Making a Fine Art Photography Print (1 of 2)




With the popularity of social media, many pictures unfortunately never get past a tiny smartphone screen. Digital photo sharing has become the endgame for most photographers. But as a photography teacher, I always encourage my students to create fine art photography prints because the satisfaction that comes from creating your own wall art is unmatched. Having something tangible that can’t be deleted with a single mouse click is what photography’s all about.

So in this video, I’ll show you how I take a medium format film negative from capture, to scan, to print, to framing. Although this print wasn’t made in the traditional darkroom, the quality from my Epson V750 scanner coupled with professional grade printing techniques resulted in a superb print worthy of framing.

This first of two videos in “Making a Fine Art Photography Print” shows my unique scanning process and how to prep the file for print using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. In the next video, we’ll look at the how to deckle the edge of watercolor paper to create an awesome “raw” look to your fine art.

The photography print I made in this video is from a scanned 6×7 negative shot with a Mamiya RZ67 camera in Joshua Tree National Park. The film used was Ilford Delta Professional 100 medium format film. The scanner used is an Epson V750 with SilverFast software. I used watercolor paper and had it float-mounted in a shadowbox frame.

View “Making a Fine Art Photography Print (2 of 2)”: http://youtu.be/ijabXZ3O-lI

View the on-location video where I took this photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RanBtwmSoQ
Ground glass by Hopf Glass: http://www.hopfglass.com/
Printing by Pro Photo Connection in Irvine, CA: http://stores.prophotoirvine.com
Framing by Salamon Art in Fountain Valley, CA: http://www.salamonart.com

Nick Carver Photography Main: http://www.nickcarverphotography.com/
Online Photography Courses: http://www.nickcarverphotography.com/teaching/online_courses/
Orange County Photography Classes: http://www.nickcarverphotography.com/teaching/classes/

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31 responses to “Making a Fine Art Photography Print (1 of 2)”

  1. I always reasoned that remove the dust spots on the scan first, then fix contrast and brightness levels. In your opinion does it matter what sequence is used? or did I miss something here? Love that fog btw.

  2. Question… I love the large format film, but… Since you are scanning your negatives, why wouldn’t you just go entirely digital? Your work is awesome, and understated is the best art for walls you can get 🙂

  3. You should also try a hybrid form of printing. You take a digital photograph and print it on B&W silver gelatin paper. The blacks & dmax will blow your mind away, believe me. Thank you for these very inspirational video series.

  4. Hey Nick, can you explain why you prefer light jet over inkjet printing? I've always been very pleased with high quality pigment inkjet prints; and other than the differences in the aesthetics between the two, have never really been unhappy with the quality of either.

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