What makes a great fine art image?
Interesting subject matter is vital, along with careful attention to clean and balanced composition. Visual puns can raise the fine art bar, such as the ‘nutcracker’ shot at the top of this page, along with artistic, textured layers and mono work in the digital darkroom.
Props
Now you might be thinking what are the best props to use for fine art photography. To be completely honest it’s all down to your creativity you can start by digging around the bargain bins at charity shops and car-boot sales to pick up interesting and quirky objects that have the patina of old age or raid the kitchen drawers for everyday cutlery you can shoot and present from a different angle. Remember, the older and more used, the better. Anything from the natural world, such as feathers, shells or interesting twigs, will translate into great subjects for your fine art shots.
Backgrounds
Here is where you can get really quirky and make use of that old baking tray that you kept trying to bin for ages which actually makes an interesting background, naturally textured metallic object that looks the part. Go for the oldest and most scruffy one in the oven. Rummage around the garden to find more natural backgrounds, such as slate, bricks or even interesting pieces of old wood.
Best photoshop treatments for fine art photography.
Adding texture, grain or blur effects will set off your fine art images and make them stand out from a traditionally post-produced picture. Download and use some of Digital Camera World’s free Photoshop textures and get creative! Traditionally fine art was always shot on large or medium format cameras, so choose a square crop to emulate the past masters. A square crop instantly lends an artistic feel and shouts out fine art. A great way to boost the fine art feel is to use mono toning techniques. Whether it’s an old style sepia tone, a cool blue or a retro yellow, experimenting with colour tones will help give that important arty impact.
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