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
Why Critique?
Not just critique, I'm not just going to critique you but self critique and how do we start to look at our portfolio in a really constructive way, where we can give ourselves some feedback. Which is really hard to do because it's hard to be objective about your work and impossible I would argue. You can't be totally objective about your work. But we're gonna talk about a few ways that you can take a fresh look at what you've been doing and figure out a way forward. And if you can't find a way forward, that's where other critiques come in and we're gonna help each other today, so what we're going to do is I'm gonna critique you four, who have been sort of like the stand in studio audience for everyone else out there who's watching. And you're gonna critique me and it's gonna be a really good thing, I hope. We're not gonna offend each other at all. Because I have the self critique checklist. And I'm hoping that this is going to really help us just going through the elements in the portfo...
lio that you'd want to look at, that you would want to make sure you check off your list if you're trying to figure out what's good, what's bad, what needs work, things like that. So we're going to be going through that and that's a bonus material self critique checklist that we have for our final segment, I'm so sad. Okay but let's talk about critique. Why, why bother critiquing? It's gonna give you better aim at your goals, which is an obvious thing. That's what you hope for from a critique. It can also break you soul into a million pieces if you get the wrong critique. So let's first of all recognize that there's almost always something valuable to be found in a critique, even if it might come at you from a harsh perspective. Technical advice, just literally improving your technique, which I think is probably one of the main reasons why people get critiques, is to improve their technique and their work flow, but I would argue that that's one of the simplest things to change and the simplest things to figure out about your own work. So I actually prefer to get critiques that are more centered on concepts and where my work is going to go after that. It helps you form an opinion of your own work and it helps you do that because essentially what you're doing is you're saying here critiquer person, here's my portfolio, what do you think? And the second somebody tells you what they think, you immediately form an opinion. Either yes I agree with that or no I don't agree with that. You know the feeling? I do this all the time with my friends. I'll be like, "oh I really want to make a picture, I don't know what to make a picture about, do you have any ideas?". And then they'll be like, "Okay yeah do this". And I'll be like, "No". They'll be like, 'Okay do this". I'll be like, "No way". And they're like, "You never take our ideas". And I'm like, "Yeah it's because I actually do know what I want, I just like to hear what I don't want". And that's what a critique is a lot of the time, where you're giving your images over and you're like what's good, then what's bad? And then they'll tell you and then you're either like I agree, or I definitely know that I don't agree with that person. And it's really good for that, it helps you form opinions about your work and you know right away if you feel strongly about something or if you don't. Clarity of vision, helping you to move forward in a way that feels really good, really authentic, really personal. Which images are the most popular. If you hand your portfolio over to enough people, eventually they'll start to say, "oh this one's my favorite, this one's not my favorite" and you'll probably start to get some consistent popular images cropping up. And then print worthiness. I had a review recently where I had my portfolio given to five different people and at the end of it nobody had mentioned this one print that was in there. They didn't say it was their favorite, they just kept moving right past it and the last person pulled out this image and she goes, "Get rid of this, this should not be in print, this is not good enough quality, do not print this image, don't keep it in your portfolio". She literally set it aside, she was like, "Don't even put it back in, put it somewhere else for now". I was like okay. You know what, two days later I sold that print. So you can't always trust people, but she was right about that print, it was not as good of quality as all the other prints. But sometimes the technique, the quality, sometimes those things take a back seat to how somebody emotionally feels towards something. So it's very difficult to get critiques because while she was absolutely correct about that image not being as good of quality, what she overlooked was the emotional tie that somebody might have to it. So, that's why critique is very, very difficult. So who can you trust? Everybody, everybody has something valuable to give. Now they might not give it in the most constructive way. They might now think of anything good to say right away. I've had my portfolio critiqued where we sit there in silence for way too long and you're very like, "Oh, what's gonna come of this, they can't even think of anything to say". And it's really, really scary. So I think that everyone can give something constructive. Everyone out there could look at your portfolio and say something that will positively impact the direction that you go. But at the same time, I don't trust anyone but myself. So this is a very confusing, conflicted set of emotions, because I'm very open to critique, I love being critiqued, I think it's massively helpful, but at the end of the day I can't listen to anyone, unless what they say aligns with my goals. And that's how I always judge a critique. Now I have a self critique check list and this is part of what you have in the bonus materials here. And this checklist is just really centering in on things that might need improvement, really big areas of connection with images and how can we work through that in a logical, technical way. Alright, overall cohesion. When you hand a portfolio over, they're going to expect there be cohesion from one picture to the next, to the next, all the way through to the end. Unless you're entering into a review, saying I have multiple portfolios here, they're going to expect one continuous portfolio that really works well together. So how do we determine cohesion? As we talked about in the printing segment, that there are ways of flowing form one image to the other be it visual or conceptual and either of those might apply to you portfolio. So whatever would make a series work together, same goes into your portfolio. Is there something that connects one to the other, to the other?
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.