Fine Art Portraits and Photography. I am located in Richmond Hill just north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I call the company Heirloom Quality because I believe that great portraits preserve the now and the past for the future. Remembering those who are important to us is one of the greatest respects we can show, and what better way than to frame a formal portrait, on a high visibility wall, for all to see.
I often marvelled at the great portraits and wondered how the artist managed to capture such exquisite character and moments in time. Well, it was work, experience, equipment, using the latest techniques and perhaps a little luck. Mostly it was sensitivity for their subject.
People often harken back to the older days of say, Karsh, or Ansel Adams and believe their images came out of the camera that way. Well, they didn’t. They worked with them a great deal in the darkroom. Today the “darkroom” is often a computer and this has greatly improved the editing capabilities of many photographers. But tools are just tools and without the requisite sensitivities can more often render a photograph “worse” rather than “better”. Photography is about the subject or the person and tools in the wrong hands can sometimes be ineffective. Tools in sensitive hands moreover, can open up new opportunities for beauty in all the many meanings of that word.
Besides photography, I have studied editing and printing and stay current by constantly seeking out what others are doing. I have very good skills in Lightroom, Photoshop CS5 as well as several plugins for High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Black & White filtering.
Printing is another required and acquired skill. Getting a print to match the image on your screen is not simple, and one can spend, it seems, almost a lifetime perfecting this. You may have noticed prints, from retailers, that don’t really match your memory of when you took them. Colours, textures, hues, shading are all difficult to bring to the page… but it can be done. Most prints require more than one printing to get them right.
My computers are constantly calibrated and I use only the finest papers and paper profiles. I do my own printing up to 17×22 inches, using an Epson Stylus Pro 3880, with K3 Ultrachrome ink. This is museum quality ink, on museum quality paper that will last and stay vibrant a long generation. If required I will outsource larger prints but only to print shops that i know will take the same care that I do. These are shops that have sometimes refused to print before additional edits were performed. I appreciate that.
I can also restore older images if that is required.
I care about the image. I get that portraits especially, hold a lifetime of memories, and that they are important.
I look forward to working with you to build your image portfolio that you can be proud of.
Links:
Website: http://photography.heirloomquality.ca
Website: http://www.ralphdobbertin.com
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611389755
Leave a Reply