Lessons
Day 1
1Introduction & Prelude
29:20 2Looking Beyond Photography
27:08 3Creativity vs Technique
09:55 4Lightroom - Part 1
1:11:40 5Lightroom - Part 2
41:05 6Photoshop - Part 1
1:01:58 7- Photoshop - Part 2
56:31Lesson Info
Creativity vs Technique
creativity vs technique. We talked about it a little bit before, and I know I'm running at the mouth and you guys are here for, you know, heavy duty Photoshopped layer action. We're going to get to that because, really, I want to establish that there's a balance between mastery of technique and creative freedom that it provides, but that has to be balanced against your own creative sources. An inspiration, you know, um, mastery of technique does not in itself a guarantee you a quality, um, image. What drives creativity. You know, it's like I mean, these were obvious things, but I want to stay that because it relies on your passions and your interests. And those things should be continually honed by inspiration. And it's well, I mean, if some of you were inspired to come to this weekend workshop because of seeing my work, that's part of the process. Same thing I do on a daily basis. You seek out sources and re sources for inspiration, and there's a number of places that you confined the...
m. And it's one of the reasons why creativelive is a great example of, you know, tuning in two different photographic topics. that you can, where you can learn from masters in different areas of it. So attending these and attending live workshops, David and I have been putting on workshops at called Scratching the Surface, where we deal with some of the Photoshopped techniques and stuff like that up and down the West Coast. So there's a, um, a lot of different targeted workshops that you can look for websites, photo net, flicker, others where you can go and just browse. And when you see something that inspires you, then you can book market. You can bookmark websites for photographers whose work that you admire all these sources of inspiration galleries, both online and brick and mortar and other types of our. Like I talked about before movies, I'm you know, anything visual. I'm just a junkie. I go to movies a lot. I watch what they do, how they do. It plays the both the set decoration and lighting and then visual thumbnails. You know you can collect little thumbnail snapshots, and I have a folder called Resource is in my library, and I have a folder called Web clips or inspiration and, um and I don't want anybody. I blurred the images. But I actually have this huge catalog that I can pop up and look through. And it may be what breaks the logjam if I'm working on an image and need a kick in one direction or another. So I encourage Wall Teoh build some resource is for inspiration. All right, How we doing? Question? Yes, absolutely. Saver studios had asked. That said, I would love to know when or if you know you have a masterpiece. If the question is, I would love to know if you know when you know or if you know you have a masterpiece, that's a good question. That's a you know, a lot of people. How do you know when you're done? I mean that and that could be a process. God, what a great segue. Wait. So from inspiration, we're going to talk about the defective process. I call it the detective process, and it's the mindset that I use when I'm shooting, when I'm editing the shoot and when I'm compositing. One of these images and the answer to that question really is the same for all three stages of this artwork. You know you're done when you can't find anything else to fix, and you gotta listen really deep to make sure that you pay attention to anything that's bothering you about it. You have to look for clues, and it's the same thing. You know when we go on a photo shoot and when we're shooting some portrayed. So when we're shooting a landscape or sports and what are you doing? You're making a selection of a lens. You're making a selection of aperture or shutter speed to control an aspect of that image. Vantage point, time of day, whether to use auxiliary lighting or not to. These are all decisions that you're making to get you closer. So what you want to capture? I mean, that makes perfect sense, right? You are making decisions on how to shoot the image to try and discover what prompted you to shoot that image in the first place. Now it's if it's a senior of a flower, something that gets my interest, the decisions that I make on, you know, how much step the field to use, You know, whether it's blurred action, whether whatever is based on trying to uncover the the core emotional appeal or draw of that image. So I call that the detective process the same thing when you go into editing when you're editing your shoot, um, you're looking at your entire shoot and you make decisions on, you know, sort of gradually winnowing the shoot down to the one that's the hero from that shoot. So the answer. That's the long way to answer this question, and that's a great segue way, because when I'm compositing apiece, sometimes I know right away it's done and it can happen fairly quickly. Other times it'll maggot me for months, and I'll put it away for a little while knowing that I've got some work to do on it and then come back to it. And the the essence of this course is no one to give you a guide and how to go through that process and make those creative decisions while you're working in a photo shop. And the idea is to become proficient enough with the tools and photo shop, so that that part becomes fluid and background, and you've got a large tool chest to help you in. I mean, it's like CS I oven image, right? It's like you want to make you go into these TV labs and they got all the trick technical stuff to arrive at some like, astounding conclusion about something, the discovery. And that's what has to happen in the image. And you'll know it. That's right. When you look at it and say, Yeah, problem solved. Yeah, that's. And also preface that by saying that you you may be surprised it may not e. And I talked about it the saint of the day tomorrow. You may be surprised at your conclusion. It may not be the emotional response that you thought it may not be the way that you really had envisioned in the beginning, because along the way and in the journey and trying different things and experimenting and tackling it, moving layers and turning them on and off and doing this and that you're gonna you're gonna surprise yourself, something is gonna pop up and you're gonna go. Whoa! You know, I just lifted back a clue on that. I had no idea that was there. And I'm going in that direction. So be opened a happy accidents. Um, So, essentially, what inspired you to shoot the image is the is the question that you're going to answer at the end of your composite. Um okay. Yeah. So I just talked about this. Be open to a change of image goal making final selections based on your final vision. Um, a lot of times when you're going through and editing your shoot, if you have a lot of images to edit from, you can help the edit by, you know, experimenting with crop and tone and those sorts of things on thumbnails. Um, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. So the idea is to work to eliminate anything that distracts you from the central message of that image and enhance the portrayal of the emotional quarter you're seeking from the image, and you may be surprised.
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
bonus material with enrollment
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
This was my first class and I loved it. Will certainly be back for more. Looking over Doug's shoulder as he creates beautiful art for me was priceless! Also, BIG thanks to B&H for their support of CreativeLive!!!
a Creativelive Student
Thank you for the opportunity to take this course and for intrducing me to Doug Landreth's work. The pre-course PDF just blew me away. I'm even more excited about the upcoming course after feasting my eyes on some of Doug's painterly photo images.