What is Fine art photography and what are Fine art prints?

The definition of Fine art photography is as follows: “Photography created with the intent of conveying an idea, message, or emotion through artistic expression, rather than simply capturing a moment or event. It's a form of visual art where the photographer's creative vision and artistic goals take centre stage. Thanks Google for this definition. I would also add that fine art photography is also the photographer’s artistic impression of a landscape using his or hers camera expertise to create an image that an individual with no camera knowledge would be able to produce. An example of this is the print below. I would say that someone without any knowledge or expertise with a camera or anyone who doesn’t understand the capabilities or a camera wouldn’t be able to take the image below as it requires a set of specific settings to achieve it. Also it requires the intention of the photographer to do something special with the image so it will be considered art not just a picture.

This image above required the shutter speed to be set to three seconds, the camera needed to be mounted on a tripod. I chose the time of day carefully so that there was still enough light in the sky or ambient light to illuminate the sky a little. The corresponding aperture was around f11 at a wide angle of 17mm which allowed everything in the foreground and the background to be sharp and in focus. I wanted a bit of orange in the light streak which meant waiting for a London taxi with its orange ‘for hire’ light on. The higher streak of light is from a coach. I just wanted the light streak without the coach obliterating the view. I probably took around 60 exposures that evening and chose the one I would use to make this print over a period of days after taking the shots. I also chose the film I used carefully, I used Fuji Velvia which is 64ISO. It’s a very slow film but produces very saturated colours and it also prints beautiful smooth prints with no grain to very large sizes. This is the definition of Fine art photography as I set out that evening to make a print that people would appreciate when hanging in a frame on a wall. They would also think ‘How did he do that? and appreciate the time and skill involved. You can see this print in the London colour gallery here.

The print above is a silhouette and another really good example of a fine art photography print. I wanted the Houses of Parliament to be almost black in contrast to the much lighter sky in behind. It required taking a specific meter reading from the sky. Cameras and phones make all sorts of assumptions when presented with an image like this and although you can ‘spot meter’ to an extent on a camera you sill need to manually underexpose the camera settings to get a silhouette. This is fine art print because I wanted to produce an image that isn’t widely seen and would look artistic hanging in a frame in an office or home that people would stop to take a look at. You can see this particular panoramic print here in the London Panoramic prints section. If you look in the Panoramics gallery you’ll see there is also a colour version of this print. The print below is a huge print hanging in a London office. This is a fine art print for obvious reasons. I set out take this image with the sole purpose of producing a prints that would be considered art when sitting in a frame on a wall. You can see it here.