Image Review: Dreamstate
Chris Weston
Lesson Info
34. Image Review: Dreamstate
Lessons
Class Introduction - Three Steps To Creative Photography
03:48 2Firing The Creative Mind - Part 1: The Camera Points Both Ways
03:10 3Firing The Creative Mind - Part 2: Letting Go Of Judgement
06:53 4Firing The Creative Mind - Part 3: Detaching From Outcomes
04:12 5Practicing Mindfulness In Photography
02:43 6Finding The Visual Narrative
02:39 7Behind-the-scenes: Naples
07:52 8Seeing Beneath The Surface Of Things
02:30Finding Inspiration
03:19 10Slowing Down
03:57 11Three Reasons To Shoot RAW
02:29 12Choosing the Right Frame Format
03:52 13Don’t Be Limited By The Shape Of Your Camera
05:07 14WYSIWYG
04:15 15Choosing Lenses
05:02 16Perspective
02:44 17Considering Foreground And Background
03:10 18Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad But Three Into Two Is Better
03:43 19Separate And Isolate
02:32 20The Art Of Creative Exposure
06:38 21Focus On The Story
04:20 22The Passage Of Time
03:00 23Creating A Visual Sense Of Mood
04:24 24Color vs. Black & White
03:09 25The Decisive Moment
03:00 26Using Color As A Cohesive Tools
01:51 27Photography Is A Two-Part Process
06:55 28Case Study: Recreating The Art of Sumi-e
07:04 29Case Study: Making Something Out of Nothing
04:32 30Case Study: Moody Blues
03:29 31Image Reviews
03:02 32Image Review: The “Thinking Man”
01:55 33Image Review: The Golf Course
02:32 34Image Review: Dreamstate
02:38 35Image Review: Gone Fishing
02:24 36Image Review: Promenade
01:47 37Image Review: Sky and Reflections
01:57 38Image Review: Grass and Field
02:20 39Final Word: Show Me What The World Looks Like To You
04:44Lesson Info
Image Review: Dreamstate
thanks to Sue Green for submitting this image of a Japanese macaque. So and I were together on this trip, which was a photo safari I led in Hokkaido before the world went into Covid lockdown. Sue is titled This Shot Dream State, and that takes me to the monkey's face and eyes, which are full of emotion, and I can see where her image title comes from. However, like the zebra in the first lesson of this module, the rule of thirds positioning then drags my attention away from that face into this area of sort of nothing that's in the bottom right corner. So I'm finding the format and the framing a distraction from Suze Visual Intention. Now there's a very simple solution, which is to go with a square crop by simply framing this as a square image. The eye is drawn center frame, which is where we find all the relevant visual information, and it's held there completely undistracted. Just that. One change, I think, makes this a stronger composition, but I would go a little further in processin...
g. Remember, the title of this image is Dream State. So think about the sort of emotions dreaming brings up now look at the detail in the image. The texture is harsh and the colors are cool, which are both contrary to the emotional story Sou is trying to tell. So first off, I would warm the whole image by increasing white balance to a warmer setting. Think cloudy rather than daylight in terms of camera presets. Then I had softened the texture of the for without softening the eyes, so I'd set a negative clarity value for the for and increased slightly. The texture setting to compensate for the eyes now is looking a little more dreamlike. Now there's just one more thing. Sues done a really good job with her original framing of reducing the visual impact of the stone in the very bottom of the picture space. But I want to do a bit more because I'm still seeing it, which means it's a distraction. So I would use the graduated filter in light room to just darken the foreground and reduce the texture of the rock, which adds awaiting us to the foreground that lifts everything above it and adds a little bit of depth around the mouth and chin. And then we have it so minor tweaks and adjustments that I believe make a big difference in matching the image with Suze Original vision.
Ratings and Reviews
Gary Hook
Wow, what a wonderful journey. I love the concept of telling a story with one's photos and as I go through past images, I'm seeing them in a much different perspective. That's the good news, The bad? The lost opportunities I never 'saw' before; however that is a good thing. There is so much to internalize with the material so that it can get out of the head and into the 'heart'. I also found the concept really helps me with composition, both in camera and post. Biggest take away, as Chris underscored in his closing, is to slooooow down, take the time and feel it. Don't be so quick to leave one scene as there remain other aspects, yet to be discovered. A great experience that I truly enjoyed Thank you
Glenda
I loved this course - in particular the latter part of it in which he demonstrated how post processing lets you really tell the story of the image. Another fabulous course. Thanks Chris & thanks Creative Live.
Abdullah Alahmari
Thanks a lot to mr. Chris Weston This course is great and It is a 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 course for me. Beside the other course ( mastering photographic composition and visual storytelling) both courses are Complementing to each other and highly recommended.