Find Your Genre

Lesson 114 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

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114. Find Your Genre

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Yours is a Story Worth Telling

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Find Your Genre

Then think about your genre of writing. So how do you like to write? What do you like to talk about? Are you trying to inspire people, are you trying to show people how things are done? How do you like to write? You don't have to assume any specific tone. You don't have to be somebody that you're not. If your favorite person online is posting all these motivational things and you love it, that doesn't mean that you have to be that person that posts inspiring quotes and gives advice and stuff like that. Maybe you just love talking about technique. So talk about technique. If you love talking about your gear, talk about your gear. There is an audience for all of these things. It's just about choosing the one that you love talking about and then polishing the way that you talk about it to such an extent that you seem to know exactly what you're doing. This is a funny point that I'm making, because I'm not saying lie to anybody. Let me make this clear. Don't talk about something that you j...

ust hope to know a lot about one day and try to be an authority if you're not, but, the more you can write and rewrite and polish what you're saying, the more professional it will look and the more trust you'll build with your audience because you seem to know what you're talking about. Sort of an abstract point, hope it made sense. There's this quote that isn't properly attributed to anybody, but most popularly attributed to Blaise Pascal which says, "If I had more time, "I would have written a shorter letter." I love this quote. Because it really defines almost everybody's writing issue. Which is that it's so hard to use a few poignant words to describe something that feels so big to us, and what is bigger in our lives than our art? To try to describe what we're creating with the shortest words possible is so difficult, but it's so necessary for the world that we live in. We live in this world where nobody wants to read anything long, so how can we write short, descript sentences that pull people in and is engaging but also that describes properly what you're trying to say. So let me explain different ways that you might need to write for fine art and how long those pieces of writing need to be. We've got the biography, which is like your about me. One paragraph is good. You don't need to go on and on and on. Have you ever been to somebody's about page and it's like two pages of text and you're just like, oh man, I'm sure that you're a great person, but I gave up after like paragraph two. It happens. So keep it short for the biography. The artist statement is generally one paragraph up to a page is quite appropriate for your artist statement when you're writing for fine art. If you're writing about a series, a paragraph to a page is appropriate, so if you've created a new series, maybe you're going to debut that series in a gallery. They'll often ask you to write something about this new series, that's an appropriate length. If you're writing a grant about a page or more is probably appropriate, so if you're trying to get money for a project that you're working on, you're writing a grant proposal, it's good to really go into detail because this is somebody who's giving up a lot of money just for the betterment of your project, so you're gonna wanna convince people of every little detail of why it's so important that you get that money. And then a juried submission. I would say two different things here. One is that you're probably going to have to write about your individual images but also about the series as a whole, and this is where I would say, one sentence per image is very appropriate in those situations, but also one paragraph or more for your series, depending on how much space they give you to write about it. This is my Wingdings example. I have never in my life had an excuse to use Wingdings and now I have and I feel like I've reached the height of a mountain. I've used Wingdings. We speak in Wingdings, as you can see. But really what I mean is that we use symbols for everything. And I have never felt older than joining Instagram and realizing that I have no idea what people are trying to say to me. First of all, I'm like, I can't even see it. What does this say? And then it's like, a person holding a book or something and I'm like, "What does that mean?" And I can't figure it out. So we speak in these weird symbols now and that's just how life is, and our tolerance for reading has become incredibly diminished because of this, because we're finding shorter and shorter and shorter ways of saying things that emotes, hence the word emoticon, emoji and whatnot, what we're trying to convey with our long sentences that we used to use. And throughout history this has been a trend. We used to speak in very long, eloquent sentences and now we simply don't. So how do we battle this? How do we express ourselves eloquently in the written language without losing people? And I have some answers to this and you might have your own answers or you might be totally lost and that's okay too. We're gonna go over ways to do that. An example is when you get a long e-mail. How many of you guys have gotten a long e-mail and you're just like, nope, and you just won't even look at it right then cuz you're just like, whoa, that's a wall of text that I don't wanna read right now. That is the biggest pain to me. When I get an e-mail, now sometimes I get an e-mail that's super, super long and it should be where there is just so much good information in there. But how many times do you think that happens in a week where you get an e-mail that's really long and it should be really long? I get those e-mails and after like two sentences, I'm like, I know exactly what this person's gonna say, and then for five more paragraphs they elaborate on something that's important to them and they feel they need all those words to get it out, but you don't. Brevity is so important these days, because I don't have time to read long e-mails. You don't have time to read long e-mails, we just don't have time to do it, depending on the volume that you get. So that is my biggest pet peeve right now is that not that we shouldn't be speaking in long form or writing long form e-mails and things like that, but that if you are, there should be a point to it, a really clear point. And there usually isn't.

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

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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.

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topics covered in this class

Fine Art Digital Photography

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.

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Find Your Genre

Find Your Genre

Lesson Info

114. Find Your Genre

Lessons

Class Introduction

Storytelling & Ideas

Universal Symbols in Stories

Create Interactive Characters

The Story is in The Details

Giving Your Audience Feelings

Guided Daydream Exercise

Elements of Imagery

The Death Scenario

Associations with Objects

Three Writing Exercises

Connection Through Art

Break Through Imposter Syndrome

Layering Inspiration

Creating an Original Narrative

Analyze an Image

Translate Emotion into Images

Finding Parts in Images

Finding Your Target Audience

Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?

Create a Series That Targets Your Audience

Formatting Your Work

Additional Materials to Attract Clients

Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?

How to Make Money from Your Target Audience

Circle of Focus

The Pillars of Branding

Planning Your Photoshoot

Choose Every Element for The Series

Write a Descriptive Paragraph

Sketch Your Ideas

Choose Your Gear

How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations

What Tells a Story in a Series?

Set Design Overview

Color Theory

Lighting for the Scene

Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design

Locations

Subject Within the Scene

Set Design Arrangement

Fine Art Compositing

Plan The Composite Before Shooting

Checklist for Composite Shooting

Analyze Composite Mistakes

Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories

Shoot: Miniature Scene

Editing Workflow Overview

Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress

Edit Details of Images

Add Smoke & Texture

Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite

Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario

Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot

Self Portrait Test Shoots

Shoot for Edit

Shoot Extra Stock Images

Practice the Shoot

Introduction to Shooting Photo Series

Shoot: Vine Image

Shoot: Sand Image

Shoot: End Table Image

Shoot: Bed Image

Shoot: Wall Paper Image

Shoot: Chair Image

Shoot: Mirror Image

Shoot: Moss Image

Shoot: Tree Image

Shoot: Fish Tank Image

Shoot: Feather Image

View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing

Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion