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How to Buy Fine Art Photography

How to buy phototography at art shows

For more information about any of the pictures in this article, click the picture.

 

About ten years ago digital printing made it possible to create very high quality photographs with a color accuracy and sharpness that just wasn't possible previously. As a result, many art buyers turned from traditional genres like oil paintings and water colors and began buying fine art photography instead. Since buying photography as art is a relatively new thing, not many people are knowledgeable about the do's and don'ts of buying high quality photographs. Here are some guidelines.

In the first place I would buy fine art photography at art shows or online rather than from galleries. You can find good photographs at galleries but it is often possibly to find a much, much larger selection of photographs that are just as good or better at far better prices at art shows or online. In addition, when you buy at shows you get to meet the photographer and ask him questions about his art that a gallery sales person usually doesn't have the answers to. A possible exception are the galleries that specialize in the photographs of only one or two photographers such as the Mangelson Galleries, or the John Fielder Gallery. However, be aware that you will pay twice as much or more at these galleries than you would pay for similar quality photographs found at art shows. The main reason for this is that high end galleries have huge overheads that have to be paid for.

After deciding that you want to buy your photograph at an art show rather than at a gallery, the next step is to go to a good art show, not just any old art show. The quality of the art at art shows varies enormously--from flea market junk art to the highest quality art found anywhere in the world. Here is a link to my list of the best Colorado art shows of 2006. I'll update this list before the Colorado 2007 summer art season begins. I think the best shows in Colorado are the Breckenridge art shows put on by Mark Beling Productions, the Cherry Creek Art Show, and The Castle Rock Art Show, but there are a lot of other very good ones so check my list. A good source for the best art shows all over the country is Greg Lawler's Art Show Source Book. This is the book that most artists use to find the best shows in the country. You probably don't want to actually buy this book if you aren't an artist as it costs over $200.00, but Greg has graciously provided a list of the best shows for the general public also. Here is Greg's list of the best art shows in the US. You might want to come back to this list in a month or two when a lot of the shows firm up their schedules.

When you get to an art show, look at everything quickly and then home in on the photographers you like best. One of the first things you want to determine is how long their photographs will last without fading or discoloring. In these days of digital fine art printing, all photographs should be guaranteed to last at least fifty years. The life of a photograph is dependant almost entirely on how it was printed. There are two basic types of printing that contemporary photographers use. The first type is photographs which are printed on photographic paper. In this type of printing, regular photographic paper is exposed with laser light and then developed with traditional wet chemicals. There are three types of laser printers: the Light Jet printer, the Chromira printer and the Lamda printer. The photographic paper should be Fuji Crystal Archive Photographic paper. Prints made in this way will last at least sixty-five years with no perceptible fading or discoloration.

This kind of laser printing has to be done in a commercial lab since the printers cost up to half a million dollars apiece. However, the best photographers can be completely in charge of the printing process as they can digitally edit their own image files and then send them to the lab for printing; the lab adds nothing, all the artistic input comes solely from the photographer. There are some photographers who just shoot the pictures and then leave all the image editing to the lab. In my opinion this isn't a good idea. I feel that half of the art of photography is in shooting and the other half is in the printing, or to be more specific, in editing the image before the mechanical job of printing is done. I printed all of my pictures on Light Jet Laser printers for a long time and I always made sure that all artistic input was mine alone, not some bored lab tech who had no idea of my artistic vision of the image. It is worth asking photographers if they do all the digital editing themselves and are thus completely in charge of the entire artistic process. There is a lot more information about this kind of printing in my article on How We Make Our Pictures.

The second major type of photographic printing is ink jet printing. Many photographers today do their own printing using large and very high quality inkjet printers. The best of these are the Epson printers using the new pigmented UltraChrome inks. Photographs made on these printers also last at least sixty-five years and some can last as long as 200 or even 400 years without any signs of fading or discoloration. The actual life of the picture depends on the kind of paper used. High quality rag papers tend to last longer but don't have quite the brilliance and contrast of the so-called photo papers. My preference is to make the best possible picture that will last for sixty-five years rather than a slightly less nice picture that may last for 200 years. You do need to be a little bit careful when buying inkjet printed photographs; there are many Epson printers and other brands of inkjet printers using dye inks (as opposed to pigmented inks) which will begin to fade and discolor in a year or less. Be sure to talk to your photographer about how he is printing his pictures. Reputable photographers will be very up-front about this. I would distrust those who are hesitant to discuss how they make their photographic prints. Having said this, I do think that most photographers at good art shows who use ink jet printers are very careful that their prints have very long archival lives.

Of the two main kinds of digital printing, I prefer the inkjet printers. For one thing, I think the quality is slightly higher than the laser printers. Also, I love the immediate feedback of printing a picture myself and looking at it immediately; if there is even a slight problem I can correct it and immediately reprint it. When you are working with a lab, there are often weeks long delays between editing and printing--not a situation conducive to artistic creativeness.

Here are two articles I have written about the life of photographic prints if you would like more detail on archival print life. Printing and the Archival Life of Photographs is a shorter, less detailed article. How Long do Photographs Last is a longer, more complete article.

While we are discussing printing, I want to emphasise that you really do want digital printing. There are a few people who still think that the old fashioned way of printing with an optical enlarger in the old wet-chemical darkroom is somehow more authentic and therefore better. I hate to say it, but this is absolute nonsense. Digital printing is far better all the way around: digital photographs are much sharper, they last far longer, and the colors are much truer, much more vibrant, and much closer to the colors of the real world. The one exception might be black and white photography. There is something to be said for a black and white photograph printed in a traditional wet-chemical darkroom. But, on the other hand, Epson just came out with a new printer that does a fantastic job of printing black and white photographs: the blacks are richer and blacker that on any photographic paper and the infinite levels of gray that it produces are just incredible. I am going to begin printing black and white photographs in 2007 and I will print them on my new Epson printer. There is a lot more information on digital printing in my article How We Make Our Photographs.

How a specific photograph is going to look in your home is another consideration in buying photographs. Before we begin this discussion, it is important to realize that photographs, or any other wall art for that matter, look radically different in different kinds of light. In bright outdoor light on a clear day, photographs tend to look quite light and bright and a little cool, even bluish in color. When the same photograph is taken into the average house it will often look too dark and much warmer in color. A picture will look completely different in bright sunlight, in the shade, under tungsten lights, or in various living rooms. Pictures will also look different when placed on different colored backgrounds or even when next to other variously colored pictures or furniture. All of this should be taken into consideration when buying a piece of wall art.

Most art shows take place out-of-doors in very bright sunlight and the artist probably has a pure white tent. The result is a tremendously bright show room. Your lighting at home is not going to be nearly as bright unless you use some kind of artificial light to illuminate the photograph. If the picture looks even a little bit dark or dull in the artist's booth it is going to look much duller and darker at home. If the picture looks a little too bright, a little too brilliant, a little too colorful in the artists booth, this is good, it will probably look just right when you get it home to your darker environment. (This will be true on a bright sunny day but not a dark cloudy day or if the artists booth is under a big tree.) If you think the picture you are interested in won't look right in your home, there are two things you can do. One, ask the photographer if you can return the picture if it doesn't look good at home. Two, ask the photographer if he can print the picture specifically for the room you want to show it in. This is usually possible if all you want is to make the picture a little brighter, a little darker, a little cooler, a little warmer or if you want to the colors to be a little more or less intense. You might have to pay a little more for this kind of custom printing.

The problem of brilliant lighting in the booth but not at home holds true in galleries as well as in art shows. All galleries light their pictures for absolutely optimal viewing with millions of watts of light. The next time you are in a high end gallery, notice the lighting, it's pretty phenomenal. Just because a picture looks sensational in a gallery it doesn't mean it will look that way at home. Be sure to ask if you can return the picture if it doesn't work at home. In a gallery there will probably not be the option of reprinting the picture to make a custom fit for your home. Of course, there is another solution, duplicate the galleries lighting at home. All you have to do is put some track lighting on the ceiling to light up the picture. When you do this, be sure that when the light bounces off the picture at a ninety degree angle (which it will), the reflected light is aimed at the floor, not at the viewer's eyes. The best way to do this is to make sure the light is not too far from the picture. Lighting will make any picture look at least 2000% better immediately. This is really the optimal way to show photography or any other art. The little picture lights you clamp onto the top of a picture are usually pretty worthless however; they don't give off enough light and you have an electric cord dangling down the wall to an outlet.

The very best way to see how a picture will look in your home is to ask the artist if you can take it home for a test drive. This is really the only way to see how the picture will fit into your decor and color scheme. In reality, this only works if you live nearby; if you don't live close enough to make a quick trip home, make sure you can return the picture if it doesn't work out.

It's important to make sure exactly what an artist's return policy is. Most artists will allow returns for a limited period, like thirty days for any reason what-so-ever. They should also allow you to return the picture after any length of time if something goes seriously wrong with the picture, like the picture separating from it's mount or the frame warping or premature fading of the picture.

Another major consideration in purchasing a picture for your home is glare and reflections. Sometimes reflections can get so bad that it is impossible to even see the picture. This is especially true if the picture faces a large, bright window. One solution is to use reflection control glass to frame the picture. This works fairly well except that it won't eliminate the reflections entirely and at certain angles the whole picture may take on an odd, mat looking glare. The best reflection control glass is called Den Glass which is very expensive but which does work quite well.

In my opinion, the very best way of controlling glare and reflections is to have the picture laminated and then frame it without using glass. Laminated photographs are covered with a very thin, strong, invisible sheet of non-glossy lamination material. This covering is anti-glare, anti-reflection and anti- UV, yet it perfectly protects the photograph so that it can be shown without being covered by glass. Of all the methods to eliminate reflections and glare, this is by far the best. A laminated photograph often looks so real and so vibrant it almost seems you are looking out a window. In the larger sizes, these laminated photographs make you feel as if you are right there, in the scene. Here is a more detailed article on lamination that includes how to frame laminated pictures, how to take care of them, and the pros and cons of laminating.

There are several aspects of mounting, matting and framing photographs that you might want to take into consideration. Rather than going into all the details here, I will simply refer you to the article I have written on this subject, Framing photography.

Many photographers offer their photography for sale on-line via their web-sites There are pros and cons to buying photography online. One problem is that it is hard to know exactly what the picture you get will actually look like since all monitors will show slightly different versions of the picture. What you see may be lighter or darker than the real thing and the colors can vary considerably. At best, no monitor is going to replicate the real beauty of a really good photograph. It helps if you have seen the pictures of the photographer in question at an art show since it is likely that the picture you order will be of the same quality. If you haven't seen a photographer's work in person, it may be a good idea to get a small proof of the picture to see exactly what a certain picture will look like when you receive it in the mail.

If you are ordering a large picture, I think it is also reasonable to ask the photographer to print a narrow strip out of the middle of the actual large size of the photograph so you can judge the print quality of the large picture. All reputable photographers will happily provide you with both a proof and a sample stirp. They will probably charge you for this service, but most will give you a credit for use on a future purchase. If you are ordering a large print from me, I actually prefer to send a sample strip to make sure the customer knows exactly what he is getting.

If you do get a sample strip from a large photograph, you need to know how to look at the sample strip. The worst thing to do is to pore over it with magnifying glasses and expect it to be razor sharp. No large photographs look perfectly sharp when you look at them this way. All large photographs and large art work of all kinds including oil paintings and water colors are designed to be seen from the proper viewing distance. The proper viewing distance changes with the size of the photograph, but no large photograph over, say, 30"x40" should be looked at closer that three or four feet away. The best way to view a sample strip is to tape it on the wall in the location where the final picture will hang and view it in the same light that will be on the final picture. (Be careful the tape isn't going to remove the paint from the wall when you remove it.) Live with the strip sample for a week or so and then make your decision about whether to order the real picture. If you do all this, you will have an excellent idea about how you are going to like the finished piece.

The pros of buying photography online are pretty simple: it's a lot more convenient than going to an art show or gallery. Most art shows are in the summer, and it's kind of hard to shop the art shows in the middle of the winter. Also it's very convenient to sit at home and be able to view all the pictures from the best artists all over the country in just a few minutes. Most artists can only show a very small fraction of their pictures at art shows; for instance, I can get only two or three percent of all my pictures up at an art show. Online, you can see them all very quickly and compare one with another.

If you buy online you do have to pay freight you wouldn't pay at an art show, but most artists lower their online prices to compensate for freight. Still, if you are buying a huge framed picture online, the shipping can quickly become astronomical. I think the best way to buy a very large picture online is to buy it unframed. It is possible to save hundreds of dollars in freight by getting a huge picture framed locally. And if you do get the picture framed by a local guy, you can pick exactly the right frame and mat and colors to fit your decor.

You should expect the same guarantees from an artist selling online that you do from a show artist or a gallery artist, i.e., be sure there is a money-back guarantee without any strings attached. One thing that many people don't know is that using a credit card to pay for any purchase, online or not, pretty much protects them from fraud. If you don't receive your merchandise, or if it is damaged or you are not happy with it for any reason and the merchant will not allow a return, all you have to do is tell your credit card company and they will delete the charge to your account instantly. This makes buying online pretty safe. All in all, I think buying photography online is a great way to buy art as long as you take the few simple precautions mentioned above.

Hopefully this article is of some help in buying photographs anywhere, from anyone. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

Fred Hanselmann
Rocky Mountain Photography
Jan 4, 2007