I see more and more people on Instagram getting really creative with their photography. I personally like photo editing and I don’t see anything wrong with it. Well, what I mean is it’s ok to enhance some colours, correct exposure, increase/decrease highlights and shadows. I also think it’s ok when people try to add vintage, rustic or any other specific feel to a shot. Removing rubbish, wires and other ‘stuff’ even people from the photo also only makes it look pleasant for the eye.
What is not cool in my opinion is hardcore photoshopping and presenting a completely false representation of a real place, or photoshopping yourself into a place you’ve never actually visited. The more I learn how to use photoshop, the more I notice how some popular travel Instagrammers post these false representations and it really makes me sad. Let’s be honest, it’s purely for the sake of likes.
A good example are these instafamous photos from Kapadokya with many hot balloons and which look really impressive (and then you book your ticket to Turkey haha). But if you look more closely you will see identical balloons on the photo here and there. Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4. That’s photoshop.
Anyway, today I wanted to talk about really creative edits and ideas behind photos. Let’s look at some examples below.
For me this is creativity level ‘God’ and I wish I could do that myself. There are no limitations in creating a picture you want and it will always be unique. What fascinates me the most is how thoughtful the composition of every image is. Whether it’s subjects in matching colours or clever use of scale, like the one with a giant book and a small person, it makes me stop scrolling my feed and spend some time studying the photo.
Actually, I was searching for an art photography course for myself (to learn something new) and stumbled upon this one at CreativeLive* – Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide by Brooke Shaden.
The first 3 photos in this post are done by Brooke and they are a-m-a-z-i-n-g! She is also very inspiring and great at visual storytelling. She has her own YouTube channel where she shares a little bit behind the scenes of the photoshoots and how she edits her photos.
However, the course she is teaching at Creative Live is like an ABC guide to art photography. Honestly, just look at the curriculum:
- Storytelling and how to find ideas
- How to find your voice and think outside of the box
- How to find your tribe of people and create applicable content for them
- Planning your creative photoshoot and how to simplify your workflow
- Set design or how to design an image
- Colour theory
- How to create a new background and consistent lightening
- Editing: colours in photoshop, light manipulation
- Location scout and test shooting
- How to shoot a series and get the right shots
- Advanced editing for series, how to achieve cohesiveness
And then goes into organizational and business side of this kind of photography:
- How to organize photos for print and for sale
- Pricing structures
- Licensing and commissioning
- How to write simple contracts
- How to approach and work with galleries
- Creating a Press Package
- Writing for Fine Art
- Speaking about your work
The course is long, but it’s literally all you need to know about fine art photography and how to create these magical images. Each lesson is accompanied by a workbook or a checklist to help you on your photography journey. You also have an option to submit your assignment (yes, there are assignments but it’s up to you if you want to do them or not). It’s like a real course at university but from the comfort of your sofa hehe.
*CreativeLive is an online community of creators, innovators, authors, entrepreneurs, etc. It’s a place where you can learn new skills, develop ideas and get inspired. There are over a thousand high-quality courses, classes, workshops and bootcamps in such areas as photo and video, art and design, music and audio, craft, money and personal development.
There are 3 ways to use this platform, each requires free registration.
- You can watch courses for free when they are ‘On Air’. There is always something available to watch now, but you have to be present at a specific time.
- You can watch any one lesson per day for free when logging in from a mobile device
- You can get lifetime ‘on demand’ access anytime when purchasing a course.
All classes and courses I’ve watched were of a really high quality and I’ve learnt so much. When you participate live you can even ask the presenter a question via chat box. How cool is that?!
I believe that education will be moving more and more towards online formats which will make it accessible to anyone in the world. And this is amazing news.
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