Benefits of Galleries

Lesson 100 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

photo & video

buy this class

$00

Buy Class

Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Save Class

Lesson Info

100. Benefits of Galleries

Show Transcript

Next Lesson: Contracts for Galleries

Lessons

Class Trailer

Yours is a Story Worth Telling

02:09

Show All Lessons

Lesson Info

Benefits of Galleries

All right, here are the benefits of the gallery in my opinion. They're marketing to the right people. It is extremely difficult to put your work online and know that the right people are going to see it, to buy your work. If you were to say right now, "I'm gonna put my work online "and I'm going to put it on the website "where art buyers go." What website is that? Yeah, I don't know either. I haven't found one yet. Let's make it together, artbuyers.com, something like that, it'd be great. I don't know where to go just to get your work in front of the right art buyers, because anyone can be an art buyer. You don't have to just sell to collectors, it could be literally anyone in the world who thinks it's worth investing in. But the benefit of a gallery is, that they already, first of all, have a list of people that collect from their gallery. There's this whole weird society of galleries and art buyers, and art buyers really tend to create relationships with certain galleries and they'll...

come back again, and again, and again to that gallery to see what's new with their artists. It's really good to know that the gallery is marketing to the right people, to people who first of all, pay that price range for the art. That they're gonna walk in and expect a certain price so that there's no sticker shock because that is perhaps one of the most challenging things to me is, that I let my galleries make most of my sales, but when I tend to make sales, it's almost always if I start to engage people online, it's almost always people thinking that the prints are gonna be really, really low prices, like $50 for example, versus the $1, that it might actually cost. I find that there's a really big discrepancy between people who go direct to the artist to buy the work versus people who go straight to the gallery. I'm tending to make bigger sales through galleries 'cause they're marketing to the right people. Then, they cultivate relationships with our buyers, as I mentioned, so these art buyers are not just loyal to the artist that they collect, but they're loyal to the galleries themselves and they have relationships. For each of my galleries, every time there's an exhibition, they send out an email to their email list of art buyers saying, "I know that you're interested in this artist. "She's having a new exhibition. "Come and take a look." That's really good for me, 'cause then I don't have to do that. I hate doing stuff like that. They know how to sell things and I really wanna emphasize this because I don't know how to sell things. If you do, if you're really good at sales tactics, good. Be good at it. Do it yourself. I think that's great. But, I'm not good at selling my own work and it's not because I don't think that it's valuable, I'm just bad at it. I don't know what to say. I get all choked up. I stumble like this and that's what happens. They don't. They know sales tactics. In fact, I would even argue that one of their sales tactics is simply owning a gallery, because people going into a gallery expect to pay certain prices, versus someone going straight to the artist might expect to pay a lot less. One sales tactic is simply having a gallery space and bringing people into that space. They give credibility to your art. I think that this is quite a debatable topic because and I tried to use the word credibility so that it wasn't value or anything like that, but I say credibility in terms of the fine art world and building a reputation for yourself and sort of climbing a ladder of getting into better and better galleries. The reason why I say credibility is because they're building your resume for you. They're giving you exhibitions. They are allowing your work to be displayed. The moment you pass that little hurdle of having your work displayed in a gallery, that's going to signal to other galleries that somebody took the chance on you. Maybe you're worth it, maybe you're easy to work with, whatever. At least it gives some credibility. And then they're your representative. What I mean by this is, think of it as an advertising agency. If somebody out there, like their job is to photograph cars and they're a car photographer. I'm sure that's a thing, I've never heard of it, but I'm sure it is. If their job is to photograph cars, you would probably assume that they have an agent because they're doing commercial work. The same is true in fine art. The gallery is your representation. They're representing your work. Not every gallery will represent you and I think that's an important distinction because some galleries will do one-off shows with you. They'll invite you in. You'll have an exhibition and then, that's it, you leave with your work and you don't stay with that gallery. But, other galleries will be looking to represent their artists, instead of just having one-off exhibitions, really the next step is finding somebody to house you and your work, and take you into their little family. That looks something like the art fairs, the ads that they will place in magazines. That's when you'll start to really get the benefits of a gallery, when they're investing in you long-term. The other good thing about them investing in you is that they keep your work all year round, so you don't just have an exhibition, then you take that work away, but you have an exhibition, you give them your work, and when the exhibition ends, they keep that work in the back room all year round. We'll talk a little bit about the back room scenario later on. It's my favorite thing about galleries, but for now, just know that they represent you, and they give your work a home. I went through my stash of prints from over the years that I've printed and not sold, or printed and been given back by galleries. I had over 100 prints in my house. That hurts me. I don't want them in my closet, I want them on gallery walls. The more galleries that represent you, the more homes you have for your work to live and breathe, and maybe be sold to people instead of just being in my closet really sad, and dirty, and yucky. They also prevent against scammers. I've been finding this is an issue more, and more, and more in the last couple of years. I never noticed it outside of that. But, I'll get an email from somebody and that email will say, "I would love to buy a print." And then I start the process and then I realize, this person doesn't seem quite right. I had this happen recently where all of sudden, this guy was saying, "I wanna buy a print but I can't send you the money "right away because we're moving "and my wife is." And I'm like, I don't know about this. The whole time, he's saying, "Just send me the print now, "and I'll pay you next week." I'm like, come on. There was all sorts of other weird details with it and the thing is, immediately after I started realizing something was weird, I forwarded that email to my gallery. She wrote back, she said, "That's a scam, I've seen this guy before." She knew him immediately, that that was, and I wasted two weeks corresponding with this guy about the print that never was to be. Scammers are awful and they're out there and they're trying to get prints, or money, or whatever the case may be for them.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Guided Daydream & Writing Exercises Workbook (Lessons 1-11)

Creating an Original Narrative Workbook (Lessons 12-18)

Finding Your Target Audience Workbook (Lessons 19-27)

Planning Your Series Workbook (Lessons 28-34)

Set Design Workbook (Lessons 35-41)

Compositing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 42-49)

Editing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 50-55)

Location Scouting Workbook (Lessons 56-60)

Stock Image Downloads for Practice (Lessons 61-72)

Organizing Your Portfolio Workbook (Lessons 77-81)

Pricing & Editioning Your Work Workbook (Lessons 82-89)

Writing Contracts & Licensing Images Workbook (Lessons 90-98)

Gallery Best Practices (Lessons 99-106)

Pitch Package Workbook (Lessons 107-111)

Writing Your Brand Workbook (Lessons 112-117)

Marketing Workbook (Lessons 118-122)

Social Media Workbook (Lessons 123-127)

Printing Methods Checklist (Lessons 128-133)

Self Critique Workbook (Lessons 134-137)

Bonus Materials Guide

Syllabus

Image Edit Videos

buy this class

$00

Buy Class

Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

79.7K Students

99% Recommend this Class

00 Student Work

0 Video lessons in HD
00h 00m of class content
Exclusive bonus content
Lifetime access, anywhere, anytime
Streaming access on desktop and mobile browsers
Download and offline access with class purchase
Offline sync with our iPhone & iPad apps
100% satisfaction guarantee

Brooke Shaden

Brooke explores the darkness and light in people, and her work looks at that juxtaposition. As a self-portrait artist, she photographs herself and becomes the characters of dreams inspired by a childhood of intense imagination and fear.

SEE INSTRUCTOR'S CLASSES

topics covered in this class

Fine Art Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

April S.

I tuned in for most of Brooke's lessons in this course and watched some of them more than once as they were rebroadcast. First I want to say that Brooke is a very good instructor. Her easy-going, friendly, down-to-earth, somewhat quirky manner cannot be mistaken for unprofessional. She is very prepared, she speaks well (not a bunch of hemming and hawing), she is thoughtful, she is thorough, she is very relatable and at ease, and she is definitely professional in her presentation. I really thought when I first tuned in that it would mostly be background noise while I was at work, sound to keep me company. Not because I didn't like Brooke but I really didn't think I was into fine art photography nor did I think I cared about the business side of things much. Not now anyhow. I was really wrong. Brooke sparked a deep interest in me to delve into fine art photography, to consider creating images for myself, from my imagination. In fact, I realized that this was something I'd been thinking about for a couple of years though I hadn't put a name to it (the idea of creating pre-conceived images based on my own creative goals). I gleaned many little treasures from her about image sizes, working with printers, different types of paper, selling, interacting with galleries, and so much more. I may not need all of what she taught right now because I'm definitely headed in another direction at the moment, but she planted ideas and information in my head that I know will be useful at some point. Things I may not have thought of on my own, but that seed is in my head now so when the time comes, I'll know. I'd really like to buy her course but at the moment, with the holidays right around the corner, it's not in my personal budget. I'm grateful to have caught the live and rebroadcast lessons though, and her course is on my list to own. I think it's a great reference to be consulted over and over again, not watched once and forgotten. Kudos Brooke for really putting together an excellent course.

Angel Ricci

When the title says comprehensive, it means comprehensive! I loved every part of this course. It's inspirational, motivating, and insightful towards creating art work. Even if you are not necessarily considering a fine art specialty, the concepts discussed in this course are applicable to many areas! I find this super useful as a videographer and photographer and look to apply all of these exercises and concepts for my personal and business work moving forward. It is lengthy, but you will not regret a single minute. Brooke Shaden is an amazing artist and educator. I recommend keeping up with her work, presentations, and any future courses that may come in the future.

Ron Landis

I'm retired now, but spent decades in the people and training business. Brooke is extraordinary! Even though this course is extremely well organized and she's left nothing unattended, she moves through it with friendly conversational manners and without a sense of it being stilted. It's as though we are all her friends, not students, as she shares her heart and passion with us. What a joy it is to listen to her. And what a clear, unambiguous command of her subject. Wow! She explains it with such ease using explanations and techniques that won't overwhelm artists just starting their portfolio or the Photoshop-squeamish among us; but despite its simplicity her resulting art is breathtaking and beyond original. I wish more of my professors at school were as engaging. This was by far my best buy at Creative Live yet.

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Benefits of Galleries

Benefits of Galleries

Lesson Info

100. Benefits of Galleries

Lessons

Class Introduction

Storytelling & Ideas

Universal Symbols in Stories

Create Interactive Characters

The Story is in The Details

Giving Your Audience Feelings

Guided Daydream Exercise

Elements of Imagery

The Death Scenario

Associations with Objects

Three Writing Exercises

Connection Through Art

Break Through Imposter Syndrome

Layering Inspiration

Creating an Original Narrative

Analyze an Image

Translate Emotion into Images

Finding Parts in Images

Finding Your Target Audience

Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?

Create a Series That Targets Your Audience

Formatting Your Work

Additional Materials to Attract Clients

Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?

How to Make Money from Your Target Audience

Circle of Focus

The Pillars of Branding

Planning Your Photoshoot

Choose Every Element for The Series

Write a Descriptive Paragraph

Sketch Your Ideas

Choose Your Gear

How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations

What Tells a Story in a Series?

Set Design Overview

Color Theory

Lighting for the Scene

Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design

Locations

Subject Within the Scene

Set Design Arrangement

Fine Art Compositing

Plan The Composite Before Shooting

Checklist for Composite Shooting

Analyze Composite Mistakes

Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories

Shoot: Miniature Scene

Editing Workflow Overview

Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress

Edit Details of Images

Add Smoke & Texture

Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite

Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario

Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot

Self Portrait Test Shoots

Shoot for Edit

Shoot Extra Stock Images

Practice the Shoot

Introduction to Shooting Photo Series

Shoot: Vine Image

Shoot: Sand Image

Shoot: End Table Image

Shoot: Bed Image

Shoot: Wall Paper Image

Shoot: Chair Image

Shoot: Mirror Image

Shoot: Moss Image

Shoot: Tree Image

Shoot: Fish Tank Image

Shoot: Feather Image

View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing

Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion