Sandbox 365 - Fine art photography

April 19th, 2015
We hope you all enjoyed the tutorial on reflections. Over the next couple of weeks we are dipping into the vast subject of fine art photography. It is a subject that is as wide as art itself so we will just draw on the basics.

First of all, what is fine art photography?
There are many answers but the most common is the opposite of commercial. They are images that you create first and foremost for yourself and/or with the aim of having it as private art or exhibit in a gallery or for the public to view.
Whether portraits or landscapes, they should have a timeless feel to them.

How to go about it?
This is the kind of photography where you have to plan and think before you shoot, that means creating rather than taking a picture.
- What do you want to portray?
- Why do you want to portray it and what does it mean to you?
- What do you need to achieve your concept?

1. What do you want to capture?
Is it a person, a particular emotion, a landscape that means something to you?

2. What does it mean to you?
Do you have emotions to capture because you have gone through something that have affected you or have a cause that is important to you, is a particular spot or landscape special to you, do you want to capture your children in an artful manner?

3. How?
Think about the details before you shoot. If people are involved, how do you want the emotions to show, which wardrobe/props do you need? if landscape what time of day gives you the best light?
Think timeless, no fashion clothes or accessories, no modern cars or people in the scene.

Have a look at the following artists who hugely inspire me:
http://brookeshaden.com/gallery/
http://www.missaniela.com
http://www.lisavisserfineart.co.uk
http://sarahgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.johnmiskelly.co.uk though this one is just a google search as landscapes are not my specialty and you can no find fine many more inspiring artists online

Here are a few of my images, I am no expert and still learning and have a long way to go but if I can help with any questions, processing queries or anything else, let me know:







ll images required various processing techniques that I am happy to share but to start, let's just take the first steps.

Can't wait to see your creations. Tag your entries sandbox365-fineart
@roseolivia
April 19th, 2015
Sam
Yay! Count me in!
April 20th, 2015
Sue
Ooooh this sounds brilliant!
April 20th, 2015
this looks hard
I'll give it a shot though
April 21st, 2015
ARe there any editing tips for this? Looks super cool but I didn't see any sort of editing tips - I imagine for something like this you will just answer questions as we are trying to accomplish an effect?
April 21st, 2015
I'm struggling to grasp the exact meaning of "fine art". I guess it's rather personal. Here's my first attempt:

April 21st, 2015
@myhrhelper It is such a vast subject that editing is so individual to what you want to achieve. For my pictures, I generally crop, compose, add composite elements if needed then adjust the mood and colours through curves (the RGB and individual R, G and B curves), do some dodging and burning to adjust/change the highlights and shadows. There are many ways to do this but personally I add a layer in PS, fill with 50% grey, set it to soft light, take a soft brush and adjust opacity to about 10-15% and paint on white for highlights where I want to brighten and black to darken/add shadows, then often finish by adding one or more digital textures. If there is any particular thing you want to achieve, let me know and will happily help as I can. Hope this helps!
April 21st, 2015
@stiggle Fine art is such a wide subject that is it hard to define and posting any tutorial on the subject was always going to be challenging which is why I initially just started with the definition and concept then will build on as we go along. I love your image and the contrast of colours, yet near abstract feel. The light leak at the bottom makes me wonder where the light source comes from. Love the light, delicate and airy feel
April 21st, 2015
@myhrhelper also, for the second picture, I changed the sky, as covered in previous tutorial as the previous sky was completely blown out!
April 21st, 2015
@roseolivia Thanks, Rachel. I love the shots you posted, especially the first one, of the girl in the landscape. So atmospheric!
April 24th, 2015
Sam
Here's my first entry. I think I can come up with a still life too.

April 25th, 2015
@samzee this is a beautiful portrait and love the contrast of colours and the intensity in the eyes, great neutral colours and great painterly tones. love it!
April 25th, 2015
Sam
Awwoh @roseolivia. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about my photography. A girl could get used that sort of thing. Ha! Thank you.
April 26th, 2015
feedback please!

April 26th, 2015
@samzee stunning
April 26th, 2015
this is my sad attempt - this one was a struggle for me

April 27th, 2015
@jackies365 great colouring
April 27th, 2015
@ltodd Thanks Lyn, I will definitely look into this. Hopefully it will be at a time when I can view it.
April 27th, 2015
@salza they rebroadcast each days shoot straight after the live event for free - I don't get up at 2 AM to watch!!
April 27th, 2015
Here's another attempt:

April 27th, 2015
Sue
I can now balance forks! it was trickier than I thought, especially prongs to prongs! And the beads kept running away!
April 27th, 2015
@jackies365 Beautiful tones and composition. Just as an option you may wish to make the red pop a little more. You could do this a number of ways: Dodge and burn by adding a new layer, fill 50% grey, blend to soft light and with a soft brush at opacity about 10-12% paint white or with lasso tool select loose area around buds, feather quite heavily and with curves lighten slightly or go to Hue/Saturation, select reds and adjust saturation slightly though this may affect other red areas in the image so add mask, invert mask to black and paint on the are you wish to highlight. Just a thought, beautiful image :-)
April 27th, 2015
@stiggle Such great concept, love it! Maybe to make the transition smoother between the sky and 'cloud wig' try and slightly blur the edges of the wig (duplicate layer, go to blur/gaussian blur then select the lever of blur you are happy with, add mask and invert mask (cmd+I) so that the mask turns black, take white brush with opacity about 30-35% and paint on the edges. you may also wish to add shadows and highlights through dodge and burn as mentioned previously). Love your idea, brilliant!
April 27th, 2015
@sioux Love your image and concept, very cool. I can't help but wonder what it would look like as a high contrast b&w but that is just my personal thought and great symmetry, concept and composition.
April 27th, 2015
@roseolivia thanks for the suggestions but I don't have photoshop, only elements which I could probably figure it out on. I did do some work on it in lightroom with adjustment brushes and in the end still liked my original as published here. thanks for the suggestions!
April 27th, 2015
@ltodd thanks so much Lyn!
April 28th, 2015
@roseolivia Thanks so much for the suggestion! Can I do that when I reopen the image? I've tried it and I can see white lines appearing in the black mask as I paint, but I don't see the result in the image. Must be doing something wrong...
April 28th, 2015
April 29th, 2015
Sue
@roseolivia Thanks Rachel, I will give it a go and see what it looks like. Feel free to have a play with it yourself if you like ;-)
April 29th, 2015
@stiggle If you have other layers on top, it may affect your result as they may have taken a copy of your previous layer. You can do this two ways: 1. duplicate your image, duplicate layer and add mask and do it from there (then if you want to, merge layers when you are happy and with the move tool, drag it back over previous document so you can keep your psd file all together) or in your psd file highlight all layers, then with right click (I think) go to duplicate layers (this will give you a copy of all your current layers) then merge the copied layers and do as above. Hope this helps :-)
April 29th, 2015
@aponi Lovely image, I love the set up, composition and textures. Try straightening from the table line as it looks a bit lopsided to me. If it was me I would play with colours to maybe mute them a little bit then add a painterly texture to give them a more timeless feel. Again, art is very subjective and what I like is potentially very different to someone else :-)
April 29th, 2015
@stiggle Beautiful, love the softness and shapes, it has a lovely abstract feel and the lines make you wonder. Great delicate shot
April 29th, 2015
@sioux I might do for fun but this is what I love about art, is that you give the same elements to different people and the result will always be different! Will post my version later if I have time to play :-)
May 1st, 2015
May 1st, 2015
@roseolivia Thank you for taking the time to answer, I really appreciate it. I'm still struggling with the blur, but I'll keep trying!
May 8th, 2015
My take on fine art:

May 8th, 2015
Pea
I love fine art photography and you know I'm a big fan of your photos Rachel. This is probably my fave fine art pic I've done - would you class this as fine art? Would love to know how you processed your first image - did you use a texture?

May 10th, 2015
@sandbox365 Any critique on mine?
May 10th, 2015
@roseolivia Any critique on mine?
May 10th, 2015
@bill_fe sorry have been a bit absent, have had builders redoing the roof and my stress levels gone sky high, about to go out but will sit down properly tomorrow and write detailed replies, again apologies, definitely did not mean to ignore you! Have a great day and back in the morning!
May 10th, 2015
@deeganp I just love this image and would definitely qualify as so! Re first image, as mentioned to bill above, will look through psd and give you detailed breakdown of how I got to this image and post it for you tomorrow x
May 10th, 2015
@roseolivia Thanks Rachel; I'll check back tomorrow. Sorry to hear about the roof problems
May 11th, 2015
@deeganp
hope this helps :-)
May 11th, 2015
@stiggle beautiful, so love the softness and delicate feel. Sorry been a bit away, had to deal with many roofers!!
May 11th, 2015
Pea
@roseolivia Oh wow, you've put so much effort into this. Much appreciated Rachel, thanks! yes it definitely helps! x
May 11th, 2015
@bill_fe Sorry for delay!it is a lovely picture and love the subject of vintage coffee pot as it will evoke many memories and I can smell the coffee. I don't feel qualified to give criticism simply options on how I would process it to make it more artistic and 'fine art'. I would crop differently, probably into a square with centre focus or landscape with negative space on right or left. I love your vintage tones and would possible increase the yellows a bit more. I would also blur the horizontal lines to give more focus on the object and add a painterly texture and soften the borders to brownish tones. Just a thought but a lovely image anyway!
May 13th, 2015
another attempt

May 14th, 2015
@stiggle Hi Anja - as mentioned try & see it it changes if the mask layer is at the top of the stack - you an drag it up there. In the mask painting you can use a gray colour to reduce opacity of the mask ( instead of black which will be 100% opaque), or you can reduce opacity of the brush you are using. Lower opacity will let some of the clouds show, some of the hair line & so blend softly. test the size of brush too - you might need a BIG brush at 10% opacity, to get a general sweep. then increase opacity to about 30% and drop the brush size, then 'feather' the edges along the hair line.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/09/editing-opacity-with-layer-masks/
May 14th, 2015
@ltodd Thanks Lynn, I'll look into that!
May 14th, 2015
Sue
@ltodd Thanks Lyn, I will take a look even though I don't use photoshop
May 14th, 2015


My first attempt. Not convinced I have got the idea; would appreciate honest critique.

And thanks for the heads up about the Photoshop course.
May 17th, 2015
@roseolivia please can i have feedback on my photo as I am totally unsure wether it fits the criteria.
May 17th, 2015
@jackies365 What a delightful image and such a beautiful subject! I love that the clothes and backdrop as well as her pose are timeless and pensive and this is an image you would want to have framed and look at for years to come. The sepia tones give it a lovely vintage tones. I may add a texture to finalise the image but that is just me, regardless, truly beautiful!
May 17th, 2015
@callymazoo Sorry for late reply, was away for a couple of days and did not check my emails. This is a beautiful image, I love the softness and delicate nature of the tulips and the soft booked in the background. Beautiful composition and soft tones, wonderful light and contrast. Overall a great image. The colours are soft and would not date and the subject is beautiful and timeless. Would look great in a frame.
May 17th, 2015
@roseolivia thank you for hosting and for your insightful comments. I have really enjoyed the photos everyone has submitted and love seeing their different takes on the theme. I might try a texture...I think that is a good idea...I do love to play!
May 17th, 2015
@roseolivia Thank you so much. for your feedback, and for running this theme. It is very interesting and the scope for 'fine art' is broad.It was fun to try it.
May 17th, 2015
edited version Rachel @roseolivia opinion?

May 18th, 2015
Trying for a vintage look
May 18th, 2015
@jackies365 Love the dark vignette and darker tones which accentuate the mood but may pull the shadows back a bit as you have lost most of the details on one side of her face. You can either lift the shadows everywhere or make a loose selection around her face (feather heavily) and brighten are through curves or used dodge and burn technique as mentioned above. Beautiful and truly love the mood portrayed
May 18th, 2015
@barbtatum Beautiful and love the vintage feel, the clothes and pose are timeless. Personally I use slightly darken the edges to give the people a stronger focus and add a vintage/grungy texture to accentuate the vintage feel. Great shot.
May 18th, 2015
I like the idea of adding a texture - not sure why I didn't think of that!! Not sure if this is too much. @roseolivia
May 19th, 2015
just couldn't work on the other photo anymore...tried a different one with a different technique

May 20th, 2015
@jackies365 Those eyes are just to melt for, very beautiful!
May 20th, 2015
@barbtatum Very cool, the texture really increases the vintage feel. Love it!
New tutorial now posted, hope you will join us in this one too!
May 20th, 2015
@roseolivia thank you
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