Q&A - Photo Art 

Ssssh, Artists at work

Ssssh, Artists at work

  • Q. What is Photo Art?

    Good Question.

    But, since this isn’t a lecture on the role of Philosophy and Semantics in Art, we’ll just say any photo you hang on your wall is Photo Art.

    It could be a moody black and white shot of some gritty urban decay, which juxtaposes the cold, anonymity of modern life with the luxurious warmth of your new Oswald sofa or a picture of your cat smiling. Whatever, as they say, floats your boat.

    One of the great things about digital imaging is that it has opened up a world of post-production possibilties, that just wasn’t available to traditional film.

  • Q. What are post-production possibilities?

    Aliteration aside, traditional film images are inherently static things. They are moments in time, fragments of light captured in statis. This is both the power of, and perversely, the problem with, traditional photography. The shot is everything. Get the shot, you’re the King of the World. Miss the shot, you’re Jimmy Savile’s PR company.

    So, while, digital doesn’t get rid of the need to take good photos. It does give you the chance to review, recompose and revisit the images that you have created, after you create them.

  • Q. Are you talking about photoshopping stuff?

    Photoshopping (is that really a verb) is only the tip of the creative iceberg, probably more important is that digital separates the reproduction from the medium.

  • Q. What?

    A film negative has to be developed, via a chemical process. The negative is then used to produce a print. The negative and the print are two physical objects. The photographer only gets to review the print once it has been printed. The print is therefore the culmination of a process which is fixed[1] by the negative.

    However, a digital image is an abstraction. It can be a thing in itself or it can be part of the process.

  • Q. Can I see examples of Photo Art?

    At the moment, we’re still working on this.

    Once, we’ve come up with a decent way of creating the examples and showing off the transformations, they’ll be on-line. In the meantime, you can take it as read, if you’ve seen the effect elsewhere, we can do it. The question is not “What can we do?” but rather “What do you want us to do?”.

  • Q. Can I see a preview of my Photo Art?

    Of course.

    If you like, we’ll e.mail you a watermarked, low-resolution version of the final image, as a proof, for you to approve before we go to print.

    It’s not possible to provide instant preview of Photo Art because, unlike other labs, we don’t just apply automated effects to untouched originals. At Berkhamsted imaging, we create bespoke effects individually tailored to your particular image, and this takes time.

  • Q. What if I don’t like the proof of my Photo Art?

    The whole point of preparing a digital proof is to give you a chance to review and for us to alter, if necessary, the image before the costs of printing are incurred.

    We’re only interested in helping you get the best out of your images. We’re weirdly keen on that.