The prices of fine art prints occasionally raise a quizzical eyebrow from potential buyers. Newcomers to the genre can be more blunt: “I emailed my smartphone picture from the zoo to my supermarket and it came out fine. What makes your prints so special?”. In a nutshell, the process of fine art printing is where the artistic, technological, and materials rubber meets the proverbial road. Let me explain.
What Is A Fine Art Print?
Firstly, perhaps a definition will help. A fine art print is a high-quality reproduction of an original artwork created with the intention of being an art piece in its own right. In my case, the artwork is a high resolution digital capture of a scene in nature. That digital file then undergoes a highly refined processing and printing process to produce the end product: a high value, unique piece of original art. You will sometimes see this process referred to as giclée printing which I’ll explain in further detail below.
Moon Jellies and Reflections. ©James Thompson Photography
The Capture
Behind every fine art print is an artist who has invested significant creative time and energy to render the artwork, whether that’s a painting or digital photograph. This is easy to visualize in terms of a painter starting with a blank canvas and creating a picture, but perhaps a bit more difficult to understand in the case of nature photography.
I go to great lengths to pre-visualize my imagery, spend significant time and energy often just to get to the place I hope to shoot, and then practice ethical photographic techniques hoping that all my preparation comes together for a unique capture of my subject. To think of it another way: sure, you can create a Mona Lisa by using a painting-by-numbers guide, but few would argue your finished piece has the worth of the original. Similarly, you might recreate an Ansel Adams-like composition by rocking up to the same viewpoint with your iPad hanging out the window of your car, but once again I would suggest the artistic value is not the same.
Over time, collectors may come to recognize and follow the work of a particular artist. Often, collector and artist will share common values such as the conservation of nature. Collecting fine art pieces from specific artists then represents a way for collectors to support and advocate for causes important to them.
The Spirit Bear; a rare variant of a black bear found only on a few islands off Canada's west coast and emblematic of the fight to conserve the world's largest temperate rainforest. Spirit Bear Walks a Log. ©James Thompson Photography
Creative and compositional talent aside, even from a technical perspective there is a fair bit of craft that goes into capturing a digital image in nature worthy of undergoing the process of becoming a fine art print. A high resolution camera is a must as the more megapixels that comprise the file, the higher quality print that can be created, all else being equal. There are other, more complex aspects to field capture having to do with compensating for the limits of digital technology but these are beyond the scope of this discussion. Some of these may be ameliorated during the in-studio processing phase, but some must be considered and dealt with in an intentional way by the photographer while in the field.
My goal for digital capture out in the field then, is to use the highest quality cameras and lenses to return home with a file that realizes my artistic intent and is of the highest possible quality. This file serves as the bedrock from which the I can then create a fine art print.
Processing
A digital camera, whether smart phone or top quality DSLR simply turns the photons of light that hit its sensor into a data file containing ones and zeros. The on-board computer in all digital cameras does some basic processing to create what is known as a RAW file. It is at this point that even more value is added to a fine art print by the artist. Our smart phones process RAW files for us, creating what their algorithms determine to be a “correct” rendering of the scene in terms of colour, contrast, sharpness and a whole host of other parameters, almost instantly popping an image onto the screen. In contrast, a RAW fine art capture is instead processed entirely by the artist using software tools (often over several sessions), thus retaining total creative control of the whole process and thereby ensuring the finished file best represents their artistic vision.
Kingdom of the Great Bear. ©James Thompson Photography
Print Materials
Next is the decision of what material will best showcase the finished print, further enhancing the artistic message. High quality photographic papers, canvas, metal and even acrylic substrates are available; each with their unique characteristics that suit some prints better than others. All must be of archival quality ensuring prints don’t fade over time. Today’s high quality printers use as many as 10 or even 12 ink cartridges of pigment based inks which allow an incredible variety of colours and tones to be reproduced. These ink-jet printers squirt microscopic dots of ink onto the substrate to create the picture. The term “giclée” is derived from the French verb gicler which means “to spray” or “to squirt” and has come to represent the whole process of creating a fine art print.
Printing
As mentioned, a lot of care is typically taken by the artist to select the substrate to carry the physical representation of the original digital capture. After any cropping and enlarging, there is often a fair bit of fine tuning of the original file’s colours and contrast followed by multiple test prints to dial things in perfectly. The final print then requires mounting which introduces the opportunity for further customization. In the case of photographic paper, there is often matting and framing to be done whereas canvas will usually be stretched over a wooden frame (a so-called “gallery wrap”). Some artists choose to sign and number their prints adding yet more uniqueness and sense of value.
Flash of Brilliance printed on 3 different substrates: paper, canvas, and metal. ©James Thompson Photography
Conclusion
I hope this article has given you a better understanding of and appreciation for the quality, customization, and value that embodies fine art prints. My own prints are available as artist signature prints, framed and matted prints, canvas gallery wraps and metal versions in a variety of sizes. Be sure to check out the different options in my print store as well as preview them on your own wall using the special preview function.