by successfulbob | fine art photography, fine art portrait, people photography, photography, photography education, success education, tuesday painterly photo art
Tuesday Photo Art
Gregory Daniel FDPE, FSA, M.Photog. CR., CPP, F-ASP
The Tuesday Photo Art blog post is featuring photographers who are taking photography to a new level using Photoshop and Painter techniques to offer more upscale products to their clientele and differentiate themselves in the now very competitive photography market. Most featured artists have shared their techniques in creating the art. Here Greg is sharing information a bit more on the business side which is something we artist types can let slide to the detriment of our wallets.
With that introduction, I’m turning today’s post over to Greg.
Stay True To Yourself
Today more than any other time in our industry being unique is critically important to the success of our businesses and personal sanity. Tons of noise in the marketplace is what I hear and experience every day. Everywhere you turn there are ads from all walks of life competing for our attention. Many appear to be attempts at desperation with price reductions and specials as a means to stand out from the crowd. Producing products, services, branding and experiences like everyone else lands you in the wading pool of commodity. So this begs the question on how to rise above the noise and be noticed.
I will attempt to share some concepts and principles that have shaped my path for the past 36 years in business.
Greg is adding the finishing touch, the signature, to his art portrait.
Stay True To Yourself
I have found this to be the foundation for our success. If you are interested in being different, looking unique and standing apart look no further than yourself. There is only one you and no one else can be you! Fortunately early on in my career, I found my uniqueness through the love of art museums. You could find me in the library poring over books about artists or in galleries during family vacations. Since the late 80’s these art galleries were and are a beacon of light for my vision to fuse my love for photography with painterly galleries. Staying true to this personal love and vision has been the incredible satisfying artistically along with setting myself apart from the commodity.
Your Audience
Certainly it goes without saying that if you want a business to be successful, you need to identify who your buyer will be. The commodity is for the world of mass marketing, which is not only expensive but also difficult. Identifying, who your specific client is, will narrow the marketing beam to a laser. In our case, the audience were families that appreciated unique handcrafted works of art. This could stand true from shaving products, dining experience, tailored clothing, interior designs and high-end vacations. Here’s the think, it is a must to know who to let know you exist!
Finished portrait, framed and installed
The Product
Now here is an area that I commonly see as an issue during my many mentor sessions with students. I truly believe starting with creating one single product that defines who you are, is paramount to clearly communicating to your audience. Developing your unique product and getting feedback from your audience is critical to business success. Clearly our audience recognizes a Gregory Daniel Mixed Media Portrait as our signature commissioned product. These are uniquely designed pieces to fit the lifestyle of their beautiful home.
Final Thoughts
I encourage each of you to dig deep inside to find the true you. There is wonderful joy in knowing the business you have created was built on the foundation of your core desire. Communicating through this beautiful art form with your personal language is a gift to yourself and your audience.
Bio
Gregory Daniel M. Photog.,Cr. CPP, F-ASP, FDPE, FSA
Greg and his wife Lesa Daniel are internationally recognized for their artistry and run Gregory Daniel Portrait Artist Though he is one of the most awarded photographers in the United States, Greg has the utmost privilege of living out his passion every day alongside Lesa in operating their portrait photography galleries in both Indialantic and Titusville Florida. He has achieved both the title of Master of Photography and The American Society of Photographers Fellowship. In addition, Greg is one of the youngest members to be inducted into the prestigious Cameracraftsmen of America in 1991, proud, founding member of the International Society of Portrait Artists (ISPA) and on the Board of Directors, Professional Photographers of America.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Thanks to Greg for sharing his knowledge here on Successful-Photographer. If you have a photographic artist you would like to see featured let me know.
by successfulbob | photography education, tuesday painterly photo art
Tuesday Photo Art with Lois Stanfield, M.Artist., CPP
Tuesday’s have become quite a hit on Successful-Photographer thanks to photographer artist’s willing to share some of their thoughts and ideas on creating art based on photography.
Today’s photographer/artist is Lois Stanfield, who specializes in Equine and Pet Portraiture. She was a Professional Photographers of America 2015 Platinum Artist of Year and 2014 Silver Artist of Year in the Artist category. I remember being on a judging panel when one of Lois’s images came around (of course I didn’t know it was hers at the time) and I was absolutely taken with it. When images can stop people in their tracks you know you are on the right path.
First up let’s take a look at an equine treatment in the form of a pencil sketch.
Graphite-like treatment of this image details the most important features in this horse image
Source image Lois worked from to create the art above
I believe I would call this distillation. Lois keeps the most striking parts of this photo and discarding the rest. knowing what to leave out is probably at least as important as what to include in your art images.
I asked Lois for her words of wisdom on creating art from photographs.
“Well, I don’t know if it’s wisdom, but here is something to ponder!
I find that the way to develop as an artist is to allow yourself to play. When learning to use Corel Painter, at first we need to follow the instruction of a good teacher. Perhaps a few teachers. But then it’s time to play, experiment, try the “what if?” process. What would happen if I did this? And synthesize all the instruction with the discoveries you make while playing. From all that, comes your own style and brand of painting. But it doesn’t end there. Pushing the envelope and trying new things will expand your abilities and vision of what’s possible. Leave fear behind!”
Talk about taking an image to a new place from a photograph. WOW, Sweet!
Image from MyDogPhoto.com © Vicky Cook
Lois does work on commission creating art for her clients. The image above was brought to her for painting by a customer, and the art was only started after permission was secured, with a release, from the photographer.
Obviously, if learning the techniques of turning your photographic images into a painterly look is something you are interested in there’s a market for that.
Lois teaches webinars and one-on-one WebEx’s. Her next webinar will be June/July, on “How to Create Beautiful Backgrounds for Your Paintings.”
Lois’s website is: http://www.loisstanfield.com
You can contact her via email: [email protected]
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | art books, book review, fine art photography, fine art portrait, inspiration, photography books, photography creativity
Photography Book Review
After the Camera, by Thom Rouse
Digital Transformations for Conceptual Nude & Portrait Photography
Way more than a How-to, After the Camera, is a peek into the mind of a wonderfully creative artist. You can’t help but view Thom’s images and find your story wrapped in and around his multi-layered imagery. His images have the depth and dimension of fine art from the master painters through the ages. This is no surprise if you know Thom. He is a student of the great artists and borrows an idea here, a color palette there, and a look from over there. By combining his art knowledge with his photography, experimenting with the capabilities of our digital age, he transcends visual boundaries, taking us to a new world.
Isis – Many of the elements were created from the manipulation of a single leaf. This includes the background, parts of her dress, and the hairpiece.
Text in this book reads as if Thom is talking directly to you. He shares his inspiration, along with trials and tribulations, during the shoot and post-processing. While this is not a book to teach you techniques in Adobe Photoshop where he does most of his processing, there are many important concepts shared. I’ve found a number of ideas that I can’t wait to try out in my work.
Urban Mermaids – Concept inspired by a regular model.
Is this book for everyone? Heck no. But most books are not. This is for photographers pushing their work to new realms of art. This is for photographers looking for inspiration. This is for photographers who understand that the nude has been part of the fine art landscape over the millennia. It’s for those who want a peek into the mind of a creative person who has studied fine art painters and can share concepts behind the why of an image.
Dance Within – One of the few images where Rouse used Corel Panter to help finish the look of the piece.
I can see this book becoming a dog-eared staple on my bookshelf as I plan to go back and review this on a regular basis.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Thom was featured a couple of weeks ago in a Tuesday Photo/Art post. You can read it here.
Rouse’s book ‘After the Camera’ is available on Amazon.
by successfulbob | fine art musician portrait, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photographer of musicians, photography, photography creativity
Sound Bites Grill adds Melanie to the Wall of Fame
Remember Woodstock?
Me either. A little before my time.
But I do remember I grew up with a lot of music from that era. One of the artists recently appeared at Sound Bites in Sedona, Arizona. Melanie put on a fun show with a reprise of her classic hits like New Key and Look What They Done to My Song along with some newer material. Follow up with Melanie’s website here for more music info, tour dates, and history.
One of the benefits of being the house photographer at SBG is I have the opportunity to attend a lot of shows and view lots of entertainment. The other bonus is Stephen and Michele appreciate the work I do and allow me to create the art pieces from the live performances.
Melanie from her live performance at Sound Bites.
ORIGINAL CAPTURES WITH LUMIX GH4 35-100MM F2.8 VARIO LENS 1/40TH SEC F2.8 ISO 3200
Here’s the process. I photograph the performers through their show. Once images are downloaded, I cull the non-keepers. There can be quite a few of these due to blurred movement, changing lighting conditions, etc. Then I choose one that helps to tell the story, and I extract the performer from the image using Adobe Photoshop. I’ll open another file and import the extracted image. Then I’ll experiment with bringing in different textures as Layers. Changing the Blend Modes of the layers changes how they interact with the layers below. Layer Masks allow me to be selective about where changes will show. I have the artist sign their autograph and ‘message to the house’ in black marker on white paper. That is scanned and brought into the final art. That layer is inverted making the text white, and the Screen Mode is used to make the paper disappear.
Melanie & Family – Melanie has some incredibly talented progeny. They joined her on stage. Son Boe wails on the guitar. Daughter Jeordie is a singer/songwriter in her own right. (she’s playing some dates down the road in Phoenix in the next few days) All in all a great show.
You can see here that while the same general technique was used on both images, there is an entirely different ‘feel’ to the imagery. I enjoy the challenge of trying to do something a little different for all the art that hangs on the Wall of Fame. If you find yourself in Sedona stop by, grab some grub, and check out the ‘Wall’ in person.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | people photography, photography, photography creativity, photography education, tuesday painterly photo art
Tuesday Photo Art – featuring Beverly Walden, M.Photog.Cr.
Tuesday on Successful-Photographer is now dedicated to the art of converting images beyond that of a photograph and moving the image in a more Painterly/Artistic direction. We’ll be taking to look at the artist/photographers who are forging their way forward in creating a new art form with photography at its base.
Today’s artist is photographer Beverly Walden. Shown here adding some finishing touches to her painting.
I have been following Walden’s Photography for many years. I’m impressed with Tim & Beverly’s attention to creating fantastic portraits, as well as a ‘portrait experience’ for their clients. Their hallmark is exquisite black and white fine art images. Beverly has expanded their product line by creating the ‘Beau Visage’ line of artwork.
Let’s take a look at some of Beverly’s work.
Before photograph. Please note that Bev is starting with a wonderfully well-lit portrait before she begins her Painter work.
Here is a close-up detail along with the finished painting
Bev’s before photograph
Painted image
Let’s hear from Beverly
I first opened Corel Painter on my computer about 15 years ago and started to dabble in it without much success, but I didn’t have the courage to open it for two years prior. My goal was to make money with it if I had to spend a lot of time both learning and painting. That is when we came up with the idea of the Beau Visage paintings, knowing it would be a separate part of Walden’s, and I would paint only for those who booked a painting, not on speculation.
I ordered a set of DVDs from a dear friend, Helen Yancy, and sat in front of my computer with her DVD playing. I watched, listened and took a lot of notes. Every so often, I would hit the space bar, stopping the DVD, to sketch out her desktop area showing the brushes and their settings and any other information I could glean from the DVD. Then I would set my desktop to match hers as I followed her instructions. At that point, it was just copying what she did without understanding the reasons for it.
I started to paint some prototypes after watching her DVDs, and we sold those for several years. About 11 years ago, Helen was doing a week long class 20 miles from us, and I jumped on that opportunity to learn with her in person. During that week, I was pleasantly surprised that I was doing most of the program correctly, but I needed to make some adjustments.
After that class, I painted for clients for several years, working on perfecting my skill set and feeling I improved with each painting. I spent a couple of days with Scott Dupras and took other short classes here and there that were close while also doing tutorials I found on the websites of those painters whose work I loved.
Original photo
Painted version
About two years ago, Heather Michelle Chinn, aka Heather the Painter, came to our studio and did a workshop here. Again, I felt I was doing most things the way they should be done, but I needed inspiration (and courage) to make my brush strokes more painterly and not so controlled-I wanted to feel more freedom with my strokes. She helped me tremendously on that and also taught how to apply paints and gels to the surface of the painting to add layers of depth and artistry not attainable through using only Corel Painter.
Today at Walden’s, the Corel Painter portion is sold as an “underpainting” only after the client has purchased the Beau Visage painting. Tim prints the underpaintings on fine art watercolor papers while the painting is printed on archival canvas and sealed with an isolation coat before any paint or gel is added.
The finished paintings now have so much more visual power with the paint and gels added PLUS they are truly “one-of-a-kind” pieces which make them more valuable. I knew the added paints and gels would make some difference, but I didn’t realize they would make such a huge difference, at least in my opinion, and they look and feel more like a free hand painting.
What I love about painting the portraits we create here in our studio is the high quality and excellence of the portrait itself that becomes the foundation of the painting. The lighting is beautiful, the contrast is just right, the pose and set are always a pleasure with which to work. Also, after I finish the underpainting, Tim takes it into Photoshop and tweaks the contrast to bring out the brush strokes and makes slight adjustments for added richness and depth before he hand prints both the underpainting and canvas for the painting here on our Epson printer.
We believe every studio should have a top of the line “product” to offer their clients and the Beau Visage Mixed Media Paintings fulfill that role for us.
Beverly’s Thoughts on Painting
Portraits of people and the challenge of catching the fleeting expressions that truly reflect their souls, that is what intrigues me and always has! From the click of the button to fulfilling my vision first with Corel Painter and then, paint and brushes, is what moves me and stirs the artist within. And always, I am in search of BEAUTY!
Entering into the photography profession under the instruction of both Robert Walden, my father-in-law and Tim, my husband, I fell in love with portraits from the very beginning. No landscapes, no flowers, no sunsets… I wanted to photograph faces, especially children! I loved capturing their innocence.
Every photographer has a vision inside of them, and I found my outlet to create what I saw with my mind’s eye when I learned how to get onto photographic paper what was in my mind.
After many years of doing portrait photography, I found Corel Painter and my path was changed from creating photographs to painting photographs, creating one-of-a-kind pieces of art.
I always paint when alone-it’s my quiet time, my thinking time, my relaxation! Some fish, some golf, but for me, painting is what I love to do.
It was and still is a perfect fit for me!
Here is a quote that Beverly loves and I’ll be adding to my collection, “The job of an Artist is to offer a sanctuary of Beauty to an ugly world.” Jeff Goins
I gotta tell ya this has turned into quite a missive on art and business. Thanks to Beverly for the in-depth thoughts and ideas on how the Waldens have used the artistic process to expand their business.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – For educational opportunities with the Waldens see this post. If you want to improve your photography business you definitely want to check it out.
