Artists must be accomplished indeed to gain representation from more than one well-established gallery outside their home city or country. The freshness and originality of an artist's vision should be apparent in the artwork itself. When the shutter clicks on the camera, the artist's work has only just begun. Some of the most important artistic decisions take place in the darkroom, where the artist must determine the contrast, texture, clarity, and color of the final photograph, as well as the type of print medium to be used. Once they have created a compelling image, fine arts photographers must consider how many original prints of that image they are willing to make.
Some artists choose to leave their editions open, or unlimited.
This allows them to create prints only on demand, or to close the edition after just a few prints have been made. Other photographers create limited editions, marking the edition size and print number on each print. Some editions are relatively small, and the asking price for each print may go up as the edition begins to sell out. For larger editions of 250 or more, artists typically set one relatively reasonable fixed price for all the prints in the edition. Artworks are always valued more highly when they are in original condition, and not damaged by extreme heat or damp.