We've talked a lot about conceptualization and how to innovate the concept. But to innovate a concept, you have to innovate the visuals that go with it. This is my favorite part of the process. I love trying to make something out of nothing. And I have spent a lot of time doing ridiculous things that end up looking pretty cool and a lot of ridiculous things that look terrible. So I want to share some of those techniques with you, particularly the good ones, not the bad ones. And I want to share with you how I can make some really fun things look very interesting and very creepy in a photograph. So first, let me show you some of my really fun costumes and props and things like that and how I'm aktham on the cheap because I am not interested in spending a lot of money when it comes to creating my images. I'm just not except for on very particular occasions. So in general I try to spend a little bit of money and make it look really interesting. So often I make things from fabrics, whateve...

r fabric I confined, and one of those fabrics is an ace bandage, which I have here. So when I use aced bandages, I find them to be really effective because they come in neutral colors. They're really stretchy, and you can put them wherever you want. They can give a sense of just a neutral outfit. If you want something that kind of dissolves into the picture that you don't really notice, it can also be use for what it is, which is a sign that something is injured that you're wrapping up. And it could give a lot of character to a subject so aced. Bandages air some of my favorite favorite things to use in a photo because they're easy, they're simple, they're inexpensive and they have good texture to them, and they look great. So these are some examples of where I've used aced bandages as the costume in the photo, but I also use them for different purposes. For example, if I'm using something like a piece of fabric or a bedsheet to create a costume, I might add an ace bandage to it, to wrap it over top of the costume to hold it in place on the subject. So that's a really good way to go. If you just want to get a few pieces of fabric to use, That's what I would do to make a really nice costume. Another thing that I love to do is t dying. And I'm gonna show you that in just a minute. This is an example of a costume right here that has been t died when I got it. Originally, the veil was white and I say Veil, it was just like a table cloth thing. It was white. And now it's not because I t died it then This is a great way to go to your local thrift store or someplace really inexpensive to get some fabric that isn't gonna break the budget, but then make it look really antiqued. Because if you've ever been doing antique store, you know that it could be very pricey to get something that's actually very old in photography. It just doesn't have to be that old. We don't have to spend a ton of money on something like that. So I use t die bed sheets are my go thio costume and and I will use it on any occasion. Just the other week, I was in a hotel room and I wanted to do a photo shoot. So I ripped the bedsheet off and used it as my costume. There are so many ways that we can use. Bedsheets is costumes. You could drape them like togas. You could wear them, like address around the mid section. You can wear them a skirts. I use them a lot because they're neutral and timeless, and they give a really flowing look to the pictures. So it makes it look really dynamic at the same time. And it doesn't cost a lot of money, So I absolutely love using bed sheets. Now I will say that I have a lot of different colored bed sheets, but you don't need that. So, like, here I have a white one, a brown one blue one. And it's great to just have two different colors, maybe a light one in a dark one or one pop of color. And that should do you really well. Of course, all of these tips are just fun ways to use inexpensive things in dynamic ways in your images. So I'm not trying to say that everybody should switch to using bed sheets only or anything like that. But just consider what's around you and how can you use it in a new way. One of the ways that I did that was to use objects in my images so I would make dresses out of objects in this case, books that I photographed and made a dress out of them. Now you could do this for riel tangibly in person. You could make a dress, sculpture of books or book pages or whatever you want, but I did it in Photoshop, and there's no shame whichever way you want to do something. Pretty much all of these techniques that I'm going to show you could be done digitally. It just depends on the way that you like to work. In this case, I use paper airplanes to make my dress, and I love just finding different things that I can use in this case keys that I piled up in Photoshop to about 1000 keys and made a dress out of them, and I find stuff like that really innovative, really fun and just so inspiring to be able to see anything around you as an option to use and your photography, this image will be surprised to hear was just a little bit of fabric and not much else. So I actually took a bunch of just a pile of fabric and I pulled it all up around me. And then on top of that, I added an overlay of a moth. So this was kind of a fun image, because the original was completely ridiculous in relation to what the final image turned out to be. This was another image where I just used fabric in this case, taking a single piece of fabric and flowing it out from my body in many different directions and then blending that later. This is a technique that we're going to practice during the editing segment, So if you're not quite sure how to blend, images like this will definitely go over it. So don't worry, that will happen. Fabric could be used in a lot of different ways as a costume, because it is so neutral and it doesn't really have a time period attached to it. Any time you get an actual piece of wardrobe, whether it's a shirt, pants address, whatever it may be, it's going to have a time period attached to it because it was crafted in a specific time period to match the decor of that time period. What I love about fabric is that I could drape this on myself or somebody else in any style that I want, and it has no time period associated with it. This could be really important. If you're going for imagery, that with stands the test of time, that doesn't have a time stamp on it. That won't become dated. So I find that really, really effective in that regard. I have been to the thrift store before and just found veils like, Have you ever been to a thrift store? And you've seen, like, eighties wedding dresses hanging there, and they always have these huge veils that go with, um, I would buy the dress just to get the veil, because I find veils to be very effective tools for photographing. They often have beautiful lace on them. They're often a little bit sort of age, naturally and really, it's just tool, which you can also get your local craft store. I love using tool and anything that has natural texture to it. We're gonna talk about texture here in just a minute. I love using leotards as well, so I have a couple of them here. I have a lot of leotards at home, and I use them as either the costume itself to go for something very neutral or I use it underneath other things. Thio practice, modesty, for example. If I don't want to show anything in an image, um, or just as something underneath so that you know it matches the costume that's going over top like a slip, so those are some good options as well.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Worksheets.pdf

Student Practice Images (large 1.9gb zip file)

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 Adobe Photoshop Post-Processing Photo Editing Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student

Brooke never fails to deliver. I found this course superb from start to finish. From exercising your creative 'muscle', demystifying taking self portraits, and showing that they don't have to be perfect before you begin editing, to walking you through her editing process and how to price your work. Brooke's enthusiastic personality and excitement about the work shines through it all. Definitely recommended!

Rebecca Potter

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Brooke for this amazing class. Inspired and so full of practical knowledge, this is the best class I've ever watched. You have given me the confidence to pursue what I've always been afraid to do. Watch this space!

Søren Nielsen

Thank for fantastic motivating an very inspiring. The story telling and selling module was very helpful - thanks from Denmark

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

How to Create Costumes From Fabric

How to Create Costumes From Fabric

Lesson Info

18. How to Create Costumes From Fabric

Lessons

Class Introduction

Overview of Brooke’s Journey

Your Timeline is Nonlinear

Using Curiosity and Intention to Build Your Career

What Factors Dictate Growth

Organic Growth vs. Forced Growth

Niche Branding

Brooke’s Artistic Evolution and Timeline

How Can You Get Ahead if You Feel Behind?

Ideation and Conceptualization to Identify Meaning in Your Art

Idea Fluency

How to Represent an Idea

How to Innovate an Idea

Creating a Dialogue With Your Art

Conceptualization For a Series vs. a Single Image

Transforming a Single Image Into a Series

How to Tell a Story in a Series