Digital Photo Art Vs Digital Painting ???

Here are some examples of my new work.............

digital art

a painting is something where you get a tablet and paint on the screen as if you were using real paints.

of the metal things, the middle one works best for this.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike ,I am still confused, lets say I am using a photo of my original sculpture, in this case a digital photo, and I process the photo using a software program that makes the photo look like a painting, what do I call it? a digital painting or Digital Photo Art, this is all very new and confusing to me, I have an idea where I want to go with this work but not sure how to set up my galleries and what to call the work, Photography? digital painting? digital photo art?

Mario, this takes your sculptures to a new level. Love this treatment!

its still digital art, you can call it anything you want though, and thinking about it i may even call them a painting of some kind. name it whatever you think would make it sell better. it becomes very confusing now that we can use digital for this use. you can also make up your own name.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

IMO that's not digital painting, it's photo editing or manipulation. I wish there was a better term for digital painting since there is no actual paint or even pigment involved, (at least not until it's printed) but it's what we've got.

Thank you Valerie! But although I'm really liking the effects, It's opened up a whole bunch of questions for me and some seem very complex to understand what can be done both legally and ethically, such as using photos that are not my own (public domain and not copyrighted), something I never gave much thought to before.

Thanks Mike, now I'm even more confused! lol

David so even if I create something to look like an oil painting using lets say (Dap) Dynamic Auto Painter, you still say it's photography?

Mario,

It's "Digital Art" since no painting was done to these images. The "effect" looks like a painting, but I wouldn't confuse the two. Digital Art wouldn't confuse the buyers, but Digital Painting might,

I also like the "effect",

Rich

I see what you are say Rich, so should I not also add the word Photo in there as "Digital Photo art" since I am not just creating the image digitally and a photo exist?

Mario,

You can also use what I use, Alternative Art.

Alternative Artist.

New

Dave

Mario I really like those. I use the phrase photo painting when describing this sort of image. There is a group called FotoPainting.

Dave with the some of the flack you have gotten around here I would be a little scared to follow in your steps and call it Alternative Art, Hahaha, just kidding Dave, really. I have been trying to learn all these terms and as soon as I think I find a definition for something, I find someone else totally disagrees.

I didn't call it photography, I called it photo manipulation or editing because in essence that's what it is. You started with a photo and then changed it. Digital art works too I guess but then that lumps in with the 3D artists.

It's photo manipulation. :) Looking good, too!

The second one really turned out great Mario. You can use your description box for your process as well. Like. This is a digitally enhanced photo of my 3-D sculpture made out of copper..... I am assuming you want to sell your sculptures as well.

Ok David, I'm following your thoughts there, I think, now why not call it photography? and can it be photography if I use my own photo and how about if I use a photo from another can it still be photography? would adding the word digital photography be more appropriate and isn't every thing that is once uploaded digital?

Mike calls his colorized PD photos exactly what they are.

Thank you Cynthia! The word manipulation, for me even though I see that's what is being done to the photo seems like a little trickery comes into play.

@Sydne, thanks and yes! I want to sell the original or the bi-product of it, since I have not decided what to call them yet. Lol

@Dorothy, I will check out that group, thanks, and yet another possible name to call it this art, fotopainting.

I think this has a nice ring to it, and it well identifies what it is you're creating... Photographic Art. Simple, to the point, well defines that it's a photo with enough care put into post processing to turn it into a piece of art. $0.02

I like that John! Now is that $0.02 cents worth your suggestion or the price I need to put on my new PhotographicArt to sell it? Just kidding.

Mario....

The thing to remember is that what you are providing to the customer is a "Fine Art Print".

In my opinion....

There will be varying degrees of how much your images "look like" a real painting. Some will be obviously photographic, some will be hard to tell. Regardless what you "call" your image you will need to include somewhere [ like in the description ] that your image started its life as a photo, that [ in whatever level of detail you choose describe ] was digitally processed to achieve the appearance of a painting. You do this for those few customers that might care to know. And to avoid any confusion about the images being an actual "oil painting". That is the thing you will get attacked for... trying to deceive the customer.

Your goal is to capture the eyes of customers search terms and bring eyes to your image, without the appearance of deceiving anyone. If you do all that I think you will be fine. Putting in esoteric description for the work that people will never be searching for is not going to get you views. Think about what someone who sits down at a search engine to search for a "print" to hang on their wall or to purchase as a gift the first thing they are going to search for is the subject.. something like a photo of an owl, or a painting of an owl, or a watercolor painting of an owl, or an oil painting of an owl.... the last thing they are going to search for is a photographic manipulation, or a digital art owl, or digital painting of an owl.

And as stated... that is just one man's opinion.. you will get many others ;O)

There is also the term Fauxtography ;O)

Thanks Bob, so now we are talking marketing, are you saying then in the search terms or tags, I should use as many terms as possible and to clarify in the description so as not to confuse the customer or mislead them?

Thank you Ricardo!

When I stray too far outside the boundaries of what we call straight photography (and I've been doing more of that lately) I like to call what I do "photography based digital art." Whether I've manipulated the image via Photoshop and combinations of filters and textures and hand-pixel manipulation ... or ... photography based digital hand "painting" via Corel Painter, it's still photography based digital art.

I make the distinction as to what the process was in the description area, without giving away ALL my secrets. I'm hoping potential purchasers are sophisticated enough to fall in love with the image, first, then be sufficiently interested in the process to read about how it was created. NOT the other way around, lol!!

Hi Lois.. ;O)

So.. If someone photographed a subject, and then used that image as reference to create an oil painting, would that be "photograph based natural media painting"?

Just playing the Devil's advocate... ;O) It surprises me sometimes when artists become interested in rules and pigeon holing? [ not directed at you Lois... just some rambling... ] Rules are great when learning a craft, but as soon as you master them they generally get tossed aside.

Use terms that customers would use, There is no point in labeling our art with terms that no one would every enter into a search engine when shopping for art. Any customer has access to us via the email link if they have any questions beyond what we provide in our descriptions.

"...to fall in love with the image, first, then be sufficiently interested in the process to read about how it was created. NOT the other way around..." --- Lois

That is exactly right. But we have to use appropriate tags, descriptions, titles, etc... to get the customer to at least have a chance of seeing our images...

Lois is spot on, in my opinion. And when you see how successful she is, wouldn't you want to follow her example?

Digital Art ... that's my vote. Or use MY term ... digital transformation, which still implies something that's done digitally to produce a picture, even if you don't know what "transformation" means or think the word is too out there, as a viewer.

To me, "digital painting" is still digital art, and so the former is automatically embedded in the latter.

Don't confuse people. Use a somewhat familiar term. It's already confusing enough, even for people who create it.

The best thing about this new direction of yours is that you can make zillions of new works that you don't have to worry about dust collecting on - you transfer this worry to buyers of the prints that might sell.(^_^)

Now let's REALLY confuse people and call them virtual paintings.

Hey Bob ... don't know. I'm not doing regular oils and canvas paintings anymore ... but when I did, I called it painting. And yes, sometimes I painted from photographs ... (let not my fellow copyright activists get their knickers in a twist, nothing of mine was ever for sale way back when, I was just learning my craft and having fun ... and oh by the way, this was long before many of you were born ... gasp!). I guess what I'm saying is, and I didn't add it here earlier and see it's glaringly absent now that I'm re reading what I wrote: This is how I

Yipes ... wonder what happened to the rest of my little note?

Well, let's try to re construct ... um ...

... the "photography based digital art" description is how I

Wow ... again??

hmmm ... once more ... (this time I copied first) ...



... the "photography based digital art" description is how I

... ok ... giving up ... sigh ...

Lois.. LOL your last post came out fine ;O)

!!!!!!! DID it!!!!! ?????

will change browsers ...

... laughing ...

I meant this one...


"... ok ... giving up ... sigh ... "--- Lois

;O)

dang ... nope ... not seeing it on FireFox either ... I rambled on nicely ... oh well ... maybe I'll try again??

... the "photography based digital art" description is how I ... underline the "I" ... describe what I'm doing ... and not for the tiniest, mili-second of time would I ever suggest anyone / everyone else use that phrase, unless they felt like it fit what they're doing ... and that it made sense to them.

I fully understand the fierce ... yes fierce ... attitude some have with labeling. When I first started playing around with photos, I had a pretty intense jaw-flapping session with a wonderful old poop, old advertising exec, who severely chastised me for calling those images photographs. So in deference to him, I've always tried to be mindful of what I call this stuff I do. I've also known others who are far more casual about what to call it. Bob, I'm with you on the pigeon holing concerns, but as you can see, I have my reasons for at least giving it a try.

I guess my goal is to find an appellation / description that, as well as I can, bridges the gap in communication between potential clients, my fellow artists and myself.

I figured out what happened ... I used a couple of characters here on the keyboard ... made to look like an arrow pointing to the "I" ... and I guess that made everything else go off to see the wizard.

sheesh.

BHAHAHAH!!

* thud *

You're funny ;O)

I like funny...

: ))

Bob brought it home for me when, earlier he said the bottom line is " What FAA offers for sale are fine art prints" after thinking about this, much of my own confusion has vanished. I like the phrase Lois has adopted, and in some recent post on face book of my images, since they were to a foreign audience I chose to call it Arte Fotografico and I might just use that here also. I will take Bobs suggestions and in medium box also use the phrases a buyer might be most likely to type in a search and then provide more details in the description. In the categories I think Digital Art fits the bill.

Digital Art. It includes your photo process and digital painting.

I think digital painting involves brush strokes (from a mouse or a stylus on a tablet).

Categorizing becomes even more difficult when you infuse aspects of your original hand painted art objects into a photograph....he process becomes even more difficult if you then go on to enhance that image, I usually categorize such cases as painting, photographic art etc
Under category I select painting and photography!

"Digitally transformed sculpture photos"

And for those that aren't, you can add "But not necessarily". lol

Yea Andy that'll have Mario's images going viral any minute now.. ;O)

I'll take all the help I can get. lol

Nice work, Mario. You have a feel for this kind of art. Continue to use your editor for new projects, the sky is the limit as to what you can do on a layers program you can add textures, make collages with using parts of images, pubic domain is a great reference for this. I just did that with some wood images I took at a construction site, then added the animals (the deer and coyote were originally a public domain photos which I altered to fit the style of the artwork) and different colors to each image by adding textures. The sky is the limit, so much fun!

Thank you Suzanne for those encouraging words, your post prompted me to start using layers in photo shop. I am currently trying to learn photo shop and I am using dap, actually I'm wanting to learn the process of colorizing older B&W photos in photo shop and then further enhance the images in DAP. These are my first ones as I'm learning the software. I am really excited about where this new work is leading me.

Sorry, wrong thread.

Patricia, it's never a wrong thread.lol