Back To Basics: Orientation Can Make Or Break Your Image
By Suzanne Williams– The composition of a photograph is exactly what the word “composition” itself implies. It is the way the objects in an image are “composed”, or we could say, “arranged”. Composition is, for the most part, subjective to the photographer’s eye. The fact is that there are many ways to arrange the same scene. Think of a well-known photograph. Ansel Adam’s...
Choose The Right Paper For Printing Old Photos
By Christine Pentecost– Digitally restoring old and damaged photos and bringing them back to life has been a very rewarding and challenging hobby for me over the past 15 years. I have restored photos from the late 1800s that were mounted on cardboard, to Polaroids from the 70s, and to photos ravaged by Hurricane Katrina’s flooding. The heartwarming tears of joy I have witnessed upon returning a restored photo to the owner has always...
Kaitlin Walsh– Merging Art With Anatomy
by Arthur H. Bleich– Kaitlin Walsh is a biomedical artist– a rarity in the art world. Her beautifully crafted, abstract anatomy watercolor paintings celebrate the wonders of the human body in ways so imaginative it’s sometimes hard not to fall in love with her deadly cancer cells or even mundane parts of the human body, like an ankle, so beautifully are they executed. These are not those sterile pictures you see hung on the walls in...
Make Spectacular Reflection-Free Framed Prints
By Al Warfield– After you’ve gone to the effort of taking the perfect shot, making the perfect print, and choosing the perfect frame, why spoil your image by framing it under glass where a myriad of reflections will wreck its beauty? It’s easy to eliminate reflections on framed prints made with Red River Matte and Fine Art Matte papers; you’ll also have the added advantage of displaying an image as large as the frame size instead of a...
How To Print Beautiful Antique Christmas Cards
By Arthur H. Bleich– The Christmas card-giving tradition began in London in 1843, when Sir Henry Cole commissioned an artist friend, John Horsley, to design a card that could be mailed to his friends. Some say Sir Henry thought up the idea to avoid writing long letters in reply to those sent by friends and acquaintances– an English tradition at Christmastime. He had a “To___” printed at the top so he could write in his friends’ names–...
Our National Parks Odyssey: The Real Reward
This is the third of an ongoing series about Red River Pro Andrew Slaton and his wife Ellen who, along with two dogs, Islay and Skye and Colonel Bubba, the cat, left the comforts of Dallas to hit the road full time in a travel trailer, with the goal of photographing all 59 U. S. National Parks. So far, they’ve visited 23– just 36 to go! –By Andrew Slaton– The Southwest… From Big Bend on the Texas/ Mexico border, we worked...
Fine Art Inkjet Printing
By Jim Nickelson– I’m often asked from friends, family, and even other photographers about why I bother printing my work when the whole world seems to be moving digital. For me, the reason is simple: creating a fine art print is my primary purpose in making photographs. As is likely becoming obvious, I am a strong proponent and champion of the fine print. If you are a photographer, I think it is essential to eventually print...
Frank Hamrick– Handcrafted Photobooks
By Arthur H. Bleich– When Frank Hamrick was ten he traded his sister an old hat for a plastic 35mm camera she’d gotten from a kid on the school bus who’d gotten it from his father who’d gotten it from an auto dealer as a premium for test driving a car. And so began an illustrious arts career for this now-40-year-old “superstar of southern art,” an accolade bestowed by the prestigious Oxford American Magazine. His work mixes...
Make Big Images With Small Desktop Printers
By Christine Pentecost– I have a beautiful, scenic image in my collection that begged to be displayed larger than could be output by my desktop printer– which only can use letter-sized paper. Surely, I thought, there must be some way to solve this problem and, as it turns out, there is. Image Splitter is a very simple-to-use (and free) software program that takes an image and quickly divides it into sections which can then be sized to...
Exhibit Your Photos for Prestige and Profit
By Peter E. Randall– For most photographers, the chance to have a one-person exhibit is an exciting opportunity. Then reality sets in and it’s apparent that having an exhibit is more stressful and difficult than making the photographs in the first place. The most ideal opportunity is to be invited to show by a major gallery or a museum, but for most of us that’s not an option. We don’t have the reputation or the following...
Our National Parks Odyssey
By Andrew Slaton– Steam from the early morning chill rises off the Green River in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. Squaretop, an aptly named handsome granite mountain in the distance catches the first rays of the sun, rising somewhere I cannot yet see. I sip my scalding, black coffee in our trailer and wait. This is what I do. I get paid to just sit out in some of the wildest places of the world until that unreal moment of light,...
New Palo Duro Etching Paper Makes “Botanica Spectrum” Bloom
By Shamsy Roomiani– I photograph natural textures and specimens that inspire me using my digital SLR camera and my iPhone camera. These photos are used as reference for my sculptures and drawings, as well as sources for my digital collages. When constructing my digital collages, I work with a collection of photos and then pair them to create a unique conversation within each composition. I then manipulate the piece to create intense...
Add Value and Security to Your Images
By Arthur H. Bleich– If you currently sell (or would like to sell) prints of your best work here’s a technique I’ve used successfully to assure buyers that if they resell my photographs some day it can be proven that they are genuinely mine and not unauthorized copies. I began doing this a few years ago when a friend who sells prints at art shows and fairs in this country traveled overseas and found copies of his work being sold...
Back to Basics: Resolution Simplified, Part 1
By Arthur H. Bleich– Resolution goes hand-in-hand with almost every aspect of digital photography– from image capture to the final print. If you want your photographs to be the best they can possibly be, it’s necessary to have a basic understanding of it. At first, it may seem confusing because many who try to explain it often use the wrong terminology or throw lots of numbers around which only makes things worse. This is my...
Get Maximum Shadow Detail in Your Prints
By Tim Grey– In many cases a print will not reflect the full level of shadow detail as actually exists in the image file. Instead, that shadow gets “blocked up,” similar to the way shadow detail gets clipped in an exposure that is too dark. You can compensate for this issue by essentially brightening the value of black, causing all neighboring tonal values to be brightened up accordingly. With the vast majority of printers I find that...
Fuse Your Photos to Stone and Tile for Unique Gifts and Stunning Displays
By Christine Pentecost– Finding a unique niche in today’s world of photography is not the easiest thing to do. Fortunately, something as simple as making your own coasters, trivets or hanging wall decorations using inexpensive tile, Mod Podge and Red River photo papers is an easy yet wonderfully creative way to share your photography. I begin by sizing my images to fit the stone or tile I will be using. For a 4-inch square...
Epson’s New ET-2550 Printer. Say Goodbye To Ink Cartridges Forever!
Red River Paper has just posted a comprehensive field review of Epson’s new printer/copier/scanner that can bring the cost of printing photos and greeting cards way down. Blog Editor Arthur H. Bleich put the printer through its paces for more than four months and printed hundreds of photos on different Red River Papers –and at all the printer’s resolutions– and the results were revealing, to say the least. The ET-2550 uses only...
Photos To Art Prints In Eight Simple Steps
By Brady Wilks– A digital inkjet wet transfer print provides a look that no other process can achieve. Due to the variations that an artist can use to manipulate the print and its unique visual aesthetic, this alternative photographic process is a powerful and viable option for an artist’s expression. The process is simple and your supply list is short. You will need an inkjet printer; wax paper or a pack of printer labels (address,...
Tri-Fold Brochures Can Yield Big Profits
By Arthur H. Bleich– My first introduction to tri-fold brochures came in pre-web times when I was on an extended assignment to Alaska and based in Sitka. The Chamber of Commerce had placed some small ads in travel magazines to promote their beautiful town as a tourist destination. The response was overwhelming but when readers requested more...
Paper Crafts: Make Your Own Valentine Puzzle Purse
Red River’s greeting card papers are perfect for Valentine’s Day cards but for something really special, use Red River’s 12×12-sized paper to make a Valentine Puzzle Purse that will enthrall your beloved and endear you to them forever. Puzzle Purse Valentines made their first appearance in Jane Austin’s time and were the rage from 1700s until the mid 1800s.Back then, when romance was an art,...
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