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Lesson Info
12. What Makes A Good Photo Set
Lessons
Intro
01:21 2Gear: Alex's Travel Kit
17:27 3Camera Settings
11:45 4The Beach: Sunset & Sunrise
12:41 5The River: Kayak, Underwater, and Drone
04:58 6The Ruins: Light, Lenses, and Composition
07:02 7Cenotes: Concepts
08:18 8Editing 1: Sunset at the Beach
15:17Lesson Info
What Makes A Good Photo Set
Okay, I'm gonna talk about sets here. I have two photo sets from two legend photographers from Magnum. One of them is Martin Parr and the other one is Carolyn Drake. So, I've picked these two because I want to show you guys a difference of how somebody can tell the story. So, I'll show you how I do it in my field day, and then, before that, I want to show you how these guys do it their own way. So there are two sets, one is about England, one is about Slovenia. And they're shot at different times, one's in 2000, one's in 2004. When it was shot, doesn't even matter. It's how do these two different photographers tell the story with visuals. And I'm gonna start at screen record and walk you guys through the sets. So let's go quickly through Martin's set in Slovenia. You'll get a feel for it really quick. So, all this was shot film from what I see and they're really candid images. He's focusing on details. Very colorful, it's summery. And you'll notice that none of the subjects are seeing ...
Martin. He's just documenting it and nobody's looking at him. He's playing with a lot of empty spaces. Lot of people's backs. And he goes from wide to more tighter images. And he's still playing with spaces out here, like with the car, or here, he's having fun with that. So you can tell he spent a bit of time here in Slovenia to get all this diversity. He's in the city, he's in the islands by the beach, and he's in the mountains now. So, definitely took him a few weeks. And in 90% of the photos there's people too. He's focusing on that a lot. Details too. So, the point with this is you can see how Martin gets in it, still playing with spaces like these. There's always a sense that he's like the silent observer in the sets. So, now we've got a good idea of it. Now, if we go to Carolyn set in the UK. So, it's about when the UK passed a new law allowing people to walk through people's land. So she went and documented that. So I just picked it because it's like a different location, geography, and a different story, but still has the same purpose, which is this set has to give me the feeling of that law. And he's documenting it. Let's get into this guy. So, with Carolyn there's way less people already it's more just details and empty spaces. Love this one. This one, yeah. She's in the woods and she's showing that. She's more emptiness in general. And she picked a weather that's always pretty depressing compared to Martin's and Slovenia where it's more sunny in the summer. So, there's some similarities in their sets, like the food, but otherwise it's not the same type of photos. Carolyn's are more tight images and the compositions are not as balanced. She's playing more with sideways images. You just can tell it's a different person doing this set. And my point with this is that you want people to feel that way when they look at your work, like, "Oh, this is him and this is not him or her." So way less people, empty spaces again. And it makes sense for the story, right? Her story is about empty lands and how you can walk through people's properties freely. And Martin's is about. Yeah, Martin set is pretty, was more spontaneous. It's just about the summer atmosphere. So different vibes for sure in the compositions, in the weather, and in the way that the subject interact with the camera. Like, in Martin's, few people look at him. There's more of a sense of, I think Martin focuses a bit more on style, I think, on people's style. With this photo I'm like, "Oh, he saw something cool." Besides, the composition is cool, but this guy's got swagger and Martin saw that. Versus Carolyn, where is more, feels a bit more introspective. It's more loneliness in it. I mean, I love both of these sets. I love. There's just... They're also playing with spaces here. Yeah, Carolyn will have people pause to her camera versus Martin. So she's a bit more connected to her subjects. She even goes into people's houses. There's more intimacy in this set versus Martin, were he's outside, only public places. So we've got a good feel for this one. The whole point with this is that you see how these two different photographers just told a different story with the same visual medium, which is just a camera. That's it. That's the beauty of photography. They can tell any story with it and you can convey this message. Okay, now we've gone through these two sets. Now it's time for me to make my own set with my own visual hints, my own colors, my own compositions. This is where you get to be you. So, without further ado, let's just get into the editing.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
ZHIYUAN SUN
True Inspiration and amazing way to tell stories with photos