Giving Your Audience Feelings

Lesson 6 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

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Lesson Info

6. Giving Your Audience Feelings

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Next Lesson: Guided Daydream Exercise

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Yours is a Story Worth Telling

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Giving Your Audience Feelings

Finally, as far as storytelling goes, the best thing we can do is to make someone feel something. Right, I mean, if somebody doesn't feel anything when they look at an image, they're not very likely to interact with it, they're not very likely to care about it, and at the end of the day, they're not very likely to buy it. And we want to make sure that all of those things don't happen. We've got to make sure that do connect with it, that they do feel something toward it, that they want to buy it. Otherwise, I'm out of business. I know. It's like the craziest thing to talk about storytelling and talk about business at the same time. But we're doing it, I don't care. Introducing feeling visually is our job, in my opinion. Doesn't matte if you're photographing people, doesn't matter if you're photographing a mountain, what matters is that you make your audience feel. So what are ways that you can do that, visually. If you guys had to say. Well, the color is a big part of the feeling. E...

xactly. Evoking feelings, emotions, blues to warmer colors. Exactly. Yeah, they make a big difference. And lighting, I would say, is a big one. Something that we can all control no matter what type of image we're making, unless we're photographing black boxes. Even that I guess is something, absence of light. I feel like motion, motion is important. Yeah, motion is something, I mean, it's in the word emotion, so I feel like that's a pretty good clue. But it makes you feel like the person, the character, or someone is doing something actively, and that immediate draws you in to the story, which I think is probably the most important thing, that you feel like you're a part of that scene. So there are lots of ways that we can introduce emotion into an image. In this particular one, how does it make you feel, if you just had to say, immediately, just first reaction, how do you feel looking at this image, what would you say. Hopeful. Hopeful. Anyone else, or do you all feel the same. Sad. Sad. I like this game. (crowd laughing) Okay, so tell me why, each of you. Well, because she's holding the paint and the sky is red, I assume that she painted the sky, and I find that to be a really hopeful sort of thing, that you can change your surroundings to be whatever you want it to be. Great. I have to defend my choice now. I feel sad because I think the paint is dripping, and it's mute colors, even though the red is very vibrant, the rest of the scene is muted, and she's very muted, and she's walking away from the camera and I don't see who she is. Yeah. And I don't really know what's going on. So this was really interesting as an image. Because, I made it with those exact two things in mind. Okay? So I made thinking, I'm going to make an image that seems hopeful but has little details that maybe just takes you back from that for a second. And I'm not saying that there's a right or wrong, it's just what I wanted to do when I was making it. So I made this image, I had the paint dripping, which I thought was sort of creepy, just my opinion. And then something very interesting happened, which is that fires started raging across the United States and it was horrible and tragic, and I looked at this image totally differently after that. And I said, well what about my experience with an image like this, or how do we bring our experience into storytelling, and how might this image change drastically based on our experience. So maybe somebody whose just come out of that horrible thing that they've just had happen, they might look at this and say, well it looks like there's a wildfire burning. Maybe somebody else would look at this and say it's hopeful because she's creating her future, she's painting the sky. Maybe somebody else would say, yeah but that red is looking a little bloody, so maybe something terrible is going on here. Who knows. Emotion is not necessarily one thing. We should not aim to necessarily just say, this image is about this emotion, you should feel this way. No. We're using color, we're using light, we're using composition to evoke different things in different people. And so on with this images as well. Now we've got an image that looks very different from this one. Right, we've got oranges and reds to deep blues and sadness. I'm just gonna say it for you guys, it's not a happy picture. I don't think anybody would look at this, yeah this looks happy. And it doesn't look, I mean she looks kinda like a flower with the fabric moving, but it's dark blue tones, which already have this sort of sullen feeling to it, mixed with the way that her hands are positioned, it just looks very sad. And so this is a mixture of color and pose and editing to make it darker and more contrasty and gritty. And then this image, which I don't think that we can at all argue about the emotion that you feel with this one. I mean, I've had people come up to me, and like, were really genuinely upset looking at this image, people emailing me saying, I can't look at this, I hate that you posted this online. Other people saying, I hate it, but I love it. You know, different emotions from different people. I, this is my favorite image, perhaps that I've ever made, because of how viscerally emotive it is. And you don't even see a face. That's really important to point out. You don't even see a face. You don't have to have any particular thing to convey an emotion. It can be all about those elements that we put in to our work.

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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Giving Your Audience Feelings

Giving Your Audience Feelings

Lesson Info

6. Giving Your Audience Feelings

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