Sfumato
Aug 2, 2015 17:21:54 #
While exploring the Mona Lisa in the Weekly Masters Critique - 1 August 2015 we came across a painting technique known as Sfumato.
Sfumato http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato
"Sfumato (Italian: [sfuˈmaːto], English /sfuːˈmɑːtoʊ/) is one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance (the other three being Cangiante, Chiaroscuro, and Unione). Sfumato comes from the Italian "sfumare", to tone down or to evaporate like smoke."
Also see http://www.google.com/#q=Sfumato
The question then, can the same technique be applied to photography?
A quick Google Search shows http://www.google.com/#q=sfumato+photography
Photographer George Krause, 'Sfumato Nudes' (caution! nudity) http://vimeo.com/59955208
sfumato series - George Krause http://georgekrause.com/gallery/sfumatoList.php
How to reproduce Renaissance painting styles in photography? http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/18696/how-to-reproduce-renaissance-painting-styles-in-photography
Do you have any examples you wish to share?
Sfumato http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato
"Sfumato (Italian: [sfuˈmaːto], English /sfuːˈmɑːtoʊ/) is one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance (the other three being Cangiante, Chiaroscuro, and Unione). Sfumato comes from the Italian "sfumare", to tone down or to evaporate like smoke."
Also see http://www.google.com/#q=Sfumato
The question then, can the same technique be applied to photography?
A quick Google Search shows http://www.google.com/#q=sfumato+photography
Photographer George Krause, 'Sfumato Nudes' (caution! nudity) http://vimeo.com/59955208
sfumato series - George Krause http://georgekrause.com/gallery/sfumatoList.php
How to reproduce Renaissance painting styles in photography? http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/18696/how-to-reproduce-renaissance-painting-styles-in-photography
Do you have any examples you wish to share?
Aug 2, 2015 17:54:43 #
Sfumato is, by definition, a technique associated with application of pigment to a ground; in other words , ""painting" - with oils, but also with tempera, gouach watercolors, and acrylics, and a similar technique is used by pastelists. It involves repeated, extremely thin appllications of low color-content glazes to a region of a painting.
the effect sought is generally one of a softening of a gradation, often of facial and other skin features, but can be applied in any areas where softening of gradation is desired.
Trying to apply the concept to a photographic image would, of necessity, be limited by the tonal spectrum of the captured image data.
Dave
the effect sought is generally one of a softening of a gradation, often of facial and other skin features, but can be applied in any areas where softening of gradation is desired.
Trying to apply the concept to a photographic image would, of necessity, be limited by the tonal spectrum of the captured image data.
Dave
Aug 2, 2015 19:23:51 #
Uuglypher wrote:
Sfumato is, by definition, a technique associated ... (show quote)
Is this technique similar to when painters discovered they could make something round by smudging the edges and creating shadow?
Aug 2, 2015 19:30:44 #
ediesaul wrote:
Is this technique similar to when painters discovered they could make something round by smudging the edges and creating shadow?
Hi, Edie,
Once developed as a means softening gradations and producing an effect of "haze" or "smoke" , it found many uses, including the softening of curved surfaces.
Dave
Aug 2, 2015 19:31:36 #
I've perused the examples. It appears to be very close to "High Key".
Aug 2, 2015 19:57:15 #
Bob Yankle wrote:
I've perused the examples. It appears to be very close to "High Key".
Where y'finding your examples?
Dave
Aug 2, 2015 20:00:01 #
Screw-on lens filters exist that can mimic this effect quite nicely. I have one which I found at a flea market. No, not a regular fog filter, but similar.
Aug 2, 2015 20:01:00 #
rook2c4 wrote:
Screw-on lens filters exist that can mimic this effect quite nicely. I have one which I found at a flea market. No, not a regular fog filter, but similar.
Would you mind showing some example photos? S-
Aug 2, 2015 20:08:20 #
Uuglypher wrote:
Where y'finding your examples?
Dave
Dave
My guess are the links in the original post. S-
Aug 2, 2015 21:27:34 #
St3v3M wrote:
My guess are the links in the original post. S-
"Getting to the point of actually losing all sharpness of detail would probably be unacceptable for "straight" photography due to the viewer's expectations of the medium, though it might work well in a fantasy fine art mode."
There's the trouble with Wiki...obviously a theoretical statement not based on experiential evidence...and not supported by appropriate images.
I've yet to understand how digital photographic image data could be made to yield a greater tonal spectrum (which is the specific local effect of sfumato) in the same tonal range within which it was captured at exposure, other than by making a photographic copy of the print with a greater potential tonal spectrum than that of the print itself, and then reducing the gamma of the region to be "sfumatoed" ( yes; That is a neologism!) in pp.
Dave
Aug 2, 2015 22:19:34 #
In photography, sfumato is lighting from behind.
http://www.artshound.com/event/detail/441153241/George_Krause_Sfumato_Nudes
"The Sfumato portraits, by contrast have the light source coming in at the back of the head, producing the strange effect whereby it is the principal features that are in shadow and the secondary features highlighted. And such is the intensity of this light that in most of these portraits the outer limits of the heads have disappeared, so that the unframed features float disturbingly in a suggestive and destabilized space. Conventional portraiture has been subverted with the photographer exchanging the role of portraitist for that of geographer and geologist."
http://www.artshound.com/event/detail/441153241/George_Krause_Sfumato_Nudes
"The Sfumato portraits, by contrast have the light source coming in at the back of the head, producing the strange effect whereby it is the principal features that are in shadow and the secondary features highlighted. And such is the intensity of this light that in most of these portraits the outer limits of the heads have disappeared, so that the unframed features float disturbingly in a suggestive and destabilized space. Conventional portraiture has been subverted with the photographer exchanging the role of portraitist for that of geographer and geologist."
Aug 2, 2015 22:39:49 #
ediesaul wrote:
In photography, sfumato is lighting from behind. ... (show quote)
Which all the more indicates that "sfumato" must needs be re-defined to imagine its supposed incorporation in and by photography. As the term has been used for centuries it relates exclusively to image making by the process of application of pigment to a ground...and to a very delicate application of that principle as a final, discrete touch to an otherwise completed image.
To apply the term to photography is, if you'll pardon the expression, "painting with an exceptionally broad brush".
Again, my considered opinion.
Dave
Aug 3, 2015 08:28:29 #
OK, here's one for discussion (well, someone's gotta go first!). I look forward to other interpretations as well.
Aug 3, 2015 09:57:29 #
Bob Yankle wrote:
OK, here's one for discussion (well, someone's gotta go first!). I look forward to other interpretations as well.
Beautiful and thank you for sharing!
- Would you describe this as sort of a soft high key? S-
Aug 3, 2015 10:09:28 #
Bob Yankle wrote:
OK, here's one for discussion (well, someone's gotta go first!). I look forward to other interpretations as well.
Hi, Bob,
was that a pyritized ammonite? Were the chamber walls a rich pyrite yellow?
What was your PP for this effect?
Dave
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