How to Prepare Files for Licensing
Lesson 92 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete GuideBrooke Shaden
How to Prepare Files for Licensing
Lesson 92 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete GuideBrooke Shaden
Lessons
Class Introduction
19:06 2Storytelling & Ideas
27:34 3Universal Symbols in Stories
03:19 4Create Interactive Characters
02:16 5The Story is in The Details
04:13 6Giving Your Audience Feelings
05:49 7Guided Daydream Exercise
04:20 8Elements of Imagery
02:19The Death Scenario
01:47 10Associations with Objects
03:01 11Three Writing Exercises
06:39 12Connection Through Art
30:35 13Break Through Imposter Syndrome
07:40 14Layering Inspiration
23:13 15Creating an Original Narrative
07:42 16Analyze an Image
04:12 17Translate Emotion into Images
04:31 18Finding Parts in Images
06:02 19Finding Your Target Audience
04:05 20Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?
12:01 21Create a Series That Targets Your Audience
32:43 22Formatting Your Work
06:08 23Additional Materials to Attract Clients
07:24 24Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?
04:17 25How to Make Money from Your Target Audience
11:27 26Circle of Focus
07:55 27The Pillars of Branding
06:18 28Planning Your Photoshoot
09:05 29Choose Every Element for The Series
07:38 30Write a Descriptive Paragraph
09:37 31Sketch Your Ideas
17:27 32Choose Your Gear
02:50 33How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations
26:18 34What Tells a Story in a Series?
13:06 35Set Design Overview
01:43 36Color Theory
19:50 37Lighting for the Scene
12:05 38Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design
06:00 39Locations
04:31 40Subject Within the Scene
07:26 41Set Design Arrangement
05:46 42Fine Art Compositing
03:46 43Plan The Composite Before Shooting
10:29 44Checklist for Composite Shooting
18:52 45Analyze Composite Mistakes
12:11 46Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing
10:42 47Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing
08:36 48Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories
08:17 49Shoot: Miniature Scene
09:59 50Editing Workflow Overview
01:57 51Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress
08:35 52Edit Details of Images
08:09 53Add Smoke & Texture
10:47 54Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite
24:58 55Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario
17:55 56Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot
22:10 57Self Portrait Test Shoots
22:30 58Shoot for Edit
04:21 59Shoot Extra Stock Images
10:01 60Practice the Shoot
25:07 61Introduction to Shooting Photo Series
03:33 62Shoot: Vine Image
10:40 63Shoot: Sand Image
09:50 64Shoot: End Table Image
04:59 65Shoot: Bed Image
06:18 66Shoot: Wall Paper Image
05:54 67Shoot: Chair Image
08:02 68Shoot: Mirror Image
06:57 69Shoot: Moss Image
05:48 70Shoot: Tree Image
07:33 71Shoot: Fish Tank Image
04:09 72Shoot: Feather Image
09:00 73View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing
07:35 74Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion
36:55 75Edit Images with Advanced Compositing
29:33 76Decide How to Start the Composite
09:35 77Organize Final Images
21:37 78Choosing Images for Your Portfolio
08:19 79Order the Images in Your Portfolio
16:28 80Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others?
16:03 81Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order
11:42 82Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing
02:19 83Determine Sizes for Prints
16:44 84How to Choose Paper
13:56 85How to Choose Editions
07:18 86Pricing Strategies
18:59 87How to Present Your Images
13:26 88Example Pricing Exercise
09:39 89Print Examples
08:23 90Licensing, Commissions & Contracts
04:44 91How to Keep Licensing Organized
06:07 92How to Prepare Files for Licensing
07:28 93Pricing Your Licensed Images
12:33 94Contract Terms for Licensing
12:07 95Where to Sell Images
04:55 96Commission Pricing Structure
08:23 97Contract for Commissions
12:17 98Questions for a Commission Shoot
08:45 99Working with Galleries
08:58 100Benefits of Galleries
07:39 101Contracts for Galleries
10:32 102How to Find Galleries
05:22 103Choose Images to Show
08:53 104Hanging the Images
03:38 105Importance of Proofing Prints
08:04 106Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery
21:59 107Press Package Overview
04:35 108Artist Statement for Your Series
18:20 109Write Your 'About Me' Page
09:04 110Importance of Your Headshot
03:55 111Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch
20:19 112Writing For Fine Art
04:44 113Define Your Writing Style
14:49 114Find Your Genre
06:41 115What Sets You Apart?
02:25 116Write to Different Audiences
05:10 117Write for Blogging
39:57 118Speak About Your Work
14:21 119Branding for Video
07:37 120Clearly Define Video Talking Points
14:27 121Types of Video Content
31:45 122Interview Practice
13:22 123Diversifying Social Media Content
22:32 124Create an Intentional Social Media Persona
24:48 125Monetize Your Social Media Presence
18:46 126Social Media Posting Plan
04:01 127Choose Networks to Use & Invest
02:57 128Presentation of Final Images
19:13 129Printing Your Series
09:16 130How to Work With a Print Lab
13:39 131Proofing Your Prints
10:11 132Bad Vs. Good Prints
03:32 133Find Confidence to Print
10:50 134Why Critique?
06:55 135Critiquing Your Own Portfolio
10:39 136Critique of Brooke's Series
16:18 137Critique of Student Series
40:07 138Yours is a Story Worth Telling
02:09Lesson Info
How to Prepare Files for Licensing
High resolution JPEG is typically what I will send my clients, unless they ask for something else. A lot of people, shockingly, when they license images don't know a lot about file types. And they don't know why I would send them a .TIF, or how they can use a .TIF. So it's just really good to have a standard file type and size that you will send to your clients. If they ask for something else, give it or don't give it. I've had people ask for the original PSD files with all the layers, in which case I'm gonna want to know exactly why they need that because they should not need that. There was one interesting case for a book cover that I think I have here, where the publishers had asked if I had the layered file for this because they wanted to add her hand over top of the lettering here. And they thought, well, if she's on a separate layer then they can do that really easily. And I wrote and said she's not because she was really there in that space. But they just thought if she was comp...
osited in, that would be nice and easy to just plop the letters underneath her hand. That did not end up working out. And I have many more stories to tell about this as well, but not until later. As for sizing goes for what you're going to send your clients, I will typically just send the standard size that it's in. If my pixel count across the longways is 5616 pixel, then that's usually what I'll send them. Unless, I will say, unless it's only for digital use. I tend to think that if you have, let's say you're selling an album on iTunes and you want a graphic for your iTunes album cover, maybe to put as a graphic somewhere. There's really no need why you're going to have to have a 25-inch photo for that, there's just no need for it. So I'll usually size those images down for those clients who are only selling digitally, depending on the use. Sometimes, I sell images for backgrounds for websites for certain launches. And in that case, I'll size it bigger to fit the scale of the website, so then there's nothing weird, grainy, stretched, pixelated, anything like that. But I try to limit my size for digital use because I trust nobody, I trust nobody. I have had some bad experiences where I've sold images to a magazine, and I think that it's gonna be in print. And whoops I forgot to ask, it turns out it's only online and I've sent them these giant files. And then, there they all are to be downloaded by anybody who clicks on that magazine. So it's really kind of rough out there in the digital world when you're selling your images digitally. Just something to keep in mind, I will often send two files to my clients if they're doing print and digital. I'll send them one full-sized JPEG for print, and then another one that I'll say, "Please only use this for digital use." And this is something that you might want to put in a contract because if you don't, then they really don't have to do anything that you say, which is not good. So here is the expectation of your client when you're selling a digital file. They're either going to receive a high resolution file. So if they're not, for whatever reason, you need to be very upfront about that. And I have had files before where I make the deal, I say, "Great, I'm gonna send you this file." And then I realize that I don't even have a high resolution file of that image for whatever reason. Because of the great computer crash of 2009 or because of whatever reason I just don't have it. So you always want to be really upfront, and know exactly what you have to offer before you move forward with any deals. Then they're going to want to know that they can use that image in connection with promotional materials. And this is something that often we as the person selling the image might not think about. You know, you might think, okay, we've got a book cover, and I'm gonna sell this image for this book cover, and that's the only place it's gonna go. But if you think about it they need to sell this book, so they're gonna need to put this work out there in many different places, not just the book cover. So it's really good that they know that you know that they can use that image for promotional materials and things like that. And if you're uncomfortable with that, well, this is on your terms. You don't have to send that image. So you change the terms based on your expectation as well. We're gonna talk about exclusivity, and this gets really complicated, as we've already sort of dived into. Exclusivity is based on, in my opinion, these three things more often than anything else. Region, so are you selling to somebody with exclusivity in a certain region of the world. Sometimes it's really small, like just a city. Sometimes it's really big, like an entire continent. Just depends on what they want. How long they get that exclusive license for. One year, two years, three years, infinity, however long. And the medium, so is this going to be on an album cover? Is this going to be on a book, a movie poster, a ballet poster, whatever it might be? Make sure that you know those three things. All right, so if you're selling a digital only image. An image that you are selling to somebody who's not going to put it in print for any reason, this is typically what I'll do. I'll make sure that the pricing is lower because they're probably not going to have a wide distribution. If you think about a music artist who has a big label, and they're gonna put their album out to everywhere, in Target or whatever it is, then yeah, they're probably going to have a really big budget to be able to buy that image. If a band comes to me and they say, and this is always the starting line. "Love your work, but I don't have any budget." Which is key for like, okay, this is probably gonna be a digital run. Then, they're not gonna probably be able to afford a really high-priced image. So generally speaking, pricing is lower for digital only distributions. The resolution is limited, for me. You might choose otherwise, maybe you don't care if you have high resolution files out there. And I know many people who don't care about that. But if you do, I tend to send a 1200-pixel out there to them. I still keep it at 300 DPI, and that's about a 4-inch print. So if somebody were to download that image, they couldn't really print it that big. So it's probably a more manageable fraud situation [laughs] than something else which, oh, the bigger it is the worse it is in my opinion. So that's typically what I do for digital only releases. And then for print only, the pricing will often be higher because they have a budget to print that work in whatever medium it is. And the resolution is unlimited, so I'll send them the highest file size that I can, and that's usually pretty good. I've actually had people email me and say, "I don't know how to use Dropbox, "just send whatever file will fit through email." And I'm like, "Oh boy, where is this going." [Laughs] But aside from that, it's good to send that unlimited size.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
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.