Example Pricing Exercise
Brooke 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
Example Pricing Exercise
We're going to talk about pricing right now in terms of what you guys are doing. Surprise! (laughing) Should've warned you. I just wanna take a quick moment to see if anyone is starting to form an idea of pricing that you might wanna go with for your work. So, first things first, does anyone have sizes in your mind of a couple sizes that you think you're feeling pretty good about that you would want to put out there? 20 and 30. 20 and 30. So, why 20 and 30 inches? Or if you're doing 30 inches. 20 by 30. 20, 20 by Oh, 20 by 30? Okay good. See, I'm in squares, so I hear one number and I think that's the whole thing. 20 by 30, only size that you wanna offer? It's the first size I thought of, but I, Okay. Can go bigger and I guess smaller by a bit, yeah. Okay. Bigger and smaller. So, let's start with your 20 by 30 size since you feel good about that. And I agree cause my best selling size is 20 inches, so it's probably a good range. And people kinda feel like... It's...
like when you go to Starbucks, and you have the options between the names that I can never remember. What are the names of the, Starbucks It's never small Right, it's never small, right? And so you're standing there in line at Starbucks and you're like, "Oh I don't want it to be too little, "and I don't want it to be too big", so you get the one in the middle and this is very much like that. People think "Oh well the small one is really small, "but the big one's way to big and too expensive, "so I'll get the one in the middle.", so I think 20 by 30 is a really good size. And if you're going to have your 20 by 30, what edition do you think you would do for that? If you were going to edition your work? How many prints, or? How many prints, at that size, would you wanna offer? Just as a starting point? 10. 10. 10. Very good, great starting point. Okay, so 20 by 30 an edition of 10, and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but on average how much would you say a single image of yours costs to produce? If you just had to say, in terms of everything, like travel to get to the places, cause I know you do a lot of photographs all over the world, so there's probably a lot of costs involved in getting to those places, so if you just had to say an average price of what you would spend to be able to produce that image. What would you say? Wow that's a tough one. I know. And you'll have to do the counting later, but just totally general range. Well if it'd be something close to home, it's almost nothing, Almost nothing. But then again, you've got the camera equipment and lenses, so, you know, Exactly. it is another thing to take into consideration. Okay so let's do this, let's say that your 20 by 30 print cost you $60 to produce. And let's just say that you're gonna factor in another $40 for you equipment and that'll be something that you recoup over time, so it's $100 for your print. Then if you multiply that by 10 that's $1,000. Yeah, we did the math! Okay so that's good, so we've got $1, as your starting point, so maybe if you sell in a gallery, and you're marking it up 50%, you'll sell for $2,000. Now we have to consider where are you in your career. So do you feel like you're emerging as an artist, you're mid-career you've done some selling, you know kinda what you're doing now, or you've been doing this and you're a complete pro. I'd say emerging. Okay, and there are lots and lots of people who say emerging to mid-career artist, and all that kind of stuff, so we'll say starting. So maybe we'll keep it at $2,000 then and that's the price that you would sell your medium sized print for in a gallery and you would make $1,000 of that back. I think that sounds very reasonable for a 20 by 30 inch print, it's pretty big right, that'll be like this wide, maybe yeay tall or so, that's a good chunk of print. So I would say that's a really good place to start for your pricing, and now you have your mid-point so now you can go okay well if it's bigger I'll do this price, if it's smaller I'll do this price, and it's all relative to that one price point. Okay, any other victims, or you feel good about that? I saw Tori, kinda like, (squeak). I'll try. Okay so what sizes are you thinking? I'm thinking three sizes, I think a 16 inch long edge, and then a 40, 42, somewhere in there, large, Okay, good. and then maybe like a six inch or an eight inch little one. Interesting, yeah! I like that, okay so, really small, medium size, and large. We're gonna call yours extra small, medium and large. I like that. (laughs) And that's really good because the more you can space them out the more buyers aren't gonna be confused by all the sizes in between. Which was my mistake, so, I very much think that's a good idea. So you've got three sizes, are you thinking any editions for those? I haven't decided, but if I were probably maybe five for the largest and maybe 10 for the medium and I'm sort of thinking of doing unlimited for the small. Okay. Which would be a different paper, and a more mass-produced... Interesting, okay that's a really interesting topic because there will be a group of artists who say "Never do that because that devalues "the other sizes of your prints.", and a whole other group that says, "No, it's a totally different thing, "you can sell them however you want.", and the truth is you can sell them however you want. So that's a really interesting thing. And of course the prices would have to be quite different, on those Correct. So what about your open edition, what size do you think would be appropriate for something like that? It would be the smallest size. The smallest size, Yeah. Okay, the smallest size, six inches you said? Six or eight, yeah somewhere in there. Six or eight inches. Something small so, would you want it to be on a mass-produced paper? Or something like a postcard or something like... The printer in me say no, but, Right? Knowing how pricing works, maybe, yeah. Okay, this is really interesting, I've never actually considered this before. So if you had to put a price on that, what would you say? $80? $80, okay, good. So I like that Just outta thin air. And I like how you said bucks too because that makes it feel better. So $80, so if we have $80 on your small print, then what kind of a jump would you see having to happen, from your small to your next size up? So in my mind, it would be a large jump, because it would be on fine art, matte paper, museum quality, like a much higher print. A different thing altogether, so It would be. The 16, maybe, I think I'd start around $400, and then probably go up from there. That sounds pretty good to me. Yeah. I would, I would say, since it's 16 on the long edge, right, I think that that sounds really good, keeping it under the $1,000 mark to start. And it's definitely something that given only two limited edition sizes, you can definitely push it way higher once you start rolling with those prints. So I would say keeping it around $400 would be good, and then since you have a really big size jump, then I would definitely say don't make that under $1, because that's such a big size jump, that I would definitely say push that a lot further. What would you think for that? My initial reaction would be around maybe the $1,500 mark. Something around there, or even a little bit higher for that just because that's a very large print, the 40, 42 you said, 42 inches on the long side, so given such a large print, I would definitely say $1,500 to $2,000 mark maybe. But it depends of course, on the market that you're in right now, and that's always really tricky. Yeah, I think that, about $1,000 increase to start would be good for that jump in size. This is good, we got two of you done, and I'll talk to you guys later. But yeah, thank you guys for sharing. I know that it's nerve-wracking to talk about pricing and everything like that. And it doesn't feel good to do ever. It's really difficult to figure out pricing, to figure out sizing, to figure out editions and there's a lot to think about. So with this segment talking about pricing and editioning, we have a workbook that will take you through this process of how to find editions, how to find your sizes, how to find your prices, how to find your paper, and all of that fun stuff, and it is really daunting so I just wanna take a second to say that I get it. I know that it's so much information, and it's really confusing cause you don't wanna make the wrong choice and of course, we have this tendency as artists to feel like imposters and to feel like our work isn't worth that much money or whatever it may be, and I know that it's really hard to just settle on a price, and it feels terrible, but it's also really good and empowering to just do that. To set your price, know your worth, have done the math on it, figure out exactly the road that you wanna travel as an artist because these decisions will completely inform how you're able to progress as an artist in the future. Which sounds like another really daunting statement. But it's good, I think that it should be something that we take really seriously, that we spend a lot of time thinking about, and just lay a good foundation for what comes next. Because if you don't you might find yourself in a ton of different terrible situations later. But if we just know it right now, we'll be much better off.
Class Materials
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.
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.
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.