Making Internet

In a world full of digital images, smartphone snapshots and Facebook “likes” it is easy to overlook the significant effort that must go into getting real world art into the digital realm. Visual artists, painters and classical photographers in particular, know exactly what I am talking about.

Photographing Artwork

There are many challenges, but perhaps the biggest is getting the color right.  Obviously painters put a lot of thought and effort into getting tone and color just right - even slight variations can alter the emotional impact of the painting.  You might be surprised that classical photographers are also keenly aware of how the subtle color tone of a B&W print changes its impact on the viewer.  Whether the blacks have a warm or cold tone, the whites creamy or brilliant, and the infinite variations in between are all part of each photographer’s personal expression and darkroom technique.  And while this is effectively presented when you see the actual print, it is hugely difficult to do with a digital picture of the print.

But alas! It must be done in order to share my work with you via the internet.  I do the best I can.  My prints have a slightly warm tone to the blacks (a result of my developer formulation), which is rather tricky to show in a digital image.  I take color digital images of my prints, made with color corrected lighting, hand metering, and carefully adjustments in Photoshop (yes, I know Photoshop) are all necessary to get a reasonable representation for you.

Real World to Digital World

Of course, I cannot control the viewer’s screen settings. And experience tells me that most screens are set too bright, blowing out the whites, muddying the blacks, and wrecking the print tone. 

Want to find out about your screen settings?  Try this site:

http://tft.vanity.dk/monitorTest_scale.html

Follow the instructions on the screen.  Move your cursor to the top of the screen to see various options.

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