Subject Within the Scene

Lesson 40 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

40. Subject Within the Scene

Show Transcript

Next Lesson: Set Design Arrangement

Lessons

Class Trailer

Yours is a Story Worth Telling

02:09

Show All Lessons

Lesson Info

Subject Within the Scene

Then we have backgrounds. We have location, we have color, we have lighting, we have all of these elements, props that go in, wardrobe, but what about the background of an image? I know that you might be thinking, "But the background is the same thing as location." Yes and no, because it's how we choose to photograph our locations that give us the background. I can say with some certainty that these are not my best photos that I have ever taken, and it's because of the backgrounds in these pictures. I remember taking this image in the forest, and this was, like, week one of taking pictures, that I had just started taking photos, and I decided I was gonna go out, and get some balloons, and do this photo. I ended up with an image that was so confusing to look at. It just drove me nuts because I'm wearing a black dress, and the trees are all dark, and it's winter in Philadelphia, and it's just so crazy to look at. I ended up in this church in New Zealand, and I thought it was gonna be the...

best location to photograph in, and it just looked really confusing when I finally got my camera there. Could I have chosen something else? Yes. What if I had just set her down on this beautiful ornate floor and photographed from above? I would've been so much happier with this image than I am now. This was also from my first week of creating, at the train station. I can solidly say I did not know anything about taking pictures at that point, so I've got these distracting lights in the background, and this sign that says, "Danger." I wouldn't do this again. Just so you guys know, I'm very into safety now, in train stations, and I wouldn't do that. Then we have this picture, which, I actually loved the background. I had seen pictures of this. It was used in the Les Mis film. I was so excited. I was like (gasps) "I'm gonna shoot there, and it's gonna be wonderful." And I got there, and I loved it, and my thought was, "Okay, I'll put my subject "in the stream of light so that she stands out." My problem was, putting her in this nude leotard where she doesn't actually stand out at all. There's plenty of light going on in the picture, so the fact that I put her in it is, I guess, helpful, but not quite right for this background that's so confusing to look at. That's where I feel that I've gone drastically wrong. But in stark contrast, I visited this chateau in France. It was gorgeous, my favorite place that I've ever photographed, and there were plenty of rooms with a lot going on, with furniture, and mirrors, and fancy doors, and all sorts of stuff, and I just, I kept taking my camera in there, setting it up, and thinking, "There's so much going on in the background." It kept distracting me. I love simple backgrounds. It's just my favorite thing. So I'm going for a background where there's almost nothing in it, where it has enough character, it does tell a bit of a story, but really, the focus is not on the background at all. This was photographed in the same place, just in the room right next door to that, and again, making sure, there were about seven bathtubs in this place, and I could've chosen any of the bathtubs. Some had windows behind them, some had curtains. This was the only one that had a blank wall and nothing touching the tub, so I decided to use this one 'cause it was as simple as it could be. This background was very complicated, but in this case, I decided to edit my subjects into the scene so that I could light them as bright as I wanted to without having them blend into the background. So I could darken the background manually, brighten my subjects manually, and then there wouldn't be so much confusion with the subject and the background here. Here we have another one, which, I don't even think you can get any more simple than this, where I took my favorite tool, my brush tool, and I just painted the background out, which, I'm sure, had a house back there or something like that. I simply painted it out because I wanted to make sure my subject would be the thing that stands out in this image. Now, I'm not saying that you can't have complicated backgrounds, but simply to know if that's going to be your focus or not, and if not, consider, is it complicated for the right reasons, or is it complicated because that's just what it looks like, and you're there, and you're gonna shoot what's there? Always important to remember. Here's another image that is made very simple after being very complicated. That was the original image here, just a tree. (laughs) It looks like a cell phone picture even. I will admit, this is really embarrassing. Yeah, there's a car in the background. I actually have the next picture. The car's over here now, you know, really fast. Okay, so I decided to use this tree, and see what I could do. It was a challenge to myself to see if I could transform the space. I started to expand the tree outward. We've got some roots popping in here that I photographed from a different spot right around the same area. There I am, hello. And then there we go, no more car, isn't that great? What if I had left that, you guys? What if I had left that? It would've been a drastically different photo, right? This would not have been the same image, and even without this building, and the car in the background, it's still so confusing to look at. You almost have trouble seeing the separation between the tree and leaves in the background. So I painted it right out, and I started to refine the image, making sure that it is cohesive, making sure that the lighting works, that the wardrobe works, that the colors work, and just doing everything that I can to refine, refine, refine. There, we have the first picture that I'm very glad that you laughed at 'cause it's really bad, and I need to be kept in check, and then the final. You may think, "Why did you bother with that picture? "Why didn't you just try harder "and go get a better photo?" I agree, I have nothing to say, except I am lazy, but it worked, you know? The fact is that there's a lot that you can do with the location to really alter it to fit your needs. This is my very fast little speed edit here, but I like to start with nothing. You'll see, as this comes around again, that this was just a hill, like, a hump of dirt with grass on it. In case you didn't know what a hill was, that's what a hill is, okay? I decided to manipulate it to fit what I needed it to be. I wanted there to be this straight line going through the image, this straight, dark line, really bold, really graphic, and then I mimicked that with the smoke that I added in later. This location just didn't exist. It just didn't. I couldn't find something like this, so I used the background that I had, which was a normal little hill, and I shaped it to what I wanted it to be. I'm not saying, "Do that." I'm not necessarily saying, "Go out and composite any background you want," though it is really fun and very convenient. What I'm saying is, just really pay attention to shape, and form, and what a background looks like so that you can make it how you want it.

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.

Subject Within the Scene

Subject Within the Scene

Lesson Info

40. Subject Within the Scene

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