Fine art photography is not necessarily capturing a specific technique or style, it is an issue of self expression. If you want to emulate a certain style that you are aware of, study it and try to recreate it, eventually you will be able to produce beautiful images in the likes of an Ansel Adams or a Diane Arbus. Seriously, it’s generally possible to achieve. Why? Because by doing so you aren’t creating anything more than what’s done before.
But copying someone else’s style is not what fine art photography is about. It’s about creating your own style, having your own voice. In most cases, the person creating their work early in their artistic careers does even understand who or what their voice is. Also in most cases, that understanding of self evolves over your entire lifetime and transitions with you. Look up any artist and view their work throughout their lives and you will begin to understand that process.
If you want to create fine art imagery, you have to move beyond the technical aspects of the camera, as technology will not get your there. Buying the ‘best’ camera, or the latest gadget, will do nothing to make you a good photographer. In fact, many photographers fall in love with inferior cameras, such as the Holga, old Polaroids, and pinhole cameras. It is your eye that is ultimately the only important tool, everything else is just a means of bringing that vision into being.
Of course, understanding your equipment is very important. If you don’t understand the basics, you will never be able to use them to your advantage. Read your camera’s manual and learn as much as you can about how it works and what features it has. All of them will be useful to you at one point or another.
Fine art photography is the process of seeing and recording that vision into something that can be shared, preserved. One of the best exercises for this is the single-subject assignment.
Take one object. It can be anything – a toy, a book, your home, car, or a tree – anything that is stationary. Do not chose an animal or another person, chose something that cannot move on its own. For an entire month spend a portion of every day photographing that same object. Each time, try to find something new about it. Try photographing it from a new different angle, or using a different technique.
Each day will get a bit harder, but each day will also fore you to think differently, especially armed with the knowledge that some things have been done before, and by you. Take time to reflect on every image you’ve taken. Review them, study your work and see what you like, and what you didn’t like. Use that information to try something new. Experiment as much as you can. There are endless ways of looking at an object, if you think you’ve run out of ideas, think harder. Or try recreating a composition you’ve already created and see if you can re-create that same image (it’s actually quite hard to do so).
This will help you being your process of seeing. It will only happen if you open your mind and be receptive to what you are telling yourself in a realistic and practical way.
Once you develop the understanding of seeing, you can apply this to virtually every area of your work. You will be able to literally walk around and see images. With so many possible opportunities, you can then begin the process of matching the right angle, composition and style to your own voice and vision. Between the two, you will create images that will be unforgettable to you and to anyone who you share your work with.
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Terry Michael started working with a photojournalist while in high school, and over the years has worked for a variety of national media clients, including AOL and NBC. He currently operates a studio in New York that specializes in wedding and fine art photography. His work
has been shown in galleries throughout the northeast, and he has also been featured on the television series "Whose Wedding is it Anyway?" which airs on the Style Network.
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