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Lesson 52 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

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52. Edit Details of Images

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Next Lesson: Add Smoke & Texture

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Yours is a Story Worth Telling

02:09

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I've got this image here, which was quite a funny picture to put together, not so much out of laziness like the last one, but this is a rather (laughs) shocking image to start, because I did it in my office and had just natural light coming in from the front, where I had a window and I could have done this outdoors of course, but there was no real need, because the end image was going to be in space and where you know, I don't really know where the best spot is to photograph somebody in space, except on a black backdrop with some sort of overall diffused light, unless you have a certain lighting structure, that you're trying to attain, but I did to just soft light, so I'll show you how this image was put together and some things are going to be a little bit funny, but we'll see how it goes. So I've extended the ladder upwards, that was the first thing, I wanted it to go either to the top of the frame or out of the frame, just so that it really moved through nicely and then I did my rea...

lly awesome technique of painting a color in the background, I sampled the color that was in this fabric, that I had and then I just started painting and this is what I was talking about earlier, I actually made a mistake in this image, that I would go back and redo, which was that I didn't have my hair on the black backdrop and I could not isolate my hair from that background, so I actually went in and just cut it out, I just cut around it, knowing that that was not something that people would be looking at in the image, it was sort of up and away, so that it didn't distract from anything and I do soften that later on, but it was a consideration after the fact and should have been before. So here we have this really funny thing, which looks like I just totally missed an entire piece of dress down here, I knew that that would be covered up, so I just drew a line all around my subject and this is an interesting case, because when you're thinking about how you wanna form your images, you're often thinking about color and I did think about color ahead of time, but I didn't have a dress that had the right feeling, except for this blue dress, so I ended up using it and went through quite a process to be able to turn it red, I don't know if any of you guys have ever tried to turn a really light color a totally different color, but it's super difficult to do and it takes a lot of patience with selections and coloring, so that's what happened there and then I have my clouds, so I've got the clouds and I obviously did not photograph them in outer space, I photographed them from an airplane, as one would and then simply, if you can sort of look at this Layer Mask here, I just erased at the back really lightly to blend those clouds in, so that it looked like it naturally faded into darkness and then we've got some shading here to make it look more believable, okay and then I've got my little star picture, I really need to photograph more stars, I think my constellations are getting a little bit predictable, so that's on my To Do list and then some more shading, so from here on out, you can see the colors are where I want them generally, very close to how the image finishes, so these are all finishing touches, which is texture, which I photographed and then all of these little things, that in some ways are very teachable, for example, why would you wanna do a vignette to draw attention to your subject, but others really have to do with your own personal style, one example is this second sort of coloring here, where I'm adding a color into the vignette, that you can see there, I don't know if that's obvious or not, but there's a red color that mimics the dress and those little, tiny details, oh, that's my little star, I love that little star, those little details make all the difference, so this was how the image ended and you can see it went quite a distance from where it started, which was in my office, looking very lazy, as they tend to do. And this image is one of my creepier pictures and we've looked at a couple of these already, so this is good just to be able to walk through this process. Compositing does not have to be so many elements put together, I think that it can easily be just a couple little things in the same space and this is a good example of that. So here we are with the main picture and you can see that I'm expanding my frame, so I took extra images, so that I had all of that, there's my (laughs) painted black, you can see a theme emerging here and these were extra pictures, that I shot, just adding them in to either side, okay and then you can see the beginnings of the rip in the back and all of these elements that you just saw are obviously not created in this order, so I did not go through and be like, hm, I'm gonna add in this shading, because I think that I'm going to put the rip in the back right there, no, what ended up happening was I put in this zipper situation that we have, as you can see it emerging and then I had to go below the zipper with my layers to create shadows, so that it only showed up on Layer four, if that makes sense and we'll talk more about this in just a moment. So if I continue on here, you can see lots of little, tiny changes, so many little changes and then we have the zipper mostly in place there and you can see little things, for example, look at my hand on this fabric, it doesn't look like it's really there yet, because there is no shading and that's why I wanna emphasize in Photoshop, that I would say that at least half of compositing is knowing how to create shadows, because that is what makes something believable or not, so I'm just creating the shadows under my hand, creating that believable look and as we go, you can see it becomes more and more believable, based on the shading, so this is a really good image to look at for that and again, these are little steps, that aren't as teachable as other things, but when you see this happen, you see that I'm sort of painting right over all of the fabric down at the bottom, because it was really distracting, 'cause it's the brightest thing, it has a lot of contrast, so I'm just literally painting over that to get rid of some of that contrast. Okay, and then we have some color changes and some highlights coming in and this was, I think the most important step in this image, which was desaturating everything but the skin underneath, one, because it furthers the concept, because if it was like this, then it's not quite believable, you don't really see the separation, but the concept is really aided by these changes here, because this skin is now looking old and disgusting and the skin underneath it looks new and fresh, you get a different perspective of what might be happening here, sort of a shedding of the skin situation. So I'll just zoom through the rest of these changes, which are now all cosmetic from this point on, brightening, darkening, shading, all of those fun things, we've got the texture, which always will come at the top, you'll usually see that at the top of my Layers, because it's one of the last things that I do and then I get a little bit indecisive and I make a few more changes and then it finishes there. So any questions on this one? It's pretty straightforward, when you start to peel back the layers, but you can see how many tiny, little thoughts go into creating that photo.

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

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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.

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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.

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Edit Details of Images

Edit Details of Images

Lesson Info

52. Edit Details of Images

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