: ‘Poetry of Death Valley (Series)’ by Marek Boguszak
Artist Statement: Poetry of rocks and sand in Death Valley.
2nd Place Winner, Amateur Category, Landscape: ‘The Girl on the Icelandic Horse’ by Lars Roed
Artist Statement: The sun had set in the Wadden Sea. Suddenly out of nowhere the girl came on the Icelandic horse and rode out into the sea where there was low tide. Beautiful picture with insight into the infinitely changing moods and expressions of the Wadden Sea in Denmark.
Amateur Nominee, Nature: ‘Tears of the Nature (Series)’ by Anna Kropf
Artist Statement: The magic influence of the Water in the Nature.
3rd Place Winner, Amateur Category, Night Photography: ‘Rushing (Series)’ by Dominique Weiss
Artist Statement: Dominique created this series out of her passion for the dramatic landscapes of the Swiss alps. To her understanding, it is crucial to persevere this region that gives us air to breathe, water to nourish our bodies and beauty to caress our souls.
Rushing portrays the speed with which our competitive society is racing through their lives. In rush we are barely able to hear our surroundings. In rush we are barely able to see what is in front of us. In rush we are barely able to comprehend what our behavior causes. Rushing not only blurs our sight, but all of our senses. We are numbly rushing into an unknown future…
For this series Dominique travelled across Switzerland portraying dramatic landscape scenes to encourage people to see beyond their accelerated every day life routines. She suggests it is time to implement more harmony into our lives and respectfully treat them as one of our most important relationships.
1st Place Winner, Amateur Category, Street Photography: ‘The Pursuit of Being and Belonging (Series)’ by Manuel Martins
Artist Statement: Hi, my name is Manuel Martins, I’m a 27 years old Portuguese national living in Lisbon. With my street photography I like to create beautiful, surreal or even puzzling constructs, that have reality, it’s scenarios from our daily lives and light and it’s absence as prime matters. Along with this I also try to distill who I am, my life experiences, my feelings and perceptions of reality into the photograph itself.
By nature I’m an introverted and shy person, and for those same reasons, I’ve never been able to fully understand society and find my place in it. That changed though, on the first time I picked up a camera and found street photography. This series then, ‘The pursuit of being and belonging,’ is my homage to street photography and what it means to me.
Because when I’m out, slowly walking the pavement step by step, I not only pursue photographs, but also a way of belonging in our world, by being there with the camera on my hand, to tell my story and to show the hidden gems of our day-to-day world, those that many manage to disregard and so hopefully, bring some magic back to the viewer’s lives.
The post Landscape Editing Techniques for Fine Art Photography Using Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
In this video from the photographer, Marvin Grey, you’ll learn some fine art landscape editing techniques in Lightroom that will give you the opportunity to experiment with your landscapes to give them a whole new look and feel.
While the results may not be for everyone, the techniques he uses will teach you some valuable Lightroom editing techniques that you can use in other editing scenarios.
And what better time to tackle and play with our catalogs of landscape photos and learn some new landscape editing techniques while we are at home!
Feel free to share your results with us in the comments below.
You may also like:
How to Use the Lightroom HSL Panel for Landscape Photo Editing
Create Stunning Photos in Lightroom
5 Tips For Mastering Contrast In Your Landscape Photos (video)
RAW Photo Editing in Lightroom: How to Make Your Photos Look Real to Life
Four Lightroom Tips to Enhance Your Landscape Photos
How to Edit Landscape and Nature Photos with the Lightroom Gradient Tool and Range Mask Features
Loving Landscapes
The post Landscape Editing Techniques for Fine Art Photography Using Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
The post Tips for Doing Fine Art Underwater Bubble Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Joanne Taylor.
Doing underwater bubble photography is both fun and challenging! Read on for easy-to-follow techniques, tips, and tricks for you to try no matter which underwater environment you’re in!
Safety
For your safety, have someone on land, in a boat or in the water with you to act as a spotter. Have them keep a floatation device with them at all times too. Underwater photography can be tiring, and you might feel the need for assistance from time to time.
Have drinking water accessible regardless of the weather. Be sure to have sunscreen on and beware of the sun reflections off the water: sunburns hurt!
Equipment
There are many devices you can use, including a GoPro, underwater phones, and the disposable ones they sell at the drug store. However, the best way to achieve shots like these is to have an SLR camera within a professionally-made underwater housing. You can still try these types of shots with whichever device you do have, but it is easier to take them with a lot of control going in.
I achieved these shots with a Nikon D7100 and a custom Ikelite housing.
You can shop for professional underwater equipment from a variety of places, but Ikelite – www.ikelite.com has a strong reputation internationally, and for good reasons. You can also check out Mozaik Underwater Camera – www.housingcamera.com
Both websites sell camera and housing packages for underwater photography and also individual housing cases. You definitely want reliable, trustworthy equipment to achieve consistent, sharp images.
Equipment check
Please note that human error causes most floods (where water breaches the housing compartment, and you risk losing your camera and every photo you’ve taken). Common causes of floods are sand, hair, or dust in the O-ring (which you should lightly lubricate every so often) and improperly secured latches.
With a professional underwater housing, you have the same capabilities underwater as you do on land. This saves much time if you’re in deep water – no need to climb in and out of the boat or in and out from the beach. Same for scuba diving – sometimes coming up from a deeper depth is simply not an option. For those using other devices, be sure to know the depth limit of the device, or you risk losing everything!
Camera settings and taking the first few shots
Make sure the lens on both the camera and the housing is clean. There is nothing worse than getting underwater, taking some fantastic bubble photos, and then seeing a sunscreen finger smear in the corner of each shot.
In underwater photography, your body will be moving, so too is the water and the bubbles. So if in doubt, use your camera in Auto Mode the first few times. Alternatively, try setting your camera to F22 and F20 at 1/2000th, 1/4000th, and rely on natural light.
Next, you are ready to get into the water and don’t forget to defog your goggles before putting them on (spit or a defogging spray work great).
Bring your equipment in and determine if it’s working underwater with a few test shots (aim at your feet) and then check the image on your viewfinder. Make any adjustments necessary.
Water and weather
Take into consideration the appearance of the water. You are looking for water clarity. Sometimes, the bottom can be churned up by a recent storm, and there can be a lot of debris. Debris can cause low visibility and definitely with underwater photography, the clearer the water, the better.
If you are in a controlled setting such as a pool, the clarity of the water will depend on the chemicals added. If the water is cloudy due to improper chemical balance, there will be a hazy quality in all of the photographs.
The weather affects the light in your photographs. A cloudy day will allow you to use a flash if you have one. Only add a small amount of flash, or you run the risk of blowing out the bubbles entirely.
If you don’t have a flash, keep shallow and try taking photos in the top two feet or so as the light will only decrease the further down you go. If it’s raining, you can still take photographs. It is fun to get the water droplets falling on the surface of the water while bubbles are rising towards them.
When it’s a sunny day, light streams through the water surface and lights up the bubbles from behind. Try to take a few pictures with the sun in the shot as well.
How to create bubbles with containers
Use a variety of containers for different sized bubbles. Try sand buckets, Tupperware, or other plastic bowls. Children’s stacking cups are great too, as long as they don’t have a hole or holes in the bottom. Anything can work (re-usable drinking bottles are great too) but avoid all breakables like glass.
Bring them one by one into the water, so they don’t float away. You would benefit from a helper to pass them to you, so it’s easier to juggle your camera and the buckets.
Start with the smallest, easiest to manage container, and work up to the largest as they are the hardest to maneuver underwater.
Take the container underwater by holding the opening directly over the surface and pushing it down underwater to catch the air inside. Practice tilting the cup slowly underwater to let the air trickle out in a trail of bubbles and practice tilting the cup quickly to let all the air out at one time.
Now take a few test shots of the air escaping the container. You might have to practice a few times not to catch your hand or the container in the shot.
Try taking the container deeper. Be patient until you get the right balance of speed of the bubbles versus shutter speed. Check your viewfinder and make any necessary adjustments regarding shutter speed, focal length, or the strength of your flash if you’re using one.
Try taking a series of images of bubbles using multi-shot (continuous shooting) for a better choice of images later.
Move into another section of the water for a variety of images. If you’re using the sun as a backlight, you may also have to angle your camera up towards the surface of the water to get a better shot.
How to create bubbles without containers
Take the containers out of the water and try kicking your feet and making lots of tiny bubbles.
Editing
Once you have downloaded your images, you are ready to edit.
Adobe Lightroom will make editing easy – though, you can use any editing software of your choice. Cropping will be your most used tool as you eliminate any hands, containers, or debris. Cropping is also necessary to zoom in on a section as you attempt to create the most aesthetically pleasing bubble photograph.
Occasionally, you may want to adjust the color of the photograph by making it bluer or taking all color away to see the bubble shapes in black and white.
Conclusion
Fine art underwater bubble photography takes a lot of patience, so relax and have fun. Bubbles are fragile, finite, and often hard to predict. Your best shots may be a string of bubbles, a cloud of little ones, or a single, large one.
Let’s see what you can do! Please share your underwater bubble photography with us in the comments!
The post Tips for Doing Fine Art Underwater Bubble Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Joanne Taylor.
The post How to Use Photoshop Blending Modes for Fine Art Portraiture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
Layering images experimentally in photoshop can be an exciting way to bring a fine art feel to your photography. It is spontaneous and unpredictable, with different outcomes each time.
The layering technique I talk about in this article is a way you can explore and get inspired by the work of Victorian art photographers like Julia Margaret Cameron. They would have used long exposures because of the limitation of their cameras, which added a dream-like quality to their images.
Instead of long exposures, I have used multiple images shot of the same subject, layering them and using Photoshop blending modes. It gives a different kind of ethereal feeling to the images which you can use on any subject, not just portraits.
Start with a portrait
Your portrait doesn’t have to be sophisticated, but it should be able to be repeated over a dozen shots or so. I opted for simple natural window light, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use flash instead.
The image I found worked best was one with strong colors and features with a simple background. I opted to take inspiration from Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography by using simple historical clothes, and an instantly recognizable prop.
You want to try to end up with a dozen or so slightly different images of your subject. Take far more images than you need so that you have lots of choices when it comes to selecting images for your layering effect.
Between each shot, ask your subject to move just a small amount – perhaps their head or their hands, but just a fraction. Try to avoid any dramatic pose changes.
Layering the images in Photoshop
When it comes to selecting images and editing them, there are many different software packages and options. I’m going to talk about how I use Lightroom Classic and Photoshop to achieve this effect. Even within these two software packages, there are other ways you can accomplish the same effect. As long as you end up with a photograph that you love, then you haven’t done anything wrong!
I start by importing my images into Lightroom Classic and then selecting the ten or so images that will make up the layers of my final image. At this point, I try to choose a ‘base’ image that will be at the bottom of the layer stack in Photoshop and will show through the strongest. Generally, this is my favorite image out of the set.
When you’ve got your images selected in Lightroom Classic in the Develop module, open the ‘Photo’ menu and select ‘Open as Layers in Photoshop.’
This will save you having to manually stack all of the images together. You’ll end up with a single file open in Photoshop with all of your selected images placed on layers.
The next stage is to place your ‘hero’ image (the one that you want to show through the most) at the bottom of the layer stack by dragging and dropping it. Then select all the layers above and reduce their opacity.
Playing with Photoshop Blending Modes
This is when it starts to get interesting. Playing with the different photoshop blending modes for the layers will give you all kinds of different results. Dark images will suit different blending modes to lighter images. You can check out a comprehensive guide to photoshop blending modes here!
You’ll want to turn down the opacity of the layers quite far so that the original ‘hero’ image shows though. The other layers should then become more of a fuzzy halo rather than a focal point for the shot.
Once you’ve found a blending mode and opacity that looks good, you can start to fine-tune the image.
Begin by identifying parts of the images that don’t really work, and work out which layer they’re on. Then create layer masks and use a black paintbrush to gently fade those unwanted parts away.
I decided to remove almost all of the layers from the face of my subject since it was a portrait, and I wanted to be able to see her clearly. I also took away some distracting echos of hands, which I felt made the final image stronger. Since you’re working using layer masks, you can always undo any of your choices at this stage – just simply paint over the bits you want to see again on the layer mask with a white paintbrush!
As you can see from my layer masks, they don’t have to be neat. Just use a fairly large brush with soft edges and a low opacity and you won’t be able to see the brushstrokes of your mask in the final image.
Finishing your image
Once you’re happy with the basic image you’ve achieved through layering, I’d suggest saving a copy of your work. Then you can experiment further with different techniques.
Once I’d saved my image in Photoshop, I closed it and went back to Lightroom Classic to work on the shot further. Here, I simply changed the toning of the image slightly with a preset and applied some sharpening to key areas of the picture.
The result was a warmth that always makes me think of Old Masters paintings in galleries. Together with the effect of the layers, it creates a rather painterly fine art image.
But, of course, there’s absolutely no harm in processing the same image in a different way. This is one of the reasons I love Lightroom Classic – you can create virtual copies of a single shot and work on them all differently!
This variation I processed in Nik Analog Efex Pro 2, which you can use straight from the Lightroom Classic interface in the same way that you can take photos to Photoshop. The software itself is very similar to Lightroom Classic with its adjustment panels on each side but instead specializes in replicating old film effects.
It is a great way to create an image that pays homage to the great Victorian art photographers.
You could get a similar effect by layering wet plate textures and dust and scratch layers in Photoshop before adding a black and white conversion.
There are many ways to get all these different effects – please try some and post your results in the comments. I’d love to see what you did with this technique and how you achieved it!
The post How to Use Photoshop Blending Modes for Fine Art Portraiture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.
In essence, the goal of fine art is to express an idea, a message or an emotion rather than representational photography as found in photojournalism, documentary or commercial photography. Generally, it is more subjective than objective in nature.
With the concept of fine-art photography in mind, here are 5 tips to help you shoot fine art photography:
1. Check the weather
As simple as it may seem, one thing to do when shooting fine-art photography is to check the weather. You will find having good light can help to transform mundane scenes into remarkable images.
On occasion, you may turn up at a location and get lucky with the weather. However, particularly for fine-art landscape photography, weather forecasts help you to decide when the light is right to shoot on a certain day and when to avoid getting caught in heavy downpours.
2. Be creative
Being creative is one of the best ways to develop fine art photography. Putting your unique vision into your work helps you create fine art photos you can be proud of. For example, trying to show the landscapes you witness with the best impact and emotion is a proven method of developing fine art.
I recommend asking yourself what fine art do I want to capture and what do I want to convey in my images?
This is purely a personal choice where you can create an image that connects with how you are feeling at that moment in time or a unique and interesting way of embracing and documenting your chosen subject and showing this as an art form through your photos.
3. Choose a subject to stimulate the viewer
This brings me on to my next tip, choose a subject to enthuse the viewer. Finding a subject that connects with the audience can lift an image from ordinary to great. This could be anything from abstract details such as those found on rustic doors, textures of flowers or water droplets to interesting patterns.
It could also be something that can be challenging to recognize or is easily identifiable. Whatever you choose, select a topic that interests you.
4. Use colors or moods for fine art
The paintings you often see in exhibitions and galleries are considered to be forms of fine art and often demonstrate different themes and moods. Therefore, my next tip is to shoot photographs with a painterly approach using color or moods.
Color can be utilized to evoke emotion and is an excellent way of putting life into your fine art photography. Using colors such as blues and oranges can help evoke cooler or warmer tones, respectively. Bright and warm colors can add energy and an overall positive feeling, whilst cooler tones can be calming and relaxing.
You can achieve different feelings in fine art photography by capturing something dark and moody or bright and uplifting. Reducing your exposure compensation is a great way of making your images darker and more dramatic. Increasing exposure can evoke vitality. Using contrast is also a good way to create mood as it provides variety in tones.
Namibia
5. Use motion blur
Being experimental with fine-art photography is a wonderful way to achieve great pictures, and one way to do this is through motion blur. You can practice this technique in several different ways; you can photograph moving subjects, or you can move your camera when you release your shutter.
Zebras, Tanzania
Capturing moving subject’s over a period of time can create motion in the image. This technique tends to work well where either the subject or background is still, and the other is moving, giving contrast.
You can also develop continuity in an image by physically moving your camera, either up, down or sideways as you press the shutter. You will find that even by zooming your lens in while you take a photograph can create movement in your images.
Hyena Pan, Tanzania
Conclusion
In conclusion, fine-art photography is a great way to express your own ideas and vision in an interesting and subjective way. It offers the opportunity to be creative and stimulate the viewer using themes, moods and motion blur.
With these tips, go out and take some pictures of what you perceive to be fine art and share your images with us below.
The post 5 Tips for Shooting Fine Art Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.
Apple is launching its 2019 ‘Shot on iPhone’ photo contest by inviting iPhone photographers to submit their best photographs shot on an Apple device. Photos can be submitted from now to February 7th and will be judged by an impressive panel including photographer Pete Souza and Annet de Graaf, as well as Apple’s VP of Marketing Phil Schiller and head of camera software team Jon McCormack. Apple says winning images will be featured on billboards in select cities, Apple retail stores and online.
Shot on iPhone 6 by Mandy Blake.
To participate you can post images on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #ShotOniPhone. In the image caption you should note which iPhone model it was captured with. Alternatively images can be submitted by emailing them in full resolution to shotoniphone@apple.com with the file format ‘firstname_lastname_iphonemodel.’ Photos can be straight out of the camera or edited.
If you’re thinking about submitting your photos you should probably have a look at official rules on the Apple website, to make sure you know what participation in the contest means for your images. Photographers are essentially handing over exclusive commercial ownership of their images in exchange for photo credit. In a post on Reddit, photographer Trevor Mahlmann shared his thoughts on the campaign and the issues he noticed with the fine print.
Shot on iPhone 7 by Erdem Summak.
In the fine print Apple says: ‘you retain your rights to your photograph; however, by submitting your photo, you grant Apple a royalty-free, world-wide, irrevocable, non-exclusive license for one year to use, modify, publish, display, distribute, create derivative works from and reproduce the photo on Apple Newsroom, apple.com, Twitter, Instagram, in Apple retail stores, Weibo, WeChat, on billboards and any Apple internal exhibitions. Any photograph reproduced will include a photographer credit.’
The company goes on to say: ‘If your photo is selected to be featured on a billboard, you further agree to grant Apple exclusive commercial use of the photo for the life of the license.’
A new Pennsylvania bill, signed by Governor Tom Wolf, will impose a financial penalty for drone operators who use their drone to spy on people or otherwise endanger the physical wellbeing of someone.
As reported by Pittsburgh’s WTAE, House Bill 1346, which goes into effect 60 days after signing, says that any drone operator “who uses a drone to invade someone else’s privacy or puts someone in fear of being physically harmed” will face a fine upwards of $ 300.
“With the rise in popularity of drones with video cameras, this is a commonsense step to prevent the use of drones to invade someone’s privacy,” says Governor Wolf. “Drones should not be a tool to spy on someone in their yard or through their window.”
According to Pennsylvania Republican Jeff Pyle of Armstrong County, a sponsor of the bill, the wording used in the bill was written with the help of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In addition to the $ 300 fine, the bill also addresses the issue of using drones to smuggle contraband into prisons. Individuals who use a drone to sneak items to a prison inmate can face upwards of ten years in prison and a fine up to $ 25,000.
The statewide bill also prohibits local governments from coming up with their own drone regulations and also provides exceptions to first responders, law enforcement officials, government employees and utility companies who are using drones in an official work capacity.
This bill adds Pennsylvania to the growing list of states that have already addressed issues surrounding drone privacy and the many others who are currently working on solutions.
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