Snapshot versus Fine Art, Part 1

We’ve looked at and worked with the differences between ‘found image’ photography and ‘staged scene’ photography – you are currently working on a series of staged scenes as a narrative.

Another major distinction among types of photography is the snapshot versus the fine art photo, or more simply snapshot versus photograph. One common critique question, heard in art schools everywhere: “Is this photo a snapshot or a photograph?”

What are the differences between a snapshot photo and a fine art photo? A snapshot, of course, is casual, quick, and sort of documentary. It is the speedy photo of kids during a party. The snapshot is informal and spontaneous.  A photograph (or fine art photo), on the other hand, is carefully composed and exposed for artistic reasons, printed with special care, and thoughtfully made at every level of the creative process.  A fine art photo is considered and planned.

Here’s a couple of photos that have the classic ‘snapshot’ look:

Here is a step-up from raw snapshot, a 'snapshot-sketch' of a landscape (Warren Falls, VT)

This photo shows promise... I used it to test exposures and croppings while at the scene considering how to represent and express the richness and depth of the varying water, evergreen, and rock textures. And here is my fine art photo of the same location:

The sketch was impulsive, just a rough test of the scene. I used it to help get to the fine art photo (hence the term ‘snapshot-sketch’). The second was purposeful. It was composed, cropped, toned, refined, and revised. The second one is headed straight for my b/w landscape portfolio.  

You could, of course, for artistic reasons create a series of photos that take on the casual, unretouched appeal of a snapshot. But if you’re doing so on purpose, then you are thinking through the images and designing them for artistic reasons. It’s only when you don’t think it through and do no planning that you really truly have a set of casual, quick snapshots.

And you might also find that there is such a thing as a great, beautiful snapshot – that lucky moment when everything falls together and you get a surprise, an excellent image. And there is also the horrible fine art photo, where the image, its meanings or symbolism, or technical flaws all add up to create yuck. Just because a photo is fine art doesn’t mean it’s good, and just because a snapshot wasn’t intentional doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Meanwhile we all like photography because taking photos is fun, often speedy (compared to an oil painting anyway!) and often memorable. If you’re like me then even while making ‘fine art’ photos you are taking thousands of snapshots… at parties, on vacation, etc. Additionally, with software tools like Photoshop and GIMP, it’s very easy to crop, compose, retouch, alter and adjust almost every aspect of any photo. Many snapshots can be turned into fine art photos. So we must be careful not to think of snapshots as polar opposites of fine art photos. It’s more like subtle degrees of difference from a fairly casual photo to a very planned one.

As a painter, I like to compare snapshots with rough sketches, whereas the fine art photo – wholly composed and considered – is more like the finished oil painting. One leads to the other, and sometimes, the finished paintings create a storm of ideas that become sketches and turn into another artwork later on. These feedback cycles among snapshots and fine art photos produce a lot of the creativity of photography today.

Clarifying the conundrums… a look at the camera settings and processes that yield the look of a snapshot versus the look of an art photo:

Camera Settings for…	Snapshot aka ‘Casual’	Fine Art aka ‘Planned’
note:	‘often accidental’ and ‘relies on other’s engineering’	‘often purposeful’ and ‘relies on artist’s choices’
Exposure	Auto	Measured and selected
Signal to Noise	Somewhat Noisy, medium to poor signal	High signal, sharp and smooth when needed
Lighting	Found and/or Direct Flash	Found, Directional Flash (bounced, reflected, etc.), Controlled or Added Light, or waited for the best natural light.
White Balance	Auto	Custom, or Selected Specific WB
Focus	Auto = averaged, a little soft	Pin Sharp if needed
Shutter Speed	Auto	Selected as needed for action, motion blur, time lapse
F-Stop	Auto or does not apply (snapshot fixed lens camera)	Selected for specific depth of field.
ISO	400, 800 or greater	Usually lower than 400

Here’s a slightly different way of thinking about this, full of value judgments but you get the idea…

Type of Photo	Results for Snapshot Settings	Results for Fine Art Setting
Portrait	-          One light source, harsh -          Red Eye -          Focus not on eyes -          Odd microexpressions (shutter speed too fast) -          Tones and skin colors feel too orange or too green-yellow (auto WB) -          Harsh edge or rim shadows (direct flash) -          Background cluttered -          Person looks worse in photo than in real life	-          Great light = mood, beauty, expression -          Eye highlights add lively feeling -          Focus crisp on eyes -          ‘Human’ expressions -          Colors feel natural -          Softened shadows or reflections (bounced light) -          Background composed -          Person probably looks better in photo than in real life.
Landscape	-          Harsh or Midday Lighting -          Odd crops, no composition -          Found view with extreme ease of access (anyone could find this location) -          Unretouched -          Bland tones or colors, photo doesn’t remind of the scene -          Narrow d.o.f. -          Clouds have blinkies, or shadows have crunges. -          Horizon Crooked -          Image is boring to look at; I’d rather go for a hike and see the world on my own.	-          Magic Hour lighting (dawn or dusk) -          Patient, composed scene, no visual distractions -          Scoped out the best location and waited for the light (more unusual or original view) -          Color retouched or saturated. -          High f-stop = long depth of field, a lot in focus. -          Widest color and tonal ranges (WB) -          Horizon is level (tripod). -          Photo is rich and interesting to look at, I’m happy spending time with it.

And finally there’s subject matter: the fine art photo can have any subject matter, but it’s my experience that the snapshot photo tends to be familiar scenes, and people that you know – the purpose of the snapshot is usually to celebrate and remind you of these scenes or people. For example, a photo of children during a birthday party, or a group of friends at the top of a mountain peak after a long hike. In both cases, the photo’s purpose is mainly ‘remember this? This was a special event that we shared.’ We assume that such snapshots are mostly accurate representations of the scene, event, or people. We don’t make the same assumption about the fine art photo, where we expect the artist to manipulate the imagery to create meaning.

Extra Credit Project: Create two photos of the same scene, but make one of the photos look like a casual snapshot or snapshot sketch, and make the other appear to be a fine art photo. One should be casual and unplanned, where the other should seem planned, purposeful, and thoughtful. Place the two images together in one digital file, and submit it to our shared Picasa album. NOTE: This project is optional. Extra credit will be provided to those who complete this project.

Example: