Mark EspositoFine Art Photography Blog

PhaseOne 645DF Medium Format System

Some months ago I made a major change in equipment, going from Nikon 35mm Digital Cameras, to a Phase One Medium Format System. (645DF and P65+ Digital Back) While I stay mostly clear of gear on this blog, I can’t help talking about this, as this change has a big impact on my portfolio by allowing for much larger prints at a very high quality. In Landscape Photography it’s important to be able to print large, as otherwise it’s difficult to convey scale. While an 11×14 print of Rock Art can look fine, a Canyon printed at the same size loses it’s sense of grandeur.

Print Size

The larger print sizes are possible due to the very high resolution of the Medium Format System. Phase One and Hasselblad are the major names in Medium Format Digital Photography. While this camera uses the same kind of technology that all Digital Cameras use, the sensor is much larger, allowing for much higher resolution. (and making it quite expensive).

The Phase One System has a 60 MegaPixel Digital Sensor, so without tweaking anything, the print size is 22 x 30 inches. For most prints that is large enough. However, when larger Panoramas are needed, stitching four photos together gets me a super high-quality 40 x 60 print.

Digital Sensor Quality

The Medium Format System does more than just print larger. It seems to capture a wider or finer tonal range of color. For Landscape Photography this is very important. I don’t just want detail. I want the full range and nuance of color that I see in nature.

Print Quality

Here’s what I use to make these large prints. I’ve been working with Inkjet printing since the early days of color proofers in the 1980′s. Today these Epson printers produce among the highest quality Fine Art Prints you can buy. With the right quality papers and inks, the prints I produce will last over a hundred years. Longevity would rightly be a concern to anyone that has seen old photos turn yellow. The materials we use are nothing like the common paper old time photos were printed on. The color photos have Permanence Ratings of over 100 years, and the Black & White photos over 200 years. The Epson inks will also hold up to fading this long. Along with most Fine Art Photographers, I have a Lifetime Warranty against fading. The technology has really made a difference, especially with color printing.

Coming up, lots of new work on the web page along with some beautiful new custom frames.

Epson 7900 Printer

I’ve been working on some Web Development using CSS and finally got a handle on my new web page. To get to it just click on the Page Link above called WEB PAGE.

Or, here are two direct links:

http://www.glorious-landscape.com
http://www.markesposito.com

There is a link for the Blog in my Web Page so it’s easy to go back and forth.

Having transitioned from Art in Music to Art in Photography, I’m constantly analyzing the unique nature of FIne Art Photography relative to Photography in general.

There are all kinds of Photography – Portrait, Photojournalism, Wedding, Sports, Nature, Landscape, etc… Each of these areas are so specialized, and the skills so different that most photographers work in only one of these disciplines. They may change lanes every once in a while just for fun, but they’ll need to get back to their area of expertise to be successful. It’s just too difficult to be a jack of all trades. (and master of none is not good on the resume)

Quality vs Quantity

My objectives and interests in life led me to Landscape Photography, and Landscapes must eventually be expressed as Fine Art, and the Fine Art Print. We have no avenue for selling quantity, nor would we want to, for that emphasis would usually mean that Quality must be sacrificed. As I mentioned in my article entitled What is Fine Art, it is important that the work truly is Fine. Mass producing on cheap paper is out, as is cutting corners on any materials used in Printing, Matting, or Framing. There is something unique about art made by hand, and only available in limited quantities. I’m not just talking about collectibility as an investment. There is also the feeling you get knowing that you own something that wasn’t mass produced. For those with enough disposable income that might be an exotic car, or rare antique. For others it is some kind of Art. Fortunately today we can own Art that is unique due to the nature of Fine Art, and it’s limited reproduction, be it a painting or Fine Art print.

If you’ve never purchased a Fine Art Print, or don’t have an idea of what goes into producing it, let me elaborate from my own experience.

The Painter of Light

While there are all kinds of reasons that people take photographs, the most unique aspect of producing Art in Photography is the agonizing dedication to a single work, or print. I recall reading comments made by Ansel Adams to the effect that he was happy to produce twelve museum quality prints in a year. Compare that to a gentlemen on the Internet that wants to shoot a million photographs, (more power to him!) and the nature of Fine Art Landscape Photography becomes more clear. In this respect what I do is more closely related to the experience of a painter than it is to other avenues of photography. This idea is less understood than I had imagined. All photography tends to get lumped together in some ways, and yet, what could be more different than photographing a basketball game and being out in the wilderness for 3 days trying to produce one great photo. Cameras are used for Passport photos too. :^})

The Fine Art print is the best work of an Artist, and is usually the product of weeks and sometimes months of work. It is produced in somewhat limited quantities due to the fact that it is done by hand, and each print must be perfect.

As I’m writing this, it dawned on me that this kind of article would not be needed if we were discussing a Painter with brush and canvas. My Mother is a Painter and I’ve seen for many years the time it takes to complete a painting. This seems to be common knowledge with painting. Not so with Photography.

At the end of the day, Fine Art Photography is much more akin to Fine Art Painting than it is to any other kind of Photography.

I’ve been hanging around North Carolina, near Asheville. A friend of mine once asked me why photographers take photos of old broken down shacks. He wondered what the appeal was. I guess for someone that grew up in the farm land, old shacks are just part of the landscape, and not so obviously photo worthy. I get that. Things that get too common become less interesting. This idea is always on my mind when I decide what to photograph, and what to add to my portfolio. Art must be interesting in some way. I can’t pretend to know all of the possible reasons that someone finds any piece of art interesting or pleasing. That’s a personal choice, and very complex. I’ll explore that in another article.

For me, old shacks or barns carry a sense of history, or a story, and that’s what makes them interesting. Old things seem to inspire the mind more than new things do. I find a broken down wooden shack far more interesting than a new one. Instead of getting ugly they actually get personality. It can go too far of course, and they can go back to ugly. I’ve seen plenty of those as well.

North Carolina, with its greenery, is uniquely different from the Southwest. I may like the Southwest color palette a bit more, but this one in Chimney Rock definitely has some personality, and shows the look of the Great Smokey Mountains.

(Phase One/P65+)

Like many bloggers, I’ve been absent from my own blog. I had to find out who I wanted to be. I can only say that I took a wrong turn into gear on my last post, which has been removed. Happily I’ve been out making photographs. Nice to be back where I belong: Art, Composition, and the Fine Art Print. I know this is a small club, but I don’t really care. We all have to do what we have to do. :^}

While the tools and gear that dominate the Internet are important, they are just a means to an end for Fine Art. When I play music, no one cares what brand of trumpet I have. They just want to know if I can make music, and whether they’ll enjoy it or not. They want to feel something – joy, excitement, humor, sadness, whatever. It has to succeed on an emotional level, and for some, on an intellectual level as well.

In the pursuit of Art in Photography, success happens (or not) in the Fine Art Print. It is the final presentation or the performance of the piece.

Each step in the process of creating the Fine Art Print is essential. I have a whole system developed around those steps. At the end of the day though, if the Print doesn’t excite, it’s not a success.

There are all kinds of photography, and while most would certainly want their work in print of some kind, most photographs won’t end up matted and framed, or as Art in the tradition sense. It may still be Art of course. When I worked in the printing business, hardly anything was matted or framed. Most all images were destined for a magazine, book, or some kind of advertising. They would never be a Fine Art Print, which is Ok.

The Creation of a Fine Art Print

Having worked with photoshop for many years, it’s easy to think that once final editing is complete, everything else is a piece of cake. As I found out some years ago, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are some of the many issues that I consider when the printing starts.

1. Paper/Canvas selection (Textures, Whiteness, Coatings and Permanence ratings)
2. Printer accuracy – will the printer produce an accurate representation.
3. Matting – Cutting mats and assembly
4. Archival issues with all materials (Mats, Foamboard, Tapes, Corners, Dust Cover)
5. Framing (every print doesn’t necessarily work with every frame)
6. Glazing/Glass issues (coatings, Plexiglass, shipping issues)

If you’re thinking that this is a whole other ball game, you would be correct. These are actually two separate disciplines that must be mastered – Printing and Framing.

These days I do all of these myself, and the road was not easy. They both have their pitfalls, and frustrations.

In Conclusion

1. I have a feeling this is why most photography doesn’t become Fine Art. It has a very high level of difficulty, and the learning curve is huge.

2. This is why a Fine Art print normally can’t be sold inexpensively. Devoting this much time to the print means that high volume is not possible. (Unless the Artist can afford to hire lots of staff to help)

3. Limited Editions – At least for me, everything I do will be limited based on the points made here. I’ll never have the time to Print, Mat, and Frame hundreds of each Portfolio piece I have.

There are lots of average prints. There are far fewer Fine Art Prints.