Chatted with a gallery owner last month about my landscape photos

I was at a local coffee shop in Portland and this older guy saw me scrolling through my art Instagram. He turned out to own a small gallery downtown. He asked why I only posted finished pieces and never showed my process shots or the messy stages. I told him I figured people only wanted to see the polished final stuff. He said that's exactly what makes most digital art feel flat to buyers. He explained that showing the rough layers or the sketch phase actually builds trust and makes the work feel more human. It hit me that I've been hiding the interesting parts thinking they were flaws. Now I'm mixing in some WIP images and engagement on my posts has gone up noticeably. Has anyone else found that showing the unfinished side brought in more genuine feedback?

3 comments

3 Comments

finleyh8913d ago

One thing though - it depends a LOT on the medium. For digital painting, process shots are great because you can see the layers build up. But for photography, showing your RAW file versus the final edit can actually confuse people who don't understand color grading and exposure blending. I tried showing my straight-out-of-camera shots next to my finished landscapes and got a bunch of comments asking why my "unfinished" photos looked so bad. The gallery owner's advice works better for sequential processes like drawing or painting where you can show real progression. For photography, you might want to stick with showing how you adjusted specific elements rather than the unedited capture.

lopez.simon13d ago

Yeah that makes a lot of sense, @finleyh89. I tried showing my unedited portraits next to the finished ones and people just thought I was bad at taking photos. The RAW file looks flat and lifeless on purpose but most folks don't get that. For photography it's better to show two or three specific tweaks you made rather than the whole raw file. Especially with landscapes where the unedited shot can look straight up washed out.

the_patricia4d ago

@finleyh89 makes a solid point about photo vs painting. You can't just dump a RAW file on people and expect them to get it. That's not showing process, that's showing homework. The gallery owner's advice works way better for things like drawing or painting where the steps are visible and interesting. For photos, showing the RAW just looks like you messed up the exposure. I think you need to show the edit decisions, not the mess before editing. That's the real process for photography. The rough sketch analogy falls apart when your "rough sketch" is a technically flat image that takes skill to read.

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