What Is A Fine Art Print?

We often think of fine art as something that belongs or hangs inside of a museum. While this is true, what a fine art print is less about the paper, and more about the process and you can have your own fine art print hanging in your home too.

I would like to state, I have a very deep and unwavering love affair with everything paper!

With a very LARGE collection of journals, notebooks and other beautiful paper stock items i.e. postcards, notecards, etc., in my possession, when I made the previous statement – ‘it’s less about the paper..’ – make no mistake, the paper we print photographs on is important. It is in fact, one of the simple decisions to make when printing photographs.

BUT, I wanted to lift the curtain for you and take you into the darkroom processes of photography print making. And why fine art photography printing should be considered as a part of a very special process for you in owning and viewing all of the most important moments in your life in print. So lets go!

Traditionally, you would have taken your photos on a film camera and then take that film into the lab and come back a week later, to pick up your prints. You would never see or be invited into the lab to see just how your roll of film became a photograph. But being a curious type, and having done analogue photography and photography printing myself very very early in my photography career, I have always loved how magic happens.

The very short description is – a negative is enlarged onto photo sensitive paper, that light is then exposed onto, in a controlled environment. This is what traditional photo printing is.

The beauty of having your photographs printed is that they can fit snuggly in your hands or hold an entire room to attention!

But fine art photo printing is a whole other level.

It is luxury and it is incomparably beautiful.

When you hold a fine art print it in your hands, you can very clearly tell the distinct difference it has to the traditional photo printing. How the ink sits on the paper. How all of the details in the photograph become more pronounced; more in your face; as if they are jumping off the page. Then there is the depth it gives and how the photograph looks when the light hits it.

I have intently watched all of my clients reactions to seeing their photographs presented in wall art printed as fine art photographs, and every single one of them has been awe-struck beyond words at the sight of it! Most will always ask if they can hold it for fear that they will damage or break it!

So why do I choose fine art printing for my clients photographs??

The fine art photography prints that my clients receive, has the pigment ink carefully floating on the surface by a speciality designed printer that has been carefully calibrated and colour managed by the Australian professional photography lab where I place their orders for fulfilment.

The fine art prints use pigment inks, which is a solid, and essentially bonds to the surface of the paper. These prints are more stable in long-term ultraviolet light exposure.

But dyes, which are used in matt art prints and prints are traditional silver halide printing are more durable in people’s hands.

Pigment printing can render a larger range of colours than dye printing, and this results a little more subtlety in colours and punch in the maximum saturated colours.

Meaning that, not only does it bring out the stunning detail of the photograph, but it will last for over 100 years with proper care.

For my clients to receive only the finest quality products, has always been very important to me. And I know that photographs that are done this way, are just as worthy of hanging in a museum as they are in your home and are definitely worthy of the phrase – ‘fine art’.

While seeing a photograph on a screen may give you an instant gratification; holding and feeling something that has been given the utmost care, treatment and respect, with the intent of being immortalised to last forever, is a whole different realm of the term – photograph.

And I invite you to come take a look at some of the fine art printed photographs that I have in my Studio so you can experience the difference for yourself. Hit the ‘Book Your Session’ button at the very top of this post, for your own private studio photo shoot session for either portraits or boudoir.

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Till the next time, have the most incredible day/night Friend.

Melissa xoxo