Shoot: Moss Image
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
Shoot: Moss Image
For this image, we're using a lot of moss to create a rather creepy scene in this space, and I love creepy, so this is probably the most exciting moment yet during this series because I really feel a sense of everything coming together in one space and looking exactly as I envision, but I cannot take all the credit for this because I just drew a terrible little sketch of what I wanted and then all of my friends made it happen by putting this moss on the wall. So we bought moss, and its sort of like little sheets of it and I have an example here of what we haven't used yet, so this is the moss that we're using, just sort of little sheets. And we used tape to put it up on the wall and then double-sided tape to stick it to our subject on the wall right now. We have her standing on an apple box just so that she's elevated a little bit. My end goal being that I'm going to photograph her feet separately and when I photograph her feet I'll be able to add them in later to make it look like she...
's dangling in the scene. So the idea is that the moss is growing all through this corner of the room and it is enveloping our subject as though she is just completely melted into this space. This was a really exciting image for me because it's happening in real time as we see it right now. A lot of the time I rely on Photoshop, and I think that is totally fine if you rely on Photoshop. I do very frequently, but in this case I thought that it would be really helpful to have the moss in the space. One, because I don't live in a place where I can purchase moss easily or where I can go out and find it easily, so I thought, you know what, I'm just going to get as much moss as I can into one space, make sure that the lighting is consistent instead of trying to find logs and trees or random little areas where I can photograph it and hope that I can match the light to this space, so trying to move moss in a natural area in Photoshop into this room would have been quite a task in my opinion, get the contouring right, get the lighting right, so this way we have it all happening in one spot. I think that she looks beautiful and creepy in the corner and this is going to be rather straightforward in that I'm going to take just a couple shots of her here. I'm then going to photograph this space without our subject, remove the apple box, photograph her feet separately, and then I'll be able to get rid of that black box and have new feet in the picture in the end. So I'm just gonna step back, take a look, I'm gonna get a lower angle for this one, and we haven't got a lot of light in this space, and I'm going to try to just adjust my exposure to reflect the little bit of light that we do have. So I am taking my ISO up to 500 for this image. Just gonna get a little bit closer here. And this is looking really neat to me, so I'm gonna have you put your head down even further, yup, you got it. I'm just getting my focus here. And this is gonna be super simple, just a quick shot. I'm gonna get a little bit extra of the room in this space. And that's it. So now, I could tell her to move aside and I will get the feet and I will get the space without the box, but just because I can, because all this work went into this construction of this scene which actually did take quite some time to put together, I would say probably about an hour or so just crafting this and making sure that it looked perfect, I'm gonna come in and get just a couple detail shots here. And just make sure that I have this properly documented before I completely tear it down and destroy everything. And this is really good to have for a series, because if I have little detail shots then I, for one, have extra content that I can put on my blog, on my social media, or maybe even in a slide show in the gallery where this series might eventually end up. But the other good thing is simply that I can show people how it was done and really get some close up detail shots in that way. So I'm just getting in here, getting these detail shots, making sure that her pain is documented. No, no, she's not in pain, I'm just kidding. Well I don't think she is. You're in pain? No. Oh she's not in pain, that's okay. (chuckles) All right, so, you look beautiful. Now wait, I'm just gonna get one more shot, because it's so good and I wanna make sure that we do it justice, so I'm just gonna back up one more time. Make sure that everything is looking perfect. Maybe get a different angle, I might move in a little bit closer this time. (shutter clicks) Okay. (shutter clicking) Good. Okay, I think we got it. So, I'm going to have you just take a step forward, if you can. (chuckles) Are you stuck? I'm kinda stuck. Okay, well in that case, you're not gonna take a step forward and we'll just photograph your feet, okay? So I'm gonna photograph her feet, and I'm just gonna get back where I was. Make sure that my focus is still good. Perfect, and now the other. Fantastic. Okay, so now I've got the feet that I can edit in later, and once we're able to unstick her from the wall, then I will take my blank shot in this room, but that's as I've been doing, always getting a blank shot of the space that I'm in. Other than that I think this went beautifully.
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.