How to Make Your Photographs Interesting | Nicolett Electra | Skillshare

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How to Make Your Photographs Interesting

teacher avatar Nicolett Electra, Photographer and Makeup Artist

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      How to Make Your Photographs Interesting

      0:47

    • 2.

      Moodboards and Budgets

      1:43

    • 3.

      Styling

      1:48

    • 4.

      Backdrops

      2:13

    • 5.

      Props

      1:49

    • 6.

      Depth

      1:44

    • 7.

      Class Project

      1:17

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About This Class

In this class we will discuss a few key elements to consider when trying to boost your photographs interest. We discuss the value of a mood board, budgets, backdrops and more. 

Meet Your Teacher

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Nicolett Electra

Photographer and Makeup Artist

Teacher

Hello Everyone!

My name is Nicolett. Im a photographer basked in the Los Angeles with a passion for creating stunning imagery! Join me in my courses where I teach you everything you need to know to have a successful photoshoot. 

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Level: Intermediate

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Transcripts

1. How to Make Your Photographs Interesting: Hey there, if you click on this class, Welcome. My name is Nicollet. I am a photographer. And in this course we are going to be jumping into all things portrait photography. We're gonna be talking about how to make your photographs more interesting. I know it can be hard sometimes. In this class we're gonna be talking about point-by-point, different things that you can consider to make your photographs a bit more enticing to your audience and a bit more appealing overall. Some things you may have already considered, other things may be completely new to you and you might say, Wow, I never considered that. It's gonna be a fun class. I'm excited to talk a little bit more with you guys about all these little tips and tricks. So if that's something that interests you, then go ahead, click the button. Let's go ahead and start the class. I look forward to seeing you guys there. 2. Moodboards and Budgets: Hello there and welcome into the class. Our first topic of discussion today is going to be budget and moodboards. As discussed in the previous little section. Today we're gonna be talking about elements and prompts. What can you include in your photographs to make them look interesting and appealing to your viewers or whoever it is that you're looking to, please. The first thing that I like to think about is, of course, a mood board. Mood boards to me are pivotal. They're so important if you come in with a vision of what it is that you want, It's a lot easier to fill in those gaps of the things that you might want to include or not include, so on and so forth. So creating a mood board is the absolute first step in any photoshoot and my personal opinion. The next most important thing is, well, budgets. How much do you want to spend on your upcoming photoshoot? Now, for some people, they might say, hey, it's gonna be a free photoshoot, do whatever. Yes, it just kinda depends on how how involved you want to be in the process. I've encountered a good variety of different things on my photo sessions from models coming with makeup that did not look good. Morals that come with hair that doesn't look good. Models come in with outfits that literally were old. When you were just like look, this is faded or it's peeling. So there's a lot of aspects of photography that you do have to consider budgets and where you want to spend. For some cases they might come with everything perfect outfit wise, and all you have to worry about is the props, location, so on and so forth. But again, figuring out what your mood is for the shoot, and then figuring out how much you're willing to spend helps provide the direction and the trajectory of where it is that you want to take your photo session. 3. Styling: So now you've broken down how much you want to spend, what the vibe is, so on and so forth. And now you have to figure out, okay, what elements, what prompts can I use to make my photos interesting? We're going to break it into, I would say about four or five parts. And that way you guys can kind of figure out ways to make it interesting within each category. The first thing that I'd like to talk about is styling. So you can use clothes as an accessory or as a proper, as an element to make your photos interesting. As seen in this example, I used a model and the model had some pretty Sheikh looking sunglasses. We decided to have the sunglasses brought forward and then have her in the background. And again, it made the image a little bit more interesting because you're seeing her through the glasses. In another example showed here, I had the model come to the beach and I had about 20 yards of tool that I had sitting underneath my bed for quite some time. And I said, Hey, find a way to make this interesting. Let's actually use the tool. So I wrapped her up at the beach, made her look nice and cute with this fake makeshift dress. God, or to go out into the shore and a little bit. And then I use the fabric to cross the lens a little bit tougher, flowing the lens to have it be a little bit more interesting. Another sample isn't sworn here. I had another model come and she had a very lacy, loopy, stringy looking outfit on. And she just did this stretch and stretch and meter have all of the strings on her face, again providing another level of interests. So clothing can be a one thing that you can use to make your image Interesting per se. You don't have that much of a budget to spend, but you want to spend it on some outfit, go for it. That is a great first step. 4. Backdrops: The next thing in a photoshoot that can be multipurpose from just an element or a frog, or just the backdrop setting, it's up to you, is well, exactly that. Backdrops. Backdrops like seamless paper fabrics, so on and so forth. You can use to make your images interesting. And you might say, okay, seamless paper, how can I make my image Interesting? Well, I'm here to show you. Cutting a hole sometimes can make it interesting. I did a campaign for a Sunglass Company and we were getting some really cool shots. The stylus came, they did their thing. They had the makeup done really well. They had the whole vibe down. But something in me said, how do I pull out the sunglasses to make them the main focus? I thought whom? Let's cut a little bit of the backdrop and see what we can do. I cut it from the back and then peeled it in different directions in the front and then had the model sticker head through. Honestly, it was one of my favorite photographs for a long time. I back later with orange gel and then had a diffused light in front and again, her face, the sunglasses, you just could see, that was the primary focus. So you're using your backdrop is also a good way to make your image interesting. Another studio example that I have is this one here. I had purchased this cool pink vinyl that was in the fashion district that I said, I don't know what I'm going to use this for, but let me try it. And I hung it up on the backdrop Stand similar to this one. And I just had it laying there. We took a few shots with the model in front of it and I love that wet sheet look that was going on behind her. But I said, hm, How about you go behind the backdrop? Let's see what that would look like with some adjustments to lighting that also made the image interesting. Kinda cross her face in an interesting way. And we were able to get some images that again, I was super happy with at the end of the day. So looking at outfits, that's the first ship, figuring out how you can use them to make your image interesting. Once you can do that, great. For say the outfits a little bit more plain, then you can look to your backdrop setting and figure out, okay, what can I do with this factor on besides just have it be a backdrop. You feel me. 5. Props: The next element of making photos interesting is legitimate props, right? So you have your styling, you know how you want to do it. Then you have your setting, which can be either an indoor studio setting, could be an outdoor setting up to your preference. Now you're thinking, what prompts can I use? Again, this kind of goes into your entire mood board, sort of vibe that you had often joke with that mood board that we able to direct and figure it out. But prompts can make it super interesting and you can use them in a variety of different ways. As you can tell with a lot of my examples, studio setting is where I absolutely love and I find it super fun and it's just, you have to make something out of literally nothing. And so that to me has always been a fun challenge. But prompts can just, you know, they light up the room in a different way. One of my recent samples was this image here. I had some, I forget what these are called, but it was like leaves of sort. And we had the model have the leaves in front of him and just kind of hold it ever so gently. And then I had a assistant beside me and then he was also kind of fanning those leaves and we were able to get this element that just like a flowy, wispy sort of vibe. I absolutely loved it. Again with that same model. I brought him to a home setting and we wanted to go for lavish riches lives. He had just a general, just a white shirt, black tie sort of vibe. But we saw a glass and the glass was like, Okay, Glass for alcohol. Perfect. And we took that glass and we started implementing it within the shots to make it look like he's a lavish man, drinking. Again, moodboards, important. Gotta know what your vibe is and you can kind of move into the photoshoot and have that whole sort of look. But having those additional prompts can really make an image Interesting. 6. Depth: My last note when it comes to making photos interesting is, well, considering depth, depth I think is very important. It is something that again, can make or break an image. Ways to include depth within your photography is even in an outdoor setting, right? From shooting weddings for years, like I did. One of those shots that I felt always was super interesting, was shooting through greenery, shooting through flowers, shooting through the outdoors. You gave this like peekaboo perspective of someone's watching such an intimate moment. Let's make it happen. You can do that with a regular portrait photography as well. Someone can be posing in the background by using the greenery to shape them. In the outdoor setting, you can get some pretty interesting shot. So it's something to consider within your photography Rome is depth. How can I make this image have a few layers? Another example of depth that I have done as well is implementing things that fly around right? In this shoot, I use bubbles. Bubbles, I love they are so fun, they're so cute, they're so childlike. And there's something that I think sometimes gets overlooked. And by including these bubbles in this photo shoot, I just started me the photoshoot so much more cute. And again, you have this element of depth where you have these bubbles almost as the foreground focus and backround focus. But by having a model who is doing some fun looks, fun expressions, you can create an image that is now interesting and honestly a bit nostalgic. So depth is one of those things that I do like to consider it when it comes to my photography. 7. Class Project: All in all of those are probably my top things that I would say really can make an image pretty interesting. Of course, having a mood board is a great first. Start having your budgets and checks and you know how much you want to spend. And then from there, consider your styling, consider your background. Consider your locations. Consider different prompts that you might want to include to make your photos interesting. Having a story is so important and it starts really there. I hope you guys enjoyed this class and I do look forward to seeing you guys in future classes of mine for your class project. What I want you guys to do is go through the motions, everything we've talked about today. I want you to create your own moodboard and create a photoshoot that is taking different elements of what we discussed today. Whether it's finding a backdrop and making it interesting. Whether it's including depth in your photography or honestly, finding an outfit that has layers to it that you can use the accessories to make. Again, the photograph, interesting, that is your project. I look forward to seeing it all down below and let's get it, Let's get creative and let's create images that really make a statement and really make an impact. I look forward to seeing all of your projects and we'll see you guys in the next class.