NEW
fine art teach yourself
p h o t o g r a p h y
196
first edition
Digital Edition
pages of practical tips, tricks and techniques
contents 8 Introduction
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What is fine art photography?
© Tim Hall
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© Emilie Mori
Forget representing reality and discover how to express visions through imagery
Techniques How to shoot fine art black and white.......................................22 Learn how to shoot portraits with impact...............................44 Shoot still life like a pro..................................................................58 Refine the frame............................................................................66 Pro skills for shooting the body..................................................80 The essential guide to artistic nudes....................................... 90
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© Valda Bailey
66 © Lee Jeffries
© Martijn van der Nat
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126 Projects Artistic architecture.....................................................................114 Conceptual portraits..................................................................120 Striking landscapes....................................................................126 Fine art nudes...............................................................................132 Still life.............................................................................................138 Fine art flowers.............................................................................144 Capture a moody mono seascape.........................................150
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Interviews
© Lee Frost
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© Rikard Österlund
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© Paul Kenny
Paul Sanders................................................................................158 Valda Bailey...................................................................................170 Rikard Österlund.......................................................................... 178 Paul Kenny....................................................................................186
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Introduction
Cig Harvey
Instagram @cig_harvey Cig Harvey is represented in the United Kingdom by Huxley-Parlour
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Right
Pale Yellow Cadillac
Magic in the mundane
Below
Devin And The Fireflies
Cig harvey tries to look at the everyday through eyes of wonder. “Typically our senses are more alive when we travel, when things are new and surprising”
All images © Cig Harvey/ Headshot © Sam Adler
Fine art photography is about communicating an idea. It is what we have to say that is important. Art photography should move you in some way. Some of my photographs are constructed, and some are spontaneous. But even those taken seemingly in the moment are influenced by the concepts I’m sifting through in my head. The back and forth of photographing and writing hones my ideas and keeps them about whatever is at the forefront of my mind and heart. My work is a reflection of the things I am concerned about at any given time. I think of my pictures and books as a place to pour my hopes, fears, loves, struggles and vulnerability. Photography is my way of slowing the world down and trying to make sense of what is around me to make order out of chaos. Conceptually, my monographs have broadly formed around the relationships in my life: with self; with family, place and home; with life and death; with memory. All of my work looks for the magic in nature and in ordinary moments. I want to slow them down, hold them captive in a dreamlike state in order to appreciate their beauty. I always hope to incite a jolt, trigger a memory or a deep feeling. I use lush and vivid imagery, metaphors and symbols, to try and break through to that subconscious feeling of awe.
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Š Arthur Ransome
© Nate Parker
5 Compose selectively Focus in on a key element of the subject to create a more visually compelling result
Fine art black-and-white photography is “Understanding emotional response is meant to be wilful, with the photographer very important when creating images going out of his or her way to present a that not only reproduce what you saw, particular aspect of something. but also what you felt or what you want It can be tempting to try and your viewer to feel,” says photographer incorporate as much as possible in the Arthur Ransome (www.aransomephoto. frame, but being selective with what you com). “It is important to understand what include in your compositions is often a it is that makes us stop and point our lens better approach to take, particularly if at something, which is often something you are attempting to create fine art work. other than what we simply see… It is “I want to create photos that look moody vitally important to form some kind of with dark places or minimal landscapes a connection with the subject you are with a large portion of negative space to photographing. This connection requires shelter my feelings,” says photographer that you pay respect to the subject, which Vassilis Tangoulis. often means that you sit with it for a Choosing just one subject and then period of time before even setting up your presenting it isolated within the frame camera to shoot. Study the scene in front is one approach that you can use for of you. Develop connections.” this. The challenge that this presents Another approach is to photograph you is in creating a balanced-looking only a specific part of your subject. Once composition when you do not have again, this is an approach that can be very other elements to work with, but with effective when applied to fine art blackpractise this is something that you will and-white nude studies. Rather than find easier to achieve over time. To help photographing the model’s entire body, with this, pay close attention to what part you might choose to photograph only of the scene or subject moves you most. their legs, or just their lips and mouth. © Lee Nutter
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Consider your framing Careful decision-making regarding what you include in the frame enables you to create images that are visually bold © Vassilis Tangoulis
© Martin Dietrich
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techniques
Utilise Studio Lighting
Take control of your lighting with a creative studio setup The main advantage of using studio lighting for still life photography is the control. Using just a basic two-head kit and a small array of diffusers it is possible to create a wide variety of looks and styles. Softboxes are great to give a soft but directional and controlled amount of light to your subject. A backlight is essential for most shoots to really make an image pop, but this can also be done by reflecting back the key light. I like to have my key light coming from behind and then reflect back onto my subject from the front to create a soft fill with subtle tones and detail. Umbrellas are great for lighting up the
whole scene with huge bursts of soft lighting, or for more control you could use a snoot to pinpoint specific areas of the composition to be lit, which is great for backlighting too. I like to use a grid attached to a beauty dish as my key light, which gives me the Old Masters’ low-key lighting I desire. If you are new to studio lighting then take time to experiment. Choose a few simple objects and just play with the lights and composition. Try all angles and directions and see what you like and whether it creates the mood you are after. Remember there is no right or wrong when you are being creative. Research styles by
looking at still life paintings and photography and learn techniques from the best. Shooting commercially can be very different. More often than not I will be asked to shoot sharp, clean images onto white for simple product photography for catalogues and online shops. There are many ways this can be done, but I like to use a white box tent placed on top of a light box table. I can light the tent from underneath, behind, from the sides or from above with the studio heads. Set up the camera on a tripod to make sure that every similar product in the shoot is shot at the same angle and height.
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Bottom
Below
Pumpkin
Cooking apples
Snails in glass
With a studio lighting setup I can control the lighting exactly how I want, and this way I will know that the colour balance and power will be the same throughout a shoot if I want it to be
I have set my ISO to 125. This gives me true colour replication and clarity. This test shot was lit using one head with a honeycomb grid from behind and a silver reflector in the opposite corner
Shooting still life doesn’t always mean inanimate objects. It took a while to wake up these garden snails, but the results were spectacular. Star performers, who’d have known?
Shoot Still Life like a pro
Wilted flowers in vase
Take full control of lighting to produce an effective, moody atmosphere
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Light direction control When using a black background, make sure the light does not cast across the backdrop, otherwise it will appear grey. A dark background creates atmosphere and allows focus on the subject.
Low settings in small spaces Here I am using an Elinchrom lighting kit. I keep the charge output at its lowest setting, which on this head is number 2. This gives me a softer light, useful for smaller studios.
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White balance When working in the studio I set the white balance in-camera to Flash, which gives me an accurate colour representation. I can always change it later in Camera Raw if I want it warmer or colder.
I shot this at f6.3 to ensure the background was blurred out but to maintain sharpness throughout the flower bouquet. Wilting flowers have more interest and work well with the moody lighting
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Simple and effective This example of a studio setup is as simple as it needs to be. Low-key lighting doesn’t require too much fuss. Just keep it simple and clean for maximum effect.
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Crop to preference You can crop in Camera Raw or Photoshop, but before doing so make sure you make a duplicate of the image as a backup. I mostly shoot in landscape but have the final crop in mind.
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High-resolution imaging Making initial tweaks in Camera Raw is very simple and working from the RAW file means that the image will retain its full quality. Images can be saved as a new JPEG file straight from RAW.
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Projects
Shooting steps
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Look for repeating patterns hings that repeat themselves T are often overlooked by the naked eye, as the brain attempts to fill in information to save processing images. However, for the architectural photographer this could give a strong impact, the radiating lines here guide the eye through the frame.
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Move your camera With your camera on a tripod, set a longer exposure and move it back and forth during the exposure. This will create directional blur in your final shot, and can be used to great effect when combined with an old building and mist or fog, creating an ethereal atmosphere.
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Frames within frames It’s not just the frame of your camera that you can use to guide the focus of the viewer, but also the layout of your scene itself. Here a wonderful old street runs through a complex above and creates a beam of light that shimmers along the wet flagstones.
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Place objects in the foreground Fences and gates are excellent at keeping people (and photographers) out of places they’re not welcome. But the clever shooter knows that using said obstruction as a foreground element will help to convey the tone of the scene that lays in front of them.
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Line things up Take a look at your scene carefully before and during shooting. Here we can see two separate architectural features that we’ve chosen to line up in the upper third of the frame. The sharpness of the closer feature on the right cuts through the complex, tangential background.
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Look for the weather While some subjects will have long, sharp lines that work well with direct sunlight to deepen those lines, some structures have a different feel. Here we see how the sky of an overcast day acts as a giant white wall to contrast the dark void created by the outdoor steps.
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Artistic architecture
Filtration Subject A good subject is essential for your shots to work and more importantly, that it is met with wonderful light that flatters its shapes and edges
The polariser, neutraldensity filter and graduated neutral density filters are the three remaining relics after photography went digital, and they are just as useful today as they were in the analogue days
Tripod
The setup Filtration
Keeping your camera still while you take images is best done with a tripod; you can even fine-tune your composition more easily when you don’t have to worry about holding the camera
You’ll need to bring along some filters for your lens if you want to get certain shots with reduced glare, or long exposures during the day
After getting the image sharp with your lens, the next thing you want to do is maximise image quality before you capture your shot. Most filters once used in the film era have been made obsolete with the introduction of modern digital filters in editing programs like Adobe Photoshop. However, there are still a few filters that can’t be replicated digitally. Polarising filters help to reduce glare on water and shiny surfaces like glass, so can be particularly useful when photographing windows or buildings next to lakes. They also darken blue skies but generally work best at 90 degrees perpendicular to the Sun. Neutral-density filters darken the overall scene uniformly, thus creating the need for a longer exposure. You may choose to do a long exposure during the day to blur clouds, people or other subjects in motion, or you may want to try it at night for a longer exposure time to introduce star trails.
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PROJECTS
Shooting steps
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Set up the shot Ten-stop ND filters are virtually opaque. Your DSLRs Live View may be sensitive enough to see through it, but it’s easier to compose the shot without one on the lens. The focusing must also be set to manual as the AF system won’t work once the tenstopper is positioned on the lens.
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Take a test shot Align your ND grad as normal to tone down the sky, but leave the slot in the filter holder closest to the lens free for the ten-stop ND. Set the ISO to 100, stop the lens down to f11 or f16 and take a test shot in order to determine correct exposure.
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Calculate correct exposure Once you know the correct exposure for a straight shot, you can then calculate the exposure required for the ten-stop ND filter. There are smartphone apps to do this. As a guide, 1/30sec becomes 30 seconds; 1/15sec becomes 60 seconds; 1/8sec becomes 120 seconds and so on.
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Take your shot Set your DSLR to B (bulb), close the viewfinder blind if it has one (some cameras suffer from fogging if you don’t), then trip the shutter using a remote release and lock the release. Time the exposure using your phone or wristwatch, or program it into the camera or remote release.
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Check the image Once the exposure is over, close the shutter and check the preview image. You may want to use Long Exposure Noise Reduction for these shots, in which case you’ll have to wait a few minutes longer to see your results. Alternatively, turn it off and reduce noise during post-production.
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Reshoot The first shot may look fine, but often you’ll find that you need to adjust the exposure and reshoot. Check the histogram as well as the preview image. If you can increase the exposure without clipping the highlights, do so as you’ll have a better RAW file to work with.
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Capture a moody mono seascape
The setup
Check the weather Cloudy, windy weather provides the best conditions for this type of long exposure image, especially if you intend to convert the results to black-and-white
Keep steady
As the exposure is going to be minutes long, a sturdy tripod is essential to keep your camera rock steady. Remember to turn off image stabilisation!
Pick your subject
Choose a scene where there’s something static – in this case the pier – to contrast with moving elements such as the sea and sky
Which ten-stop ND?
Discover some of the most popular ten-stop ND filters ee Filters Big Stopper 100mm: L £100, 75mm: £70 Fits the Lee 100mm and R75 filter holders, optically excellent, but made of glass so easy to damage.
okin Nuances ND1024 100mm: C £89, 85mm £60 Part of a new range of Cokin filters, this one’s a good alternative to the Lee and Hitech options.
Tiffen ND 3.0 77m: £76 Screw-in and available in main thread sizes. Tiffen filters are made to exacting optical standards.
itech Prostop IRND 10 100mm: H £102, 85mm: £68 Made of resin, so is durable, and optically excellent with a neutral colour balance.
B+W ND110 3.0 77mm: £106 Screw-fit so not as versatile, but optically superb and available in main sizes. Images are warm.
RB ND1000 77mm: £32.50 S This budget ten-stop has a warm cast and is optically very good.
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