Master Study: Renaissance Techniques In Photography

Are you all ready for an art history lesson? Great! Because it's refreshing to contemplate art and sit down to a good Master Study every once in a while. The greatest master artists who ever were came out of the Renaissance with many breakthrough methods of portraying life in their paintings.

I delightfully realized lately that I had been incorporating Renaissance art techniques in my photography, and I hadn't a clue I'd been doing so! Therefore, I have to reflect upon it and why it works so well. This article  reflects on the Master techniques of chiaroscuro, foreshortening, sfumato and contrapposto.

CHIAROSCURO

This technique is one which, in Italian, literally means "light/dark". It's a technique utilized most famously by Rembrandt, in whose paintings very dramatic moods can be achieved by allowing certain subjects to be in light, and other areas to be obscured in darkness. The artist can be kind of a tease with this technique, choosing what to show you in light, and what secret crazy things - up to your own imagination! - might be happening in the darkness.

At left shows a groomsman waiting for the wedding to begin. Modern photography allows me to achieve a chiaroscuro effect by affecting contrasts, highlighting the bright significant area (his face) and darkening the background lesser significant areas. If this had been a Rembrandt, maybe some gargoyles or creepy angels could have been playing around in the dark corners. Who knows what they're up to!

FORESHORTENING

This technique most famously used by Botticelli in "Mourning Over the Dead Christ" is a consideration of perspective, which allows the artist to enhance subjects by portraying foreground items closer and larger to the viewer than background items.

One of my engagement couples. While they are both significant in the composition, what is more significantly being portrayed is particularly her engagement ring. Foreshortening also works wonders for those iffy about having their photo taken due to body size. Shot from above looking down, everyone looks slimmer in photos because the body is more distant and becomes minimized. Regardless if subjects are larger or not, from-above shots always flatter (and never produce the double chin effect!).

SFUMATO

This is my favorite, not only because it's a fun word to [try to] say, but because the technique always lends a surrealistic dreamy quality. Most famously exemplified in Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", the sfumato technique basically blurs areas of the painting into indefinite regions, or creates a misty atmosphere around subjects. Learning about art history back in the day, I was most impressed by usage of sfumato in religious paintings which implied Godly qualities emanating from Christ, affecting the very nature of His atmosphere. How remarkable is that? I'm sure you'd love to "affect your own atmosphere" in your bridal portrait.

Digital photo editing is wonderful when it comes to replicating sfumato. By means of blurring certain corner and background details to look misty and dreamlike, often the subjects come to stand out in fabulous ways that make them appear to "pop" off the page. Love it.

CONTRAPPOSTO

Contrapposto is not so much a painting technique as it is a compositional one. It is a way of positioning a human subject to balance his weight in a pleasing and harmonious manner which makes his purpose dynamic. Most famous is Michelangelo's "David", doesn't he look ever so awesome?

My sister's husband will be alight to know he's my example alongside "David" for contrapposto composure. I love this shot. Additionally, the fun story behind this image is that these two actually wanted to pose this way specifically to mimic the posing of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the staircase shot from Roman Holiday. Nothing more refreshing than creative photo subjects :) .

Here's to Master Artists and their timeless artistic techniques which still are fabulously being used even in our digital art world today.

Go Indie for Wedding Vendors

Here's a short little "two bits" from an independent wedding vendor who had once gone for bigger name vendors at her own wedding (and who regrets the inattention and too-high prices).

Perhaps you have a preference for the "tried and true" big names, and that is fine. But hear me out on some advice which may save you both headaches and moolah. Often, going with the independently owned and operated vendors can turn you out a much more pleasant and personal experience while planning your wedding and dealing with everything pre- and post- wedding.

The big name providers, the ones everyone seems to book because of their market saturation, cannot always provide you with the personalized attention you want when planning your event. It's a simple matter of over-saturation to make profit, and therefore each individual client gets less personalized attention to make way for the next flood of profit making clients. It's like you're on an assembly line. Big name photography companies (including the one I call "The Walmart of Wedding Photographers") have a system which is simply to make a sale to a client by a salesperson, and to be handed a photographer from a "call list" of contracted people who are the ones actually showing up at your wedding.

This raises your package prices, and more if the company has a retail studio space with that overhead they must figure into their prices. That big name company has to pay someone else to do the work, and you are picking up the tab in the package you are offered. Sometimes that's a BIG TAB! And you can get the same quality (if not better, for more personalized focus) by choosing an independent service provider.

If you go with an independent provider who has been offering quality services for many years, and who is the actual person who shows up at your event, you will be getting a much better deal. You will also be getting much more personalized attention too, because your photographs are handled, packaged and designed by one person, who responds aptly to your inquiries, and has full focus on you as an individual.

I stress this mainly with regard to photographers, not only because I am an independent provider myself, but because photography is the one thing following your wedding that you will be following up on (albums, prints, etc.), and you want good communication from a reliable entity who doesn't send you through a system of other people before your request gets processed.

It's just more personal. Personal and simple make it better! And more bang for your buck! Because we don't have to pay contractors to do things for us! We do them ourselves, because we know we do it right.