"Craft is how you control the image so that it expresses what you want it to express." --- Rob Sheppard
Winter Leaf
Frenchtown, Montana
2003
Nature photographer Rob Sheppard recently wrote a blog post that clarifies the difference between the craft of photography and the art of photography. Craft is meant to serve art, to help the photographer achieve the idea or feeling she wants to express in her photograph.
In this photograph the craft entailed adjusting the exposure to record white snow, removing intruding branches on the right edge and processing to retain texture in the tree trunk. Choices that affect the feeling or art of the image included how much tree trunk and snow to include, whether to shoot vertical or horizontal, where to place the tree in the frame, how I felt about that lone leaf still hanging on after a winter snow, a tiny spot of color in a colorless environment, and the simplicity of the scene.
Sheppard does an excellent job of explaining this difference. Read it for yourself!
Art and Craft by Rob Sheppard