Digital Art Photography

Introduction

In this book, I cover the art form of digital art photography. I start by giving you an introduction to the world of film-based photography and how it relates to digital photography. From there, I go on to cover the whole gambit of digital art photography, from shooting great photos to tweaking them in Photoshop to producing final output fit for a gallery wall. If that sounds intriguing, this book is for you whether you’re film-based or digital-only or both.

About This Book

Here are some of the things this book will help you do:

1. Get a fabulous, well-exposed photograph, no matter what your shooting conditions

2. Tweak, edit, and enhance your images to create something entirely new — or just simply better than what you started with

3. Produce gallery-worthy art prints

4. Find out when it’s time to upgrade your computer to handle graphics work


Conventions Used in This Book -Written By Author

By conventions, I simply mean a set of rules that I employ in this book to present information to you consistently. When you see a term italicized, look for its definition, which I include so you know what that term means in the context of digital art photography. Sometimes, I give you information to enter onscreen; in those cases, I format what you need to type bold. Web site addresses and e-mail addresses appear in monofont so that they stand out from regular text.
What You Don’t Have to Read

Because I structure this book modularly — that is, so you can easily find only the specific information you need — you don’t have to read whatever doesn’t pertain to your task at hand. You also don’t have to read the Technical Stuff icons, which parse out uber-techy tidbits (which you might or might not be interested in).

How This Book Is Organized

Digital Art Photography For Dummies is split into five parts. You don’t have to read parts sequentially; you don’t have to read each chapter in each part; and you don’t even have to read all the sections in any particular chapter. (But I think that you’ll want to look at every picture. . . .) You can use the Table of Contents and the index to find the information you need and quickly get your answers. In this section, I briefly describe what you’ll find in each part.

Part I: The Art of a Digital Picture

This part serves as an introduction to the world of art photography and how it relates to digital photography. In Chapter 1, I detail the five essential steps to creating a digitized masterpiece and provide a few essentials of composition. Chapters 2 and 3 cover the digital side of digital art photography; I have to admit, this information can get a little dry and techy. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you.) When it comes time to purchase a new digital camera or to upgrade your computer to handle all the heavy-duty graphics work you’ll be doing, however, you’ll be glad you have these two chapters by your side. In Chapter 4, things get fun again while I brainstorm with you to decide just what kind of digital art photographer you want to be.

Part II: The Photo Shoot

Part II is all about getting great shots, and so I dive right into ISOs, f-stops, exposure settings, and when to use a flash. This part runs the gamut, from shooting great photos outdoors or indoors (Chapters 5 and 6) to photographing people and animals (Chapter 7) to shooting for great color or outstanding black and white (Chapters 8 and 9) to capturing stunning nighttime images (Chapter 10) to achieving wonderful effects before you ever get to Photoshop (Chapter 11) — whew! That’s a lot of photography!

Part III: Photoshop Art: Using Software to Enhance or Create Art Photos

If you’re anxious to repair or jazz up some old photos, use Chapter 12 as your guide. In that chapter, I discuss various Photoshop tools and techniques that can bring back vivid color to images 50 years old or eliminate annoying scratches and dust. Chapter 13 is where you can find out how to merge images into one giant photograph, and Chapter 14 gives you the lowdown on using Photoshop layers (a great tool for creating digital art photography). I couldn’t not discuss Photoshop’s filters, so I include a whole chapter on them (Chapter 15).

Part IV: The Final Output: Gallery-Worthy Prints

Drum roll, please . . . the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Just itching to click that Print button so you can hold your masterpiece in hand and admire it lovingly? This is the part for you. In Chapter 16, I discuss all things that have to do with managing electronic files (a tedious albeit necessary part of digital art photography), and Chapter 17 covers printing prep and printing. Then comes the really fun part: matting and framing. Chapter 18 has all the information you need to make your art presentable to the world (and paying customers).

Part V: The Part of Tens

I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t include a Part of Tens. So here you’ll find ten rules — or if you prefer, guidelines — of digital art photography (Chapter 19) and ten snappy digital art tricks (Chapter 20).

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