Lesson Info
23. Class Summary
Lessons
Minimalism - A Few Words to Start
00:43 2The Power of Negative Space
06:01 3Learn to See Visual Clutter
03:03 4Isolating Your Anchor
03:02 5Composing for Better Minimalist Photographs
03:57 6Choosing Gear to Create Minimalist Photographs
03:22 7Black and White the Classic Approach
03:38 8Working With Color
02:47Location Session - Apex Beach
04:54 10Apex Beach - Wrap Up
02:20 11Timing and Weather
00:44 12Common Traps and How to Avoid Them
07:08 13Post-Processing - When I Use it and Why?
14:19 14Print Your Work and Harness the Power of Minimalism
02:05 15Sled Dog Portrait Image Review
04:18 16Sled Dog Portrait Key Takeaway
02:43 17Location Session - Arctic Drone Flight
01:38 18Arctic Drone Flight Image Review
05:59 19Arctic Drone Flight Key Takeaways
02:10 20Snowkiting In the Canadian Arctic - Location Session
01:35 21Snowkiting Image Review
05:58 22Snowkiting Key Takeaway
02:27 23Class Summary
03:03Lesson Info
Class Summary
before we go, I just wanted to recap some of the fundamentals for you guys. We went through a lot. So hopefully this sort of summarizes it nicely, minimalism is essentially just stripping a photo down to what's necessary to tell your story. A single subject or a simple subject in a clean space. What's a minimalist photo for? You might not be the same as it is for someone else. And that doesn't even matter. Just find your zone and hone in. It's really important to remember that what's minimalist for you doesn't necessarily make it minimalist for someone else. And that's not what's important. What's important is that you're working towards a cleaner, simplified version of the vision you had or the anchor you found and you're trying to portray that subject in its most essential way. We talked about negative space. We talked about that balance of negative space and why the space between our subject and surrounding our subject. It's not only important for bringing that focus, but also as a ...
character, as a supporting player in the story of your image itself. We talked about clutter that visual clutter that's out there in the world, how to see it so that you can remove it and get that out of your image. Whether it's using a telephoto lens cropping, perspective shifts are just changing where you're standing while you're out there. We talked about some of the equipment that could help you create these images, whether it's switching your lens or putting a filter on. There's a couple different ways to kind of hone in on that vision you have for the cleanest version of your subject. We went over how important timing and weather is. A lot of the work that I do because my minimalist photography is rooted in sort of the outdoor adventure and travel genres. The weather itself plays such an important role in creating my minimalist images. Fog and snow are probably To blame for at least 85% of my minimalist portfolio. And so it's really important that you guys start paying attention to that. Get an app on your phone, start checking your local forecasts color versus black and white. It's not as easy as black and white winds because it's, it's more minimal. We saw that color actually is a very powerful player in creating strong minimalist images and a black and white conversion is not always going to be the answer. So there are times for black and white and you're gonna want to learn how to use it intentionally. That's why I said, you know, start using your camera in that mode if you can, you're gonna start seeing the world in shape and form and contrast. But also be aware that color is really, really powerful and you can want to use color from time to time to create the best version of your vision. And the final thing we talked about was post processing and how we could use lightroom or Photoshop or whatever your favorite software is to edit out any of those final distractions or crop out any of those final distractions that we couldn't quite clean up in the field in camera. And how we can just elevate those images one more step, whether it's, you know, a little bit of clone stamp work or extending a canvas to give it a little more breathing space. There are some fun tips and tricks that you can do in the editing to help maximize that minimalist concept.
Ratings and Reviews
Brittany Riggs
Lovely and information. The information was relevant and ended up helping a good bit.
Vincent Zuck
Very interesting class, in a very unusual location (Arctic), which blended together to give a top notch class. I learned a lot about Minimalism as applied to photography, and Minimalism as applied to post-processing. Curtis is engaging while teaching and demonstrating on site, or back in his "office". I really enjoyed this class. Thank you Curtis.
Kate Geary
Student Work
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