THE HAND COLORED PRINT
There are a number of names for a hand colored photograph.  It can be referred to as a hand painted photograph, a tinted photograph, a hand tinted photograph, and a hand colored photograph.  All terms are interchangeable, and I will use many of the terms myself since they are all quite acceptable.

Hand coloring became very popular in the early 1900's and remained quite popular right up until the introduction of color film.  In some sense hand tinted photography can almost be considered an alternative process photograph.  Alternative process in this context refers to any photographic process that is quite unusual, and often requires quite a bit more 'hand crafting' than one would use for normal (modern day) photographic processing.  This term 'alternative process' can be applied to variations in the process involving the film, all aspects of creating the print, and even processes that can interact with the finished print.

A hand colored photograph starts out as a regular black and white picture, or silver gelatin print.  The only significant difference is that I print my images that will become hand painted photographs onto matte finish photographic paper.  The matte finish allows the colors to adhere to the print better than a glossy finish paper.

I use a combination of Marshall's Oils and regular artist's oil paints (like Windsor & Newton, Old Holland, etc.) to apply the colors to the black and white picture.  I have developed a talent for very realistic looking work.  It is a unique style that requires a great amount of time and patience.  Photographers who do hand coloring are very few and far between.  Of the ones who do hand coloring, few take it quite to the extent that I do.  I try to pay very meticulous attention to details.  Occasionally I will even work on certain areas of a print with magnifying head gear.

There is something very important to know about photographs.  They are just like any other piece of fine art.  The finer the craftsman and the more attention paid to details, the better the chance that the viewer will 'connect' with the piece (often on an almost subliminal level).  Sometimes the genius of an artist can actually be measured in things that are almost imperceptible.  In the case of photography, many of the nuances of the photograph are almost microscopic in size.  We are now talking about the variations in technique that produce an 'excellence of exposure' both on the negative and the printed image as well.  Keep in mind that the variations are endless and can only be measured (in terms of excellence) by examining the original intent of the artist and the end result of his endeavors.

A hand tinted photograph can take anywhere from 2 hours to 20 hours to complete.  Obvously the larger ones usually take quite a bit more time.  But if you have looked through my gallery you will see a wide variety of selections all varying in price based upon the amount of time each one takes to complete.

I should also mention that each one of my hand colored photographs is an original.  That is to say I do not mechanically reproduce any of my hand painted photographs.  Each one is painted by hand.  Therefore it should also be noted that there are minor differences in every single hand tinted picture within a limited edition series.  One could argue that every single hand colored picture is a 1/1, or one of a kind.  It is absolutely true.  However, inasmuch as I am so meticulous, I take pride in the fact that I can pretty faithfully reproduce the desired colorations over and over again.  That fact in combination with the fact that I am using the same base photograph for my hand tinting pretty much justifies my decision to make limited edition productions (rather than not numbering the hand colored pictures at all).

After a hand colored photograph is produced it needs about 3 or 4 days of the dry Colorado air to cure enough to ship.  Since I put the colors on in a very thin coat, the oil paints tend to dry or cure a lot faster than a traditional oil painting.   And this brings up another interesting point of discussion - - that I put the colors on quite sparingly (as regards the thickness of the application).  We are dealing with a photograph here.  Most of the detail that I am relying on transmitting to the viewer is in the original black and white photograph.  I don't want to cover up the photograph with thick blobs of paint, as it would tend to hide details of the photograph that are important in the overall perception of the finished image.