Formatting Your Work

Lesson 22 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

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Lesson Info

22. Formatting Your Work

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Next Lesson: Additional Materials to Attract Clients

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Yours is a Story Worth Telling

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Formatting Your Work

So I've got this image here, and this one, let's just say I wanted to use this for a book cover. Does it work? Could this picture work on a book cover? Of course the answer is yes it could work on a book cover, 'cause anything could work, but in terms of actual use, I would argue that it's really good for text, because there's all this negative space, but it's really bad for cropping, 'cause you're gonna end up with two cut in half doors on either side of the frame, and the tree's gonna be cut off, so it's not so great. So it's really unlikely that I'm going to license this for a book cover, unless they do something creative with editing or something like that, extend the trees up, who knows what they might do. Because trust me, they will do anything and it's a little bit heart wrenching sometimes. But I would argue that. So with this image then, is this good for a book cover? You know, if you were going to crop it in, would you be losing an essential part of the image? And maybe yes, ...

maybe no, but what about text? Where are you going to put text on this image? It's covered in people. I know, 'cause it's me. And I covered myself here. So I would say that it's bad for both, bad for text, bad for cropping, and that's what I'm looking for with these images. So then I chose this one, which I feel is good for both. It has lots of negative space so it's okay if you cover up some of that smoke because there's smoke everywhere. It's okay if you cover up a little bit of it. And it's great for cropping because of the center composition. So we've got negative space and a center composition, which I know works really well for book covers. And I've had some success with book covers. I've done a fair few of them now, and I find that my work generally does work for that because of these two things: the negative space and the center composition. And that's not saying that your images won't work for that. It's just saying, think about how somebody else will use the work that you're putting out there. And these are just general samples that you can get for free of maybe like a blank book that you could put your image on just to show as a sample, same with that. So just thinking about, okay, how can I turn my work into samples? How can that be something that I advertise maybe on my website, maybe direct to the client? And then commissions. So we've got the service. And we've already talked about this so I'm gonna zoom right through, but advertising the service, creating samples of that as well, because it's important to show people, and then making it simple, not a complicated process. And I like to cater to my client, but I wanna really point out that using the word cater was really hard for me, because I don't mean that I'm doing everything the way my client wants it, I'm not starting the process like, "Tell me exactly the image you want and I'm gonna make you whatever you want." I'm not doing that by any means, but what I am doing is saying, okay, this is my work. You can look through what I've done before, you can let me know if any of my images speak to you, if you wanna recreate anything, and then I'm saying, now how can I emotionally and visually connect this image to you? And I'm not doing it in a way that takes away from my artistic abilities within this process. And I'll talk a lot more about this specifically with examples, because I think it's important that we most definitely don't lose our artistic perspective here. Set expectations for your clients, just make sure that they know exactly what they're getting into like I mentioned. You book a shoot with me, you're going in a swamp. Done deal. Not really, but you know, usually it is true. And then the experience over the product. I mean, I feel that there are a lot of photographers out there and I'm not saying anything bad about this either. There are a lot of photographers who advertise the product over the experience. And that's okay, it's a choice that you're making. You're saying, look, I take great images and this is what you're going to get from this photoshoot. You're going to get an 18 by 20 inch wall hanging or whatever it might be, and that's the product that they're selling. But I'm not doing that. And I have this idea that if you consider yourself a fine art photographer, if you wanna move in a more art direction with your business, then it's important to maintain that idea that you're creating art, and what is art but an experience? An experience of the art, an experience creating the art, so it's important that we really put experience above the product in this case. These are examples of my way of creating samples. So I started out... I think this was 2012 or so. I was going to do a commissioned photoshoot. I'd never done it before, I was about to advertise this new service of mine, and I was like, "Uh-oh, I don't even know how to do this, I just know that I wanna do it." So I got my two best friends and I said, "Hey guys, can you come to the forest with me and I'm gonna drape you in some fabric and put some Ace bandages on you", which at this point was very normal for them, and I said, okay, we're gonna do this whole thing and this is gonna be your commissioned portrait, and we did it. And this was what came from that. And it was a really good experience because I got to learn, especially with this one here, how does she feel best? The other one was already doing a lot of modeling, so that didn't really count, but the other one had never, so she was sort of like, "Oh, does this look good? Does this look good? Does this make my arm look fat?" Those kinds of questions that everyone will ask when they've not been in front of a camera, and it's a good experience to have. So I'm doing these commissioned shoots, I've put it out there, and I say, this is an example of my commissioned work. And then I got a couple clients from that. So it's just good to have, good to be able to say.

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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Formatting Your Work

Formatting Your Work

Lesson Info

22. Formatting Your Work

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