How to Recognize Great Art Photography Part 5-Technique

Now that you understand why you're drawn to the photograph and how its the result of the photographer's work and vision, truly a piece of art. There is one last thing that great art photography will possess and that is technique. Just as a writer chose her words to tell her story, a photographer uses photographic techniques to create his vision.

It is not by chance that you're captivated by the model's eyes, feel intimacy with the photograph, or else distant and small, or why your eyes dart around the picture following patterns, or why you look at the left corner of the image and follow the line of the stream into the upper right corner.

Photographic techniques involve the use of lines, space, form, lighting, composition rules, tonal contrasts, bokeh, long exposures, fast shutters, spacial tension, textures, patterns, sharpness, highlighting, contrasting colours, monochromatic tones, balance....even the aspect ratio of the framing, is

done with intention.

A great art photograph will authentically represent the photographer. You will recognize the photographer within the frame. His work is done with intention, with a direction and with consistency.

In conclusion, great art photography is art. It has vision, a universal theme, purposeful photographic techniques, and consistency authentic to the photographer. I hope my little series has provided you with an understanding, therefore an appreciation, of art photography.