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Tear Sheet and Q&A

Lesson 9 from: Creating a Portfolio with Impact: From Shoot Through Print

Joey L

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Lesson Info

9. Tear Sheet and Q&A

Lesson Info

Tear Sheet and Q&A

in the last section. We don't spend too much time here, but so these are some of the images you may have seen before, but now they're in the layouts in which they were displayed. So yet thistles. The lots account there. They use it for advertisements as well. This is some of the post Italian stuff. You've seen these images, but these were some of the other part of the Siri's. And because we've seen these images, it's OK to see them a little bit smaller. When this ran in Italy, this was actually in Excuse me. This was actually in Italian, but asked the art director to make me English version. But in my European book, it's the Italian version. That's a great point. Do you have as an international photographer multiple books in different different languages, different geography? Yes, I do. They're pretty much the same, But some of the stuff that's more American centric. I have some images in here from the show American Pickers. That stuff I would probably take out, but I think the photogr...

aphy should. Still, it's pretty relevant to both markets. It just might be in a different order or slightly tweaked Let's say, uh, here's an ad for I did for Canon L Syria's lenses. There's quite the uproar when I did this, because people thought I shot on phase one, but actually was shot on Canon. You could see in the behind the scenes video okay? Yeah, yeah, because they were confused by the mat box that I use, which is understandable. But yet I shot on can. And it's my secondary camera. There's killed with the fog machine. He loved the way we love. Um, yeah, and the next photos, these air, some different life below zero adds that we did again for another season. And I actually really love the layout that they put on here. So I decided to just display these not as portrait, because I have so many of my book already. But just display these on Lee as the advertising because I think this is kind of a really cool look like below zero thistles. How the army adds came to be in the world. So I was lucky that they're very photo centric with their designs and very minimal text, but yeah, they did a nice job. Um, this is the Jose Cuervo adds. So you recognize this image has been flipped from the original, but it works better in terms of their design. Deb, the art director, did this created Victor? Um, yeah, these air to television ads. So this is killing Kennedy again. It works better as the advertisement. This portrait in the book alone is not gonna work. So instead, I decided to display it the way they have it out in the world. Oh, there's twilight, something that, you know, photography speaking is probably style move past now. But since it's out in the world and became such a you know, such a followed thing is something I'm still happy to be part of and sneak into the book so they could say, Oh, it's why, like guy, But I mean, this was shot in 2000 and eight. I should probably get rid of it from my portfolio soon, but, uh, yeah, so you'll see. Now I'm like using the space more. So many more photos. These air two images from a European version of the book. I probably take out just because they're a bit less popular. They're still known there, but, you know, on the last page of my book. Um, I have photos of the stuff out in the world, so I shoot a few editorial assignments sometimes, and when you collect that page is called a tearsheet. But a lot of the times I have to collect these kind of tear sheets, which is going out and photographing the side of a building. So at the end, I just want to display everything I've done as the last spread even taking the portrait's back to some of the indigenous communities that I photographed. This image I love is a picture I gave them years ago, and it's still in their hut, smoke stained, weather stained but still on display. So that's the last image of the portfolio. Thank amazing. Thank you for taking us through that So comprehensive, so many things that way went through. I would love Teoh. Just have time for a few questions, and I want to start with our in studio audience. Eso grab a mic and then, well, we'll see what people have at home as well. Front row. So I noticed that a lot of your images, like two, stylistically turn the near side of the face on make that darker. So I'd also noticed that you choose, like, certain times to light the near side of the face. Is that how do you make that conscious decision to do that? You're talking about four side key lighting file. Yeah, Yeah. Um I mean, it really comes down to style and how you like to depict things. So I'll explain, like, what he's talking about for our viewers here. Um, it's a stylist. I mean, I do it so much. My work, I just open around in Pedro. There it is a bunch of time. So he's talking about the shaded side of the light being toward the camera being toward the viewer. Right? So the lights on the opposite side, same is here, actually, almost every single one of these pictures. It's just a stylistic choice. I really love cinematic moody lighting with a vast tonal range, and again, it's just a personal choice. But I like the way that it looks to have a little bit of drama. So even in a you know, daytime scenes, I can still get away with that. Achieving that drama by putting the light on the other side of the lens or the other side of the subject away from the camera. So, like, Why do I do that? I suppose it's just toe have consistency in my work because that's something that is important for me. And if you watch films, you'll start to see even when they change angles. The far side key switches. Hey, that's not real life. But the DP just made an artistic decision. You ask him, What is that motivated by comes from the same place that motivates the music. Nothing, It looks, question the back row, and then we'll try to get some from the Internet as well. Quickly, he said, that a lot of your pictures in the your portfolio are similar to the ones on the Web. Why bring the same pictures in physical form that people could just weren't sit back and watch on their computer? It's not a dumb question. It's a very good question. And here is Why is because the book should be that I said this before, but it should be a conversation piece. So actually, before I go to meet someone, I'll probably send my Web link ahead of time and you're asking yourself, well, these are the exact same images. Why the hell would you do that right? It's a good thing. Why do you see a band live versus just listening to the album? It's like that. I mean, I'm not trying to like myself to being a cool musician act here, but it is something different when you sit down and experience work printed because I'm here to guide the narrative on brainwash the person that I'm sitting next to, Where is where there's just looking at it on their computer. Uh, I'm not there to brainwash them. So that's why and also as a follow up, it just makes more sense. Toe have it formatted that way. The other thing that will say is on my website, I I also have things organized by project, so I have something called Select. So I have an overview with all this stuff, but I also have select projects, So if they like the stuff, for example, from Ethiopia, they can see that work and there's 100 images there. So it is a way to also go deeper after the fact. But that is that is what? Yeah, you're right. It's a good question. It's a great question as well, because there's there's that Is it a whole other art than creating the portfolio for online versus Yeah, it can have another class. Yeah, like, you know, doing things digitally really helps, because you don't have to reprint things a 1,000,000 times. And if you're really interested in investing in a printed book, it's best to get it right online first. So do some experimenting Dragon drop because it's much easier to do that. Then it is with physical pages. How do you know when you're ready to go from just online Teoh? A printed book? Uh, it's a costly investment, I think when you're ready to start meeting people in showing them your work again, whether it's other colleagues in the photography industry or potential clients, maybe not in the beginning to have a printed book just cause it's such a burden. And if you're starting out, your work is gonna go through so many changes in the past. Before the Web was so prominent in these matters, I would say you need a printed book from the beginning. But nowadays, since people usually engaged online on Lee and sometimes I meet them face to face. I would say after you have it locked down digitally, I would do this. Do we have? Okay, we've got several more. Go ahead. I'm you actually answered this question when we had a chat before, but I think it will be useful for other people. When you're starting out and you don't have a specific style, you're shooting weddings, You're shooting portraiture, and you're gonna put that as an online portfolio. What do you suggest we should follow? What tips do you have? What? It. Right. So it goes back to what I was saying about an overview versus select projects. So the overview should be everything that we talked about today. Like the flow is the most important thing. But I know that a lot of Harper start out and they have some waiting stuff, some travel stuff, and it makes sense. That's how everyone starts. They want to experiment on DSI style that they prefer shooting the most or the style that gets them hired. Some photographer shoot work, like weddings because it sustains them. And that's really good. But they have interest elsewhere, or vice versa. So I would say the overview needs to be consistent. That might mean removing some of that stuff just to establish the flow of the style of work that you wanna get hired for. However, it doesn't mean that you can't isolate those different subject matters by select projects. So I know that we looked at your portfolio earlier and I sat down with you and I told you that, you know, you would want to keep that stuff separate because someone hiring you for do doing some of the work with NGOs that you shoot for doesn't care about wedding photography. And that wedding photography person client might care about some of the NGO stuff. But they're probably looking to hire you based on that work, so it's better to keep them separate if that's under the umbrella of the same website and its defied divided by sections. I think that's okay. I think that was a great question because a lot of people starting up our testing the waters of many different genres and you know, how many portfolios do you do you create? I think I think I think it honestly. It it just goes back. Teoh thinking about whose eyeballs do you want to have on this because you can choose anyone you want in the world and you have tow crafted to speak to them. One of the things that was asked online is what is the biggest lesson that you've learned from pitching your portfolio itself? Dio take feedback that you're getting in these real life experience is really good and go and change things out for the next. You are going such a perfect question and you are going to be destroyed and humbled because people are gonna tear apart everything you ever loved. And it's normal part of the process. You get attached to your work and you could show you work to somebody. They say one thing. Another person says that it is a little exact opposite us. The photographer have to be the curator to choose the path you should take in every piece of constructive criticism. But ultimately you have to be the one to guide it and go with your gut. Go with your guy? Absolutely. Yeah. What incredible session to have here. I think building a portfolio is something that people know that they need to do and that they want to dio but is can be overwhelming. And so taking us over the nuts and bolts has been incredible. Any final final words at home watching my final words would be the same is like, you know, be humbled and be prepared. Teoh. Change your work. Like I said before, have some ruthless friends that when you like, when you present stuff to them, tell them, Please tear this apart. Just tell me what you're feeling because in the end it'll make the work a lot stronger. The other thing is that I'd like to say is just have patients with yourself If you set up a photo shoot for yourself and you walk away with one image that's so worth it, right, because that image is going to be seen by all balls that's gonna inform you later. The other thing about a portfolio and having it is you spend so much time looking at your images that you come back and you see the old fault lines and what you thought before was great. And you know you don't have to constantly get down on yourself, but it does help you push things to become better. So that's what I would end on end. If people want to follow me on Instagram or Twitter, it's the same name. Same handle at Joey. L dot com dot com It's belt out deal tco m uh, my websites, joelle dot com and many other Joelle related branding throughout the Internet.

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Joey's work is amazing and this class is extremely informative but what I really appreciated the most is his humility. He has worked with so many people and on so many projects yet his humbleness shines thru it all. A great lesson for all of us. Thank you for this class.

Student Work

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