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Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order

Lesson 81 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order

Lesson 81 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

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Lesson Info

81. Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

19:06
2

Storytelling & Ideas

27:34
3

Universal Symbols in Stories

03:19
4

Create Interactive Characters

02:16
5

The Story is in The Details

04:13
6

Giving Your Audience Feelings

05:49
7

Guided Daydream Exercise

04:20
8

Elements of Imagery

02:19
9

The Death Scenario

01:47
10

Associations with Objects

03:01
11

Three Writing Exercises

06:39
12

Connection Through Art

30:35
13

Break Through Imposter Syndrome

07:40
14

Layering Inspiration

23:13
15

Creating an Original Narrative

07:42
16

Analyze an Image

04:12
17

Translate Emotion into Images

04:31
18

Finding Parts in Images

06:02
19

Finding Your Target Audience

04:05
20

Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?

12:01
21

Create a Series That Targets Your Audience

32:43
22

Formatting Your Work

06:08
23

Additional Materials to Attract Clients

07:24
24

Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?

04:17
25

How to Make Money from Your Target Audience

11:27
26

Circle of Focus

07:55
27

The Pillars of Branding

06:18
28

Planning Your Photoshoot

09:05
29

Choose Every Element for The Series

07:38
30

Write a Descriptive Paragraph

09:37
31

Sketch Your Ideas

17:27
32

Choose Your Gear

02:50
33

How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations

26:18
34

What Tells a Story in a Series?

13:06
35

Set Design Overview

01:43
36

Color Theory

19:50
37

Lighting for the Scene

12:05
38

Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design

06:00
39

Locations

04:31
40

Subject Within the Scene

07:26
41

Set Design Arrangement

05:46
42

Fine Art Compositing

03:46
43

Plan The Composite Before Shooting

10:29
44

Checklist for Composite Shooting

18:52
45

Analyze Composite Mistakes

12:11
46

Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing

10:42
47

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing

08:36
48

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories

08:17
49

Shoot: Miniature Scene

09:59
50

Editing Workflow Overview

01:57
51

Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress

08:35
52

Edit Details of Images

08:09
53

Add Smoke & Texture

10:47
54

Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite

24:58
55

Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario

17:55
56

Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot

22:10
57

Self Portrait Test Shoots

22:30
58

Shoot for Edit

04:21
59

Shoot Extra Stock Images

10:01
60

Practice the Shoot

25:07
61

Introduction to Shooting Photo Series

03:33
62

Shoot: Vine Image

10:40
63

Shoot: Sand Image

09:50
64

Shoot: End Table Image

04:59
65

Shoot: Bed Image

06:18
66

Shoot: Wall Paper Image

05:54
67

Shoot: Chair Image

08:02
68

Shoot: Mirror Image

06:57
69

Shoot: Moss Image

05:48
70

Shoot: Tree Image

07:33
71

Shoot: Fish Tank Image

04:09
72

Shoot: Feather Image

09:00
73

View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing

07:35
74

Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion

36:55
75

Edit Images with Advanced Compositing

29:33
76

Decide How to Start the Composite

09:35
77

Organize Final Images

21:37
78

Choosing Images for Your Portfolio

08:19
79

Order the Images in Your Portfolio

16:28
80

Why do Some Images Sell More Than Others?

16:03
81

Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order

11:42
82

Framing, Sizing, Editioning & Pricing

02:19
83

Determine Sizes for Prints

16:44
84

How to Choose Paper

13:56
85

How to Choose Editions

07:18
86

Pricing Strategies

18:59
87

How to Present Your Images

13:26
88

Example Pricing Exercise

09:39
89

Print Examples

08:23
90

Licensing, Commissions & Contracts

04:44
91

How to Keep Licensing Organized

06:07
92

How to Prepare Files for Licensing

07:28
93

Pricing Your Licensed Images

12:33
94

Contract Terms for Licensing

12:07
95

Where to Sell Images

04:55
96

Commission Pricing Structure

08:23
97

Contract for Commissions

12:17
98

Questions for a Commission Shoot

08:45
99

Working with Galleries

08:58
100

Benefits of Galleries

07:39
101

Contracts for Galleries

10:32
102

How to Find Galleries

05:22
103

Choose Images to Show

08:53
104

Hanging the Images

03:38
105

Importance of Proofing Prints

08:04
106

Interview with Soren Christensen Gallery

21:59
107

Press Package Overview

04:35
108

Artist Statement for Your Series

18:20
109

Write Your 'About Me' Page

09:04
110

Importance of Your Headshot

03:55
111

Create a Leave Behind & Elevator Pitch

20:19
112

Writing For Fine Art

04:44
113

Define Your Writing Style

14:49
114

Find Your Genre

06:41
115

What Sets You Apart?

02:25
116

Write to Different Audiences

05:10
117

Write for Blogging

39:57
118

Speak About Your Work

14:21
119

Branding for Video

07:37
120

Clearly Define Video Talking Points

14:27
121

Types of Video Content

31:45
122

Interview Practice

13:22
123

Diversifying Social Media Content

22:32
124

Create an Intentional Social Media Persona

24:48
125

Monetize Your Social Media Presence

18:46
126

Social Media Posting Plan

04:01
127

Choose Networks to Use & Invest

02:57
128

Presentation of Final Images

19:13
129

Printing Your Series

09:16
130

How to Work With a Print Lab

13:39
131

Proofing Your Prints

10:11
132

Bad Vs. Good Prints

03:32
133

Find Confidence to Print

10:50
134

Why Critique?

06:55
135

Critiquing Your Own Portfolio

10:39
136

Critique of Brooke's Series

16:18
137

Critique of Student Series

40:07
138

Yours is a Story Worth Telling

02:09

Lesson Info

Analyze Student Portfolio Image Order

We have got student images pulled up. So, thank you Tory, thank you Sarit for lending your images. We're just going to take a quick look at other people's portfolios, because we can only look at my images for so long without being completely bored and needing to see something else. We're going to look at some thing else. Just really quickly. We're not going to talk about what's good, what's bad, what shouldn't be there, what can be fixed. That'll be for later. But, so, you guys can start getting worried now, for the end of this class, but not yet. We're just going to quickly look through your portfolio. This is how I would do anyone's portfolio, mine, yours, anybody's. It's just going through one by one, getting a sense of your color palette, your flow, what your subject matter is, locations, for example. Anything that might link one image to another. I love this picture of this chicken and this goat. And so, just take a first pass. Now we've gotten a sense. There are a couple things t...

hat I noticed. One is the flowing fabric, and the particular way that you do it. I would say that this image, this picture, and this one go really well together in terms of having some cohesion with the fabric. I would probably say that it would be really good to have these, well, one of two things, either acknowledge that they have a similar flow to them, particularly these two. And recognizing that they go well together. They might bookend your portfolio. They might go right next to each other in your portfolio. Or you might decide, actually I have stronger concept image that can replace one of these, because they're so similar in the way that they're facing, the way that they're posed, the fabric, things like that. If I had to say, I would probably argue that this one looks a little bit more interesting to me, just personally. That's a totally personal note, so not something that you need to listen to in any way, shape, or form. But I really like how she stands out from the clouds and the color palette here. As we look through, what I'm gonna look for first is, "Which image would surprise me, when I saw it first?" If I were to look through these images, and just say, "Which one is the most unique, "or has the most unique perspective, "or has a visual that really surprises me?" I'm just doing one more pass through really quickly to make sure that I didn't overlook anything. Aside from goat and chicken... We're gonna call this "Goat and Chicken" for now on. I would actually say that your first image here, I think should start the portfolio. I find this to be an interesting introduction to the whimsy of your portfolio, which I love. It also has the most bold colors in it, which I think is really interesting to start the portfolio that way. I then might go onto an image like this one, that keep some of the colors, and has some of the whimsy, but starts to bring it a little bit more back to reality in this picture, for me, which I know is weird to say, 'cause there's a man floating with an umbrella, but because of the way that you really see the texture of the grass, and this is a very believable sky that would be there, and the way that it's silhouetted. It's not silhouette totally, but semi-silhouette, I will say. That brings me back to a photographic look, which I think is really interesting to pair with some other images that you have in here. I might do that order of having this one and this one next to each other. Just continuing that perspective as well. The angle of the frame. Having both wide images next to each other. From this image, you kind of have the room to flow into a lot of different things. You could flow with color, into more de-saturated images now. You might pair these two pictures together, that both have a sort of smaller subject, not in the distance, but where you see the whole body in there, versus an image like this, where you see something much more close up. It gives you the ability to flow like this, with these two, or I think, you might go with one of the flowing fabric images, because of the flow of form between them, with this umbrella and then literal flowing fabric after that. Could be really interesting. I would say that the two hardest images to place would be the hands, because there's no person in it, which I don't actually think... I would not take this out of your portfolio. I love this image. But I would question where it should be placed. I think that you'll need to get multiple opinions on this, perhaps. Or use this maybe as a final image, because it works really well. It's sort of like, this is what you can do. This isn't what you have done in your portfolio, but this is a little inkling of a different way of telling stories, that I think is really interesting. I would say that this one doesn't have as much of a place, the goat and chicken, because there are no people in it. That can be a little bit jarring, when there's a subject matter change that's quite drastic. The lighting is beautiful. It's a gorgeous image. I just wouldn't know where to put it in here. It might be a little weird to see this really cool girl with this bow and arrow and then be like, and chickens and goats. That would be my only thought of what doesn't quite flow with the rest of the images. Aside from that, I would say that you'd be really good to start with this image, end with this image, to give them a little taste of something different, and then in between that, flow either with color or composition. I think it's gorgeous. I think you have a great portfolio. I'm going to move on to Sarit now. Are you ready? Yes, okay. We have six images here. Let's quickly go through each one, just to get our sense of the portfolio. I was really excited to look at Sarit's portfolio because this is so outside of what I have any ability to do. I mean, I'm sure that I could take a creative life class and learn something about landscape and stuff like that, but it's so outside of my comfort zone. I really enjoy looking at something that's so different from me. We had a long conversation earlier about the Dead Sea. Wow, what an amazing place. You even said, as we went through, "Maybe we should take out that India picture." I totally get why you say that, especially now that I'm looking at all of these as a whole. Because there's a person, two people in this pictures, whereas there aren't in the others. This is like the opposite that you had, Tory, where you had goat and chicken. Is there a name for that, that I should be calling goat and chicken? Okay, goat and chicken. That was the only one where you didn't have people. Now this is the only one where you do. I definitely understand why you would say that this image doesn't quite belong in this portfolio. I would argue that it's not that it doesn't belong, necessarily, because there is a sense of travel in your images, where these are different places with different themes. This is clearly not the same place as this. Unless it is, but it doesn't look like it. You've got different places with a very similar perspective on each one. Where you seem to be shooting with a wider angle lens. Where you have not distortion necessarily, but the sense of motion coming into each image that I really like. This one does not fit with the subject matter. It does not fit with even the angle of the lens that you're using, necessarily. But it does have a sense of travel and introducing a different space to somebody. This could be a really interesting image to just add more of to this portfolio, which I think could work really well. In terms of images that stand out, I immediately stopped on this picture the first time I saw it. I was in love with it. I thought it was so incredibly beautiful. I would probably start with an image like this, something that is very bold. Even though there isn't any color to it, it still has this sense of alienness, which I just made up. It looks alien to me. I think that that's really bold and dramatic. In terms of picking a flow to these images, I would say that it's probably good to start with this image because it's your only vertical image in this portfolio. I would then flow to either this image or this one, probably this one. It has a water them to it as well. It also has the same sort of composition with the foreground land and the background. Whereas this one doesn't have that sense of foreground so much. I would probably order your images this one, and then this one, and then this one, which is moving us into the blue category here. I think you can't go wrong basically with this one versus this one. But let's say that we're ending your portfolio without the India shot that you have here. I would end it there, because I think that it's a slightly different perspective than we've seen, and there's a lot to look at here. You notice this hot air ballon and you think, "Oh, there's something even more here, "than just the landscape." That could be a really beautiful way to end it. Also giving just a sense of joy to your portfolio, which I think it can't be bad to end a portfolio review with some joy, right? That can always be good to give your portfolio reviewers some happiness. I would say either add more shots of people or take it away, as we discussed. I think that you have a really natural flow to your portfolio, so beautiful work. That's a lot of information about ordering your portfolio, choosing image for your portfolio. There are so many ways that we can do these things. Of course it's all subjective. It's really hard to be objective and step back and say, "Obviously your images go in this order, "and obviously this shouldn't be included, "but this should be." We can debate about it all day. I know, because I have debated about it for days and days in a row with people about my own images and what goes where and what shouldn't be in there. At the end of the day, in my experience with portfolio reviews, it's always a very interesting process. They're often quite forgiving, in the portfolio review process. If you think about it, either they're going to connect with your work on some level, or they're going to not like your work. Let's just be honest, right? People often aren't like, "Oh, I don't really care. "I guess you could do this, I guess you could do that." either they're going to care, 'cause they like what they see, so they wanna help you, or they're not going to care, 'cause they don't connect, so they don't care what's in your portfolio. I'm not saying stress for days over this, or anything like that. What I am saying is be very mindful about how your images flow, how they make people feel, especially. What kind of feeling you wanna leave people with. What you want them to think about. Make a statement, because nothing is better than making a statement with your work, and being memorable. I think that is the most important thing in a portfolio situation. It's to just make somebody remember you. That's the thing that we're all gonna have more and more trouble with, as the population grows and the internet expands.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Guided Daydream & Writing Exercises Workbook (Lessons 1-11)
Creating an Original Narrative Workbook (Lessons 12-18)
Finding Your Target Audience Workbook (Lessons 19-27)
Planning Your Series Workbook (Lessons 28-34)
Set Design Workbook (Lessons 35-41)
Compositing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 42-49)
Editing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 50-55)
Location Scouting Workbook (Lessons 56-60)
Stock Image Downloads for Practice (Lessons 61-72)
Organizing Your Portfolio Workbook (Lessons 77-81)
Pricing & Editioning Your Work Workbook (Lessons 82-89)
Writing Contracts & Licensing Images Workbook (Lessons 90-98)
Gallery Best Practices (Lessons 99-106)
Pitch Package Workbook (Lessons 107-111)
Writing Your Brand Workbook (Lessons 112-117)
Marketing Workbook (Lessons 118-122)
Social Media Workbook (Lessons 123-127)
Printing Methods Checklist (Lessons 128-133)
Self Critique Workbook (Lessons 134-137)
Bonus Materials Guide
Syllabus
Image Edit Videos

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.

Student Work

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