You do not need a $10,000 lens or a studio full of sable brushes to participate in this movement.
Here is a controversial truth in the digital era: All art is manipulated. Ansel Adams famously “performed” his negatives in the darkroom. In nature art, your digital darkroom (Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One) is where the photograph becomes a painting. tube artofzoo
However, with great power comes great responsibility. Ethical nature art respects the truth of the animal while enhancing the visual poetry. You do not need a $10,000 lens or
The Ethical Line:
Techniques for the "Fine Art" Look:
The greatest nature artists often use photography as a tool. John James Audubon shot his birds (with a gun) to pose them. Modern artists shoot with a camera to capture a reference library. A photographer might look at a painting to learn how to frame a landscape; a painter might look at a photograph to understand how light falls on a raven’s feather. Techniques for the "Fine Art" Look: The greatest
The Hybrid Creatives: A new breed of artist is emerging: the "Photo-Artist." They take their own raw wildlife files and manipulate them through digital painting software. They might change the weather in the background, add a flock of birds that wasn't there, or composite a realistic wolf into a surreal, starry sky. When done ethically (and labeled correctly), this creates a new genre of dreamlike natural history.
