Original subtitles

The way I personally got started is I used to just bring

my camera to any sort of get together,

whether it was an evening party or a daytime thing like this,

I would be shooting pictures left and right of my friends,

of things that they were doing,

getting to know the camera,

learning the ins and outs of manual shooting,

and accumulating skills that I hadn't had before,

becoming a better photographer early.

Eventually, you stop wanting

to just post those to social media and maybe they end up sitting on your hard drive.

This course is to teach you how to make the transition,

how to take the images that if you're that person,

if you are like how I am,

and you're always shooting,

you're going to have all these images on your hard drive,

the point of this course is to figure out what to do next with those images.

So, let's talk about lifestyle photography a little bit more.

To me, it's sort of the ability to convey an emotion in an image.

It's not so much about the product in

the image unless of course you're shooting for a brand.

But I think to begin,

it's important to know that the images that generally

sell well are those that do convey an emotion.

It adds to the ambiguity of the picture itself,

and that's what makes it so sellable.

What helps them sell the most is the photo's ability to give you that vibe,

that summer feeling, or that winter feeling,

or that cozy by the fire feeling.

Whatever it is that the buyer is looking for,

if that image which is often aided by the lighting,

in my opinion natural lighting,

really lends itself well to stock lifestyle images.

But it's just the ability for those images to give people that feeling.

So, some specific images would be something like the top-down food shot.

Maybe we have a bunch of kebabs or burgers or hot dogs on a barbecue,

and there's fire and there's smoke,

and there's hands in there and people are grabbing at the colorful peppers,

and people are grabbing at the buns,

and there's maybe a couple of drinks around.

Getting a top-down shot of all that stuff in motion,

but high quality good lighting with all these different kind of colors popping out,

we can do a little light editing and show you how to make those things pop.

That's the kind of image that might lend itself well

to somebody writing a blog post, for instance.

It's the kind of thing that people talk about, post about,

and they use for marketing materials in their campaigns.

It's the kind of thing a lot of people could potentially be interested in.

Another example of an image that sells well is April.

It's a month that if you go on

the Internet and you go on to some of the websites I go on,

you'd probably see a whole bunch of stuff about Coachella,

or one of these music festivals,

whether it's in California or somewhere else.

You'd see a ton of the same photos.

You'd see the Flamingo pool toy,

the colorful cocktails, bathing suits, happy smiling faces.

Basically, just anything that can happen whether it's

Sunday in the backyard or it's at a music festival in the desert.

It's just all of these elements coming together to create an emotion or

a vibe that a lot of companies are really looking to employ.

The emotion, it's exuberance,

it's happiness, and it's the feeling that summer is coming.

If you're a kid, it's the summer break.

If you're an adult,

maybe it's that trip to the river you're going

to take with your friends or you're going to go to

the lake and you're going to go boating or you're going to go to

the beach and you're going to hang out,

have a drink with your family or your friends.

It's that kind of feeling,

the sort of feeling that everyone has deep

down inside that they get excited for something they're looking forward to,

and that's what, in my opinion, is commercially viable.

It's an image that brings that feeling from the inside out when you look at it.

So, another thing to keep in mind would be to shoot

things that have a certain level of ambiguity,

but also lastability, something that will actually last into

the future if you want to hold onto these shots and

potentially sell them a year from now.

Also, trendy things. I mean,

things that are currently on trend are going to be popular for a short time, generally,

whether it's fashion or that desert festival,

and the flamingo floatie that everyone's got,

or it's a particular food item if you're a foodie.

The great thing about using an environment like this,

a casual environment, is it's something that you're going to be constantly immersed in.

Assuming you get out and you do these sorts of

things in your life which I presume you do,

you're always going to have more and more and more opportunities

to create these type of images.

You will be able to do this.

Even if you don't think you're capable,

you will be able to go out

or go home or wherever it is you may go with your camera in hand,

and you'll be able to create these sort of images that

we create here in this class today.