Fine Art Printing Resources
These fine art printing resources can help you better understand the basics of digital photography, color management and printing as well as advanced techniques and nuances. Obviously, I’ve only listed the resources that I found useful. It’s not always possible to determine if a resource will match your skill level. Therefore, if a book or article is too basic or too advanced for you, use these resources to find new keywords or concepts to search until you find what works for you.
BOOKS
Real World Color Management, Bruce Fraser, et al
This is the bible for color management. Unfortunately, Bruce Fraser passed away in 2006 and the book is no longer in print but, fortunately, new & used copies are available through Amazon. If you are serious about color management, you need this book in your library.
Color Management & Quality Output: Working with Color from Camera to Display to Print, Tom Ashe
This is an excellent book for geeks. You’ll notice this immediately in Chapter 1 when the author dives into Color & Color Vision with 10 pages of electromagnetic spectrum, anatomy of the human eye, Farnsworth-Munsell Hue Test, protanopia vs deuteranopia color blindness, finishing with metameric failure. Geeks will love it, others, maybe not so much.
The Digital Print, Jeff Schewe
I think Jeff’s books are great mainly because I enjoy his style. I would call it “dry but trying to please the editors.” Jeff wants to do things his way but the editors are gritting their teeth and nudging him their direction. Bottom line, Jeff is immensely talented and knowledgeable and his books are well worth reading.
The Digital Negative, Jeff Schewe
I like Jeff’s books because his examples make sense to me. He shows bad examples that reflect the mistakes I make. However, that means he may not make as much sense to readers who haven’t screwed up as much as me. In other words, you have to kind of know what you’re doing wrong to fully appreciate this book.
Fine Art Printing for Photographers, Uwe Steinmueller and Juergen Gulbins
A fine book about printing photographs as fine art, not printing photographs OF fine art. Nevertheless, this book will give you many ideas and insights into the printing process and workflow. Be aware that printing your own photos is different from printing photos of your art. It’s much easier to compromise what you think you saw versus what you painted.
Light: Science & Magic, Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua
This book is about lighting, not color management. It has good examples of ways to light art to avoid common problems associated with reflections, hotspots, shadows and color casts. This will help you get good photographs of your art faster and with less “trial & error.”
Mastering Canon EOS Flash Photography, NK Guy
If you shoot Canon and want to learn the art of flash photography, this is The Final Word. I don’t recommend flash for photographing fine art but if you have two or more flashes, this book will show you how to get the most out of them.
Websites
Articles
