Lessons

Lesson Info

Organizing Your Story

We're going to go into the book module now, so I've we've shown you the print module it's, very simple, it's very self explanatory. The book module is also very simple, but it's a whole different ballgame because it is very powerful and it's got lots of little nuances and lots of things. So the next two sessions, we're going to be talking about the book module before we make a book, though the first thing that we have to do is collect the images. And so on monday, we talked a lot about collections, and the reason that we talked about collections and smart collections is because that's, how we're going to find all of our images. So if you were making in this case, we're gonna make a book about trading, and for those of you out there, they're just joining us. Trade jin is a five year old boy that lives in our neighborhood super wonderful kid, super, just a nen, er tae ning, fun little kid, just lots of energy, and his family is friends with our family, and we at one point I heard from my...

wife that they had just found out that tray jin had bone cancer and s o when I heard that I thought immediately, what do what could I do to help, but also what you know, when you when someone has something like that in their family, you wonder how do I help, you know, like, do I take a casserole or a plate of lasagna or whatever? Sometimes things that we think to do aren't all that helpful because everybody thought to bring lasagna and so there's fifty lasagnas at the house or something and how does that help anybody? So so we try to do things to help people, but we just do those things that were told to do cinema card or or, you know, bring them food or something like that, and we never think what's really useful and what's helpful, and so I thought to myself, what is it that I could do that I would want as a parent is a parent? What would I want if I knew that this was happening to my child and uh and I decided that thing that I would want the most is I would want someone to document that experience that he was going through and that my family was going through without me having to do it. And so that's what? This is a personal project that I've taken on in order to do something useful for their family um and so this project with trey jin, we're going to make a little book out of it, but the story's not over he's two months into this s o he's in the middle of chemotherapies and things like that he's going to have a big surgery in july where they're actually going to take a bone from his leg and put it in his arm to replace the bone that they're going to have to remove here. That's got cancer so there's a lot to this story that's untold. And so this book is not finished, but we're going to start the book. Um and we'll tell it we'll keep telling the story as it as it unfolds. Um, but when when we, uh when we started, we talked about smart collections and smart collections are a great way if you wanted to tell a story remember when we started, we started telling a story of my daughter from her birth to now so four years worth of photographs, we were able to find and collect the photographs that we wanted of her based on a smart collection, and that smart collection was able to then look for images of her and pull them in and a lot of criteria got it down to the right manageable number so that we could tell a quick story very quickly, like we could do it fast eso smart collections are really important and that's why we discussed him on on the first session now once we got those in the collection then we started adjusting them we may have kicked some out of the collection once we realized that they didn't help tell the story on dh that's what I did last night as I finalize the collection of images of trade jin so we start with a smart collection if we're looking at a big volume of images and then we go from that smart collection and we start throwing the finalized images the ones that we really like into a regular collection and that's what we have here is a regular collection of images and I've labeled it trey jin's book so you could see right there got one hundred twelve images in the book now I don't think that I'm gonna end up with one hundred twelve images in the book because a the story is not done yet and so we need to leave room for more images later but the other thing is that, um a lot of this is extra images there's some of them are kind of superfluous there duplicative and stuff like that, so but I've collected the ones that I think that I would want and then as I designed the book I will find that some of them are yeah and I'll kick him out they don't necessarily have to stay in the book so we start with our collection if we go into the grid inside of our collection, so remember, we're in the library module and we hit the geeky to get into the grid and tab uh, tab those sides out so that we could just see pictures. Now we're in an experience where we can grab images and weaken, we can change their position in relationship to each other. So for instance, in this case, um, there is kind of a breaking point, so the beginning here, we, um, specifically started this whole experience with trey jin and his family the day that he was going to go to the hospital for the first treatment we met at, like, seven in the morning for a full photo shoot, and we did a photo shoot of them, so we start with that, but then we go to the hospital and I and later on, like weeks later, I took a picture of the outside of the hospital, and so I'm going to take that and I'm gonna grab it and I'm going to move it up right there at the beginning, so we're now we're going to the hospital so it's not the right time lina's toe when I took it, but it's the right time line to tell the story, and so we we need to organize our images in such a way that they'll tell the story correctly and in most cases this story's going to be told in a very strict timeline sense we're not going to move stuff around, but there are things like that where I grab a little here and there oh, this I need this but I can get it any time so I can go get some of those details any time I want some of this establishment shots that we talked about when we're telling the story we do a wide shot but you know where we are this shot of the hospital is the establishment shot over at the hospital put it in so I will redo this book some other time with everything that's involved with it, but I'm going to reorganize images based on where they should fall so for instance, I've got this photograph of his you know, stuffed animals and stuff they're sitting upon the window sill um I don't want that to be right next to, uh our picture of charlie so that's charlie right there um and so I I'm gonna move those around so like for instance, I can take these guys and move them a little bit over here maybe next tow um his sister and next to this toy ball that he's looking through I can take charlie and I can put charlie uh right next to him when he's in his bed on dh in this case he's showing his port where he you know, gets all of his intravenous uh, medicines and stuff like that and so that's probably good place to show charlie because that they're connected he's connected to charlie there on dso uh there's also uh the we've been photographing the medicines that he's being given and so every time I come in his dad because his dad is studying medicine and so his dad's like, ok, this is you know and you tell me about what you know drug is going into him and all that kind of stuff and so I've been taking pictures of the bags of medicine because it's really part of the whole story you know, all the you know and like some of the medicines air horrible that you know there's so toxic that like you have to wash your hands after he sneezes and stuff because the stuff that's all his body is toxic, you know? And so it just it's just interesting all of things that we're getting so we want maybe that could go over here next to charlie a cz well, I'm going to just keep scanning through there was a point at which he had teo his hair was falling out so we shaved it and so there was a head shaving party and so here in the shit head shaving party we are let's see there it is right here so this is where he's getting his head shaved but there's a hole punch a bunch of people getting their head shaved and so um we are, uh going to make sure that those show correctly um they're in a time in a timeline order it works but sometimes like for instance in this case he was a little bit nervous about the whole process so he didn't want to go first and so but I think it'll it'll tell the story a little bit better if he it's towards the beginning here um rather than because because here this this kind of he was really worried and he got a little sad and then the dogs came and started kissing his face and stuff and then he got happy and so I'm put it even though it's not quite in the right order I'm putting this picture here where he stand offish um I'm putting that over at the beginning and then I'm showing the process of him getting a little bit more into the process he start shaving you know other people's heads you know just things like that that will help get him into the process and then finally he's goingto have his is going to be shaved last now in this story his brother also shaves his head and so uh but his brother did it after him but I'm gonna push it forward because I really want trade and to be the end of that little portion of the story that's not accurate story telling but it's much more poignant story storytelling so so I'm going to take this shot and I'm going to move it forward just in front of trade jin as opposed to behind him because I just I really think that the final shot should be of trade and getting hiss done and then of course the very last shot I think should be this shot here which is him looking at himself in the mirror and so that one I actually shot this one too afterwards um but you can't he's look that's him looking at himself in the mirror but you can't see it and so I'm actually going to hit the delete key and get rid of that one andi I'm gonna I'm gonna show this one is the last shot even though there's another shot here right afterwards of him just hanging out at the party but I mean actually swap those two so that the one of him hanging out the party is earlier and this one's the end because it's much more it's a it's, a much more telling photograph of him looking at himself in the mirror um and then of course we go back to the hospital and so there's more hospital stuff um I'm going to theirs this I think is a really important one this was this was the goals for the day I think when you when you look at that and you think those are my goals for today that's a that's a rough day you know if your goal is just not to be nauseous and go play in the playroom you know that they're trying to make really really manageable goals things that he could do you know I did it I got to the player whom I feel better I can go to the playroom um but I'm gonna put that near a photograph of him doing something that's hard so you can see that there's you know like this this area here I don't think it's the same day that I'd shot that image and then I saw this but they worked together and so I'm going to drag that up and put it over here with him having a rough day so you start to tell the story more even though some of those things air disjointed and they're not actually in the right position on dso well it's a whole span of days yeah, I mean in many, many, many days it's many, many data and you're trying to composite right? You're trying you're trying to tell a story trying to encapsulate something that happens over months and put it into a very small window and just kind of give people the overview of what's happening and sometimes the same thing happens on multiple days and you get like over the course of three days you get certain things that work together to tell the theme of that struggle and so that's what we're doing um but then there's you know, other days where we're going to have lots of play you know and you know, this is is actually my daughter and him getting ready to race so like shane and that she's ready to write she's like okay let's go so um so they're ready too to run a race so there's a lot of play going on as well so you kind of congregate that into it and you could tell the story of them playing and then you can tell the story of them, you know, struggling and it'll go back and forth um, I'm in terms of because you're really clarifying a lot here for a book because I'm not familiar with your good book and it's a little daunting to me, right? And when you say book I think snapfish so this is a whole next yeah, this is way beyond on I think someone's bringing me their vacations snapfish bug oh my god, I have to like me again and smile so write well and see that's the thing we're trying to avoid where we want to be we want to make a book that people want to look at you I want you when I when I give you a book when I come up and hand you this book I want you to want to look at the book I want you to be like, wow, that's amazing and it's pretty and you keep turning the pages and you and you don't want to put it down that's what I want he doesn't want to share and I'm getting this from you too yeah, I'm and I'm thinking about just was saying about her trip that she's thinking about right? Because the reality is I have all of these thousands of photos of three years of travel in asia so it's and snap fishes I mean it's just that what I see other people's travel books I think this is not gonna do it for me, but then somehow you're telling this story of this kid and I'm realizing, okay, so it's it's it's a journey it's about themes it's about looking at a collective body of work and it's about coming up with themes that people resonate with that emotionally impact them that have beautiful images too, right? It's it it you're telling a story and you have to keep in mind your audience is your audience has a very short attention span all audiences do and so you you want to think about that and not bore them with the same picture over and over again? Um my my mom makes a book for every and I don't know if she's watching I don't think she's watching but she might be watching I'm s I'm I I might get in trouble here I don't know but my mom makes a book when she goes golfing with my dad my dad loves to golf and so he goes golfing and my mom goes with him she doesn't she chicken golf sometimes, but she doesn't really get into golfing but she'll ride with them and she'll read a book and she'll take a camera because remember she I got my interest in photography from her because she was an art teacher so she's really beautiful painter she's really great at watercolors and stuff like that but she likes to take pictures as well and so she will take pictures of the golf course because my dad loves golf so much that he wants to then look at the pictures of the course that he was on and then he wants to tell us all about you know how the second hole goes you know doglegs to the left and it's a fall off about you know, ten yards and it's you know, it's a good nine iron shot from here and you know he wants to tell us that but you know she whether it's on she's under strict rules from him or whether she's determined that this is the best way to shoot it she will give you an entire spread of the whole so you start and she basically you get a shot from the tee then you get a mid shot and then you get the green shot going back so it's like every hole you get so you get to live relive if my dad goes on a on a three week golf trip then every u get to come over and look at three weeks worth of golfing every hole that he was on you know and it's funny because when I go golfing with them if I go somewhere interesting to golf with my dad he then because I'm the photographer he's like jared make sure you take a picture of every hole and I'm like, oh, I'm trying to gulf here and I'm supposed to be the photographer and I'm supposed to take every you know I'm supposed to take the tee shot then I'm supposed to take the mid shot and then I'm supposed to take the green shot and so there was one point we were golfing and I had this camera with me and I and I I had it to take the pictures of the golf course and finally I was like, I'm so done with this so I just took my phone and uh every time we got at the tee box I would just whip out my phone as we got into the cart and we'd start driving I'd be like oh hold on to my brother in law to be like okay, I got the shot we just keep going and got the shot and then we just every as I was driving I would just I wasn't even looking at it would just take a picture in that general direction and that's how I took those pictures because you know I don't care about it but I don't care about looking back at it I'm just like I want to experience that I don't want to photograph it so anyway but the point is is that my mom could make a much better books if she was taking interesting pictures of like random you know, textures and trees and squirrels and stuff would be more interesting than that you know every hole the same thing over and over again and so it's just you got to consider your audience and your audience doesn't want to look at eighteen holes of every single you know shot that you took that's you know depending on how well your game went that's seventy or ninety shot and this is your dad photographs no that's it's your dad looking at unless it's my dad and he wants to just relive it and if it's just for him great but if it's for me if you want me to look at it you've got to make it more interesting and so then I've got to have you know, grand views and then I'm going to have details and stuff like that so I'm considering my audience which is all of you and of course trading and his family to relive the whole experience and I and I want to make sure that anybody who looks at this book really feels the entire experience but doesn't get so bored by the experience that they stopped looking at it because it's too important a story for me to let someone put the book down and so it has to move so um and you'll find that we're going to kick some out as we're organizing but we're also going to kick some out once they get on the page because once again on the page they might not work or there's too many of them or something like that like for instance I have a picture here and here and these two pictures are both to me haunting pictures I love them both I don't know which one to use I literally don't and I can't delete one right now so I'm gonna have to delete it when I get to the book I'll put them both on there and I'll live with him and decide which one's going to go because I can't put botham on there otherwise you'll see the same picture twice and it is going to bore you and I don't want to be bored by that picture I want you to I want it to be very impactful I just don't know which one to use um this one tends to the one on the left here tends to make me feel like he's small and he's um, you know, he's feeling like he's alone and, you know, I mean there's just like there's that emotion to it but this one on the right you can see the tears in the eyes you can see wetness you khun see, you know, and so it's a much more intimate uh, portrait of what's going on, and so I haven't determined which one I want to use so I won't make that decision now wait till it gets on the page and then I'll play with it and decide yeah, I think this looks better is a, you know, double page spread or something like that? Um so so organization is key to the process of making a book and we won't do any major more organization here. I just want you to see how important that organization is you start at in the library in collection and as long as you're in a collection you khun move stuff around, you may find that some people will email me or call me or text me or whatever and say hey, I can't move these pictures around something's wrong and that's because they're in a folder and there's like if you're in a folder instead of collection here in a folder and there's multiple folders inside that folder it can't move the photos around on the grid because it would be moving them in the folders and so that's why it won't do it, but if you're in a collection than its virtual so you could move them around and they'll stay in that order until you tell him to go in a different order and the way you it once I right now they're in a customer you can see right here on the toolbar it says custom order if I click on this, I could put them back in the time captured order and they would all go right back to where they were based on time order so you can always go back to whatever organization you had when you started just by going down to this little link down here, okay? Yeah, I noticed how your incorporating black and white with the color are you going to talk a little bit about mood? Because there's just a very different feel are how are you making those kind of decisions about what to put in black and white or color? Well the major decision that needs to be made about black and white versus color is whether or not the color is adding to the photograph and that's my general rule. If the color is actually adding to the photograph it's actually part of the photograph and it's telling something about the photograph in it helping the photograph along, then I will use it if it's not if it's not actually adding to the photograph it it goes away because the photograph can either be about shapes or it could be about color. And if it's about shapes and it's not about the color or the colors distracting to the shapes, then you need to get rid of the color so that the shapes khun takeover because color can be really, really strong. And pull your eye away from something. Um, I wonder if I have a good example of that. Like, for instance, this is this is a good example. Here, um, where you have cupcake stuff going on, right, and and the color is important because it draws your eye into it. But color can also remove your eye. Um, something this is important too. I think this is a you know, this this photograph stays and color because that orange light draws you into its like this. Beacon that's bringing you in turn into black and white and you're not going to get quite that interest you'll still have the light and you're I will go to the light but not quite as much as it will tow big orange light so I've left it in color um the uh I'm looking for something where I probably removed a lot of the things that get distraction distracting but um yeah pretty much gotten rid of all of our distractions here here well, in this in this instance actually this is a good one where you could say this could be a better black and white um because this you see this red here remember, this is our challenge image this is the one that traded and took so I handed in my camera he took the picture and we had to go in and deal with, uh kind of a lack of focus issue because the camera's heavy and he's moving it and she's moving and it's a fortieth of a second. So it's just it's just hard to keep that in focus on dh so we had to like really intensify the the sharpness of it. But if I turned into black and white because she's so soft um we're we're likely to go over to this red area and were even likely to go over to the red area but this is so cool right here that's really cool that light burst coming from his camera and so I like that but it actually gets minimized by this big red bar up here a top of the but if I turn into black and white now she becomes more important and that becomes and see how the red disappears and now we don't even look at this it doesn't distract us at all now it's all about her and it's all about the camera here so that's how we make those decisions we look at our our image and we say is there something that's pulling my eye away from the main focus and if it is I need to get rid of it and there's two ways to get rid of it either crop it out or get rid of if its color get rid of the color and then you can focus on what's important in the image and so this one I think should be staying you should be in black and white because that red bars so distracting all right so we have and and of course when you turn something black and white sometimes you're gonna have to go into the develop module and do a little bit of extra change to it because you lose some of the contrast and the pop of the photograph because color in itself is a contrast and so in this case uh it's a good idea like if you take the temperature black and white is even though it's black and white the temperature the color is still there and so by taking the temperature up im im in a sense telling it to favor the warm colors so the warm colors going to get brighter and that's her face see how our faces getting brighter with warm so I don't have to increase the brightness of the image and I had to go to the exposure just take the temperature and brighten it up and I'm getting her face warming up just by doing that plus the beauty of doing that under a black and white image is that this skin becomes softer and glows more and so you lose blemishes and stuff like that it becomes really super silky so warming up in image under a black and white is a really great thing to play with so we've just made that a lot better photograph by because it was here it was like that I think and now it's like that so much better photograph now okay? So mood of a book like this and just to get back to that you're gonna put black and white and color throughout the whole book and that that's right and in some cases I'll put a color image in a black and white together and that's fine too as long as it makes sense but sometimes you are going to find is we design this book that we may get into the book and we'll put a couple color and black and white images on the same page and we'll look at and think ok something's got to give so we're gonna turn all these two black and white are gonna bring these back to color but chances are if I've already turned into black and white here I'm gonna have to turn the other ones too black and white because most every photograph khun go to black and white and look good not every color isn't photograph can be color which is interesting black and white is a little bit more forgiving colors it could be pretty bad yeah kind of ties into a question that just came up from edits and images in the chat room now they asked about sort of the progression here of all these photos kind of segway ing from one foot to the next when you're planning out a book and you mentioned kind of going from black and white to color but they want to know if you have any tips or tricks on how to help organize it says you're building out the book now are these all sort of just in chronological order or do you look at other things when you're kind of piecing together the different images in the order that they go in ok so when telling a story I'm looking for um and if you listen to a piece of music that's what I'm maybe you've heard the statement all our aspires to the condition of music and that's because music is the probably the highest form of art that exists because it's a direct conduit there are no filters involved like if you listen to music it doesn't matter if you understand the words or not you understand the feeling the music and it just doesn't matter who you are if it's a peppy music it's going to make you happy and if it's sad music it's going to feel sad and if it's you know military march it's going to sound military march there just is no matter where you are in the world or who what music you're listening to you can get the sense of that music and what it's conveying because music literally has some kind of a direct conduit from the the center to the receiver and it just goes right into their soul that's why we use music tto learn the a b c's and things like that because it's such an installer it's almost like you khun it's like it's like trey jin's little uh conduit in his chest it's just a direct line in and and other things like photographs and paintings and sculptures they have a lot of filters that they have to go through and so um I always think about music when I'm creating art and especially when you're telling a story if you think about the way music plays that's the best way to make a book so you're looking for crescendos you're looking for a small piece even if it's popular music today you have you know, the opening statement of the music is usually, you know, a bar too without music and then our without words and then all of a sudden, you know, the the first verse comes in and so the verse verse kind of repeats itself a little bit, you know? It's kind of got a pattern to it, but then right as it gets up to the chorus, it starts to build a little bit and it gives kind of like the almost like there's an intention to do something different here and it leads into it almost like there's a play on words goingto happen or some way they're goingto trip you into a different concept and then it builds and then the chorus is usually grandiose and big and important and and gives you a lot of emotion whether it's funny or sad or whatever and it's bigger but it's short because we can't abide long term bouts of sadness and anger and whatever so it's it's short and then it goes back to the verse and the verse quiets down again and it gives you that it advances the story a little bit more but it's a little bit more palatable it's not quite as energetic it gives you a little bit you know of arrest because you have to have a rest you have to have a rest and then excitement and then rest and then excitement because if you just went all excitement you get burned out and if you went all rest you get bored and so then you're going through the verse again and this verse is has the same underlying tones and stuff is the first verse but it's advancing the concept from a different perspective it's telling the story again but from a different way and then the new chorus comes in and it's built and it may be exactly the same as the first chorus it's telling the same story exactly maybe even the same words but it's a told a little bit differently with different music coming in with maybe a you gnome or drums or something better is in that next um chorus maybe they've changed up the words country songs change up the words quite a bit so they'll change the words a little bit because they play with them so they use the same basic words but the last word of each line is different or something like that and so you'll have you know that second chorus is different but very much the same but it's again it's a burst of energy it's big it's it's driving home the concept and then you go back to now is that the next verse and sometimes you'll have a bridge and the bridge somewhere in the song you never know where it's going to be usually it's after like the second chorus or something like that the bridge allows you to get away from the whole story it's like a rest from the entire thing it pulls you away it's a kind of an offshoot it's it's usually really slow or it pulls away it's soft it's vacant it he just gives you arrest like stop telling me this story for a second let me just rest sometimes just a guitar solo or something like that and then we're back in to another verse or maybe the last chorus and then a trail some kind of an end and and and a sunken in two different ways in the eighties all songs just took the fader and faded him out right think about that almost every song in the eighties fades out you know why that is? They don't know how to end the song right? And it was there was just no way to like bam you know it's like that end up prayer own and that's the end of the song right? Well because they were using so many like electrical, you know you know keyboards and stuff like that and didn't have riel violins playing they had like a fake violent on a keyboard playing and so it wasn't like they could just go you know? And so they just fade it out this was no way to end the song and or maybe they didn't know like the cure they would always there intro was like six minutes and then so the first of the song is really long and then there's this like, you know, five minute song and then faded out we're there eleven minutes now on a song and it's like ah, you know and so it's like they're listening to twelve songs in one but it's all the same so nowadays you get a lot more instant stops on songs which are so much prettier and I love him better because they're just its powerful when you're writing a little song and don't dent down and now a bomb and it's done, you know and so there's two ways to tell the story you can slowly fade that story out and maybe give it kind of ah just tweet that I don't know how to say that tinkle it out I mean, you know, just kind of let it let it wayne or you khun you khun b full on in the story and then there's one last amazing, you know image that just goes bam you know it hits you but sometimes it's just a matter of replaying the very beginning in a good speech they say that if you if you're going to give a good speech you tell them what you're gonna tell them then you tell them then you tell them what you told them and that's how we teach you'll notice that I tell you a lot what I just told you and I tell you what I'm going to tell you so that we so that you're always aware and and it drives it home over and over and over again so in a good story and a good book you'll do the same thing and so at the very end a lot of the times I'll take a quintessential image that should have been in the middle of the book somewhere and I will take that not repeat it but I'll take an image that belonged in the center of the book that's kind of like the it tells the story it's like this is the story especially like you're making a wedding book the very last image instead of like them leaving especially if there's no like them leaving if they just like snuck away in the last image of the book can be like this amazing kiss shot or this amazing you know shot of whatever and it just re encapsulates a story so that's another way to do it and that's more of a like that's a false ending store like when you you know my favorite songs are the ones that end and then there's a space and then they go out and up and then they end again that's what that is it's just we're going to re tell you the story in one quick bite one picture so that's how you tell a story so that's how I'm thinking about stories I tell him I want them to ebb and flow like this I want big crescendos and then I want to be you know a little bit different and then I wantto because then you're not boring anybody okay any other questions out there ideas so do you have editing music and then my music that you play while you're doing different jobs along yeah yeah absolutely and the type of music I'm listening to while I work on photos changes the way the photos look and so if if I'm listening toe like dark angry music or something line editing then it's not like it's not like the photo is not like the wedding photos become like angry but they become much more uh edgy whereas if I'm listening to like michael boo blay or something like that then it's like they're a lot softer and there, you know? So anyway it depends on your mood as to what you're listening to and then what you're listening to colors the photographs it really does no man is an island, right?