There are many different ways to approach clients to assess their needs and develop creative campaigns which fulfill your creative desires. Many agencies have established methodology, terminology and processes, and oftentimes, have spent decades or even years developing these processes. However, whether you are a freelancer, designer, illustrator, photographer or marketing director, or perhaps a small business owner, you will be looking to develop a simple process to create campaigns for yourself or your client. In this course I am offering you a methodology which you can easily put into practice. Then, as your needs change and grow, you might decide that you want to incorporate other techniques as well. I hope this course serves as a launchpad for you to go out and win new creative projects as well as make the ones that you are currently working on even better. And most of all, I hope you have FUN! Because remember, if you're not having fun, it's not worth it!
Understanding the Language of Image-Making II
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From the course by IE Business School
From Brand to Image: Creating High Impact Campaigns That Tell Brand Stories
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IE Business School
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From the lesson
Telling a Brand Story Through Images
In the first week of the course we will cover the overview of the course itself and the entire process of creating an effective Creative Pitch. We will go in-depth into when the creative process starts and how to communicate Brand Values. Finally, we will examine the language of image-making to understand how images convey a Brand's ¨look and feel¨.
Meet the Instructors
Brian HallettAssociate Professor
Master in Visual and Digital Media
Okay. So, let's pick up where we left off.
Now, we're going to talk about the use of color.
Now, what we see when we use color is that color can either;
we can use it to separate things,
or we can use it to draw our eye to things.
But in general, what we're doing with color is we're telling people where to look.
So, if we look at this photo, for example,
what we see is that the red draws our attention to the floating woman, right?
And if we look at this photo,
what we see is that we're using
color now in the opposite way which is that the background,
which is very colorful,
is sharing the colorful woman with her pink shirt.
So, the whole story becomes about color.
So, we can use color in very powerful ways.
For example, in this example, the yellow,
what it does is it separates the blue window for us, right?
So, it almost becomes like a frame.
So, we can use color in very imaginative ways.
And especially the one we're talking about branded images,
what we can do is we can use color to also represent the brand.
And we'll see that more in future videos.
Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about light and the different kinds of light.
There are essentially four different ways to think of light.
There's hard light, soft light,
warm light, and cold light.
And I'm going to show you some examples.
So, when we look at hard light,
hard light gives us a very sort of a harsh feeling.
It creates drama.
And in this case,
it creates this feeling of sort of a bad boy, right.
Because the light is so hard.
And when we say hard, what we mean is that we have very strong shadows.
So, you can see that the shadows that are being
cast on the wall are very distinct, right.
And that's how we know that this is hard light.
So, we can use hard light in this way to tell certain stories.
Again, this is using hard light to create those shadows on the background, right.
Here's another example of hard light which creates this very moody feel to
the photo by using this dramatic lighting effect.
Hard light, when we use it in advertising,
we often use hard light for brands where we want to show aggressivity,
or where we want to show danger.
So, in this particular case,
you can see that the hard light that is being caused by the sun
is creating that sense of danger,
and an excitement around the motorcycles.
So, let's look at soft light.
Now, immediately what we see with soft light
is that soft light gives us a much more intimate feel.
Now, how do you know that this is soft light?
You know because there are no distinct shadows.
In other words, the light source is a very large soft light source,
rather than being a small light source,
which is creating a hard light.
So, here the soft light tells a story about this young woman.
It creates a sort of an intimacy as opposed to the photo we saw previously of the guy,
which creates that sort of sense of danger.
Okay. Again, soft light,
in this case, is creating this ambiance,
this mood of intimacy,
of a sort of a delicateness to the photo, right.
There are no hard shadows.
Everything is evenly lit.
Again, this photo, you can
imagine what this guy would look like if he had a very hard light.
Where it would make him look very tough and aggressive.
By using this soft light,
we create this intimacy,
and this sort of homey feel to the photo, okay.
Now, let's look at warm light and cold light.
Now, when we refer to warm light,
we're talking about warm colors.
Which tend more towards reds and oranges and magentas.
And so, you can see that in this photo,
the warm light that is on her face is
creating that sense of peacefulness and calm, right.
And it's surrounded by this blue texture.
So, what happens is that the warmth on her face really stands out.
And it gives us that sensation of the sun shining on her.
Here's another example of warm light.
Now, there are no leaves on this tree, right.
So, you can imagine that if this photo was shot with very cold light,
it would give us that sense of winter,
of decay and loneliness.
But by virtue of the fact that there's warm light in the photo,
what it's telling us, that this is a sort of a soft, delicate environment.
It's very summery feeling.
Warm light and cold light.
Cold light tends to be more of a morning light.
Whereas, warm light tends to be more of a late afternoon light.
So, let's look at another example. Here's an example.
This is a photo of Rafa Nadal for Chocrón Joyeros.
And this particular photo,
what we see is that Rafa has a very warm light on his face.
And what that does is it separates him from all of that cool tone in the background,
all those blue tones in the background.
So, because he has this warm light on him,
it separates him from the background.
And it gives us again, that kind of sense of intimacy and warmth.
Now, we see what happens with cold light.
When we use cold light,
It creates that sort of very sterile to almost like technological feel to it, right.
So, it gives a very distinct feeling,
cold light literally gives us the feeling of cold, right.
So, in this icy environment,
it's that cold light which gives us this sense of cold.
Whereas, in the background, you can see the warm light which she's headed towards, right.
So, it creates this contrast.
Here's another example of cold light.
This is creating that idea of almost like Genesis or origin or birth by using cold light.
If you use this, if you use a warm light in this same photo,
it would give obviously,
a very different sensation.
Now, I'd like to talk to you about a really interesting concept
which is the rule of thirds.
Now, you may have heard about this before.
The rule of thirds is basically an idea that comes from the Golden Triangle.
And so the rule of thirds is a technique that we use in
photography to create a harmonious feeling to a photo.
Now, this particular photo, which again,
was shot for Chocrón Joyeros.
This is Victorio Lucchino who are two fashion designers in Spain.
And what you see is that he is in the rule of thirds,
and I'll show you what I mean by that.
The rule of thirds means that if I were to divide
this photo into sections, in other words,
I cut the photo into three horizontal strips and then three vertical strips.
By placing a subject onto one of these sort of axis,
what happens is that I draw attention to that particular spot.
So, if we go back and we look at it,
we can see that it draws our attention to him.
And it creates this sort of
harmonious feeling by using the rule of thirds. It's a great technique.
Again, here's another rule of thirds photo.
You can imagine if the leaf was in the center of the image,
it would have a very different feeling.
But by putting it into the rule of thirds,
what I'm doing is I'm emphasizing also what is around the leaf,
and not just the leaf itself.
It's a great technique. In this particular image, for example,
you can see that the rule of thirds is falling right on I Agree.
And so, what it does is it draws our attention to that particular spot.
So, when you pick up your cell phone,
for example, when you're taking a photo of a friend, just practice this.
Instead of putting a person into the center of the photo,
practice putting them into the rule of thirds,
and see what happens to your photo,
and see how it emphasizes the background, okay.
Now, we're going to move on to another area, which is symmetry.
Now, symmetry is a very interesting technique.
Symmetry, when we use symmetry in a photo,
what it does is to create this sense of calmness, of order, right.
So, by creating all of this symmetrical,
all of these symmetrical lines in the photo,
what we're doing is we're creating a photo about order,
and about calmness, and peacefulness in the photo.
I'll show you another example. Look at this.
So, what we've done here is we've; by using symmetry,
by creating exactly the same sort of shape on both sides,
we are driving our viewer's attention into this middle area.
And we're creating this sensation of order again. Here's another photo.
You can see that it works perfectly in indoor environments and outdoor environments.
It's a very interesting technique to use.
Now, let's look at motion blur.
When we're talking about motion blur or stopping action,
what we're talking about is using the shutter speed of
the camera to create these effects.
Now, what do we mean by motion blur?
The blur is all of this movement that you see in the photo, right.
It gives us that sense of action and speed.
By using a longer shutter speed,
we can create that sensation.
Here's another interesting example.
Where the people who are stopped by using motion blur on all the other people,
the people who are stopped in the photo become the center of attention.
Remember, when we use these techniques,
oftentimes what we're doing is we're telling the viewer where to look, okay.
This is a freeze action example.
In other words, what we're doing here is
rather than having lots of movement in the photo,
we're doing exactly opposite.
Using a much shorter shutter speed.
What we're doing is we are actually freezing the action,
which gives us a very different sensation, right.
Again, here is a windsurfer.
And by freezing the action,
we create that sense of excitement.
Another technique is the use of bokeh.
Now, what does bokeh mean?
Bokeh refers to the blurry or out of focus areas in a photo.
And what you can see here as by using the aperture on the camera,
the photographer has actually told us where to look.
So, that the photographer is telling us to look here at the pine cone.
The pine cone in the hand become the center of focus,
and everything else is blurred and around it.
Okay, so, let's look at another example of bokeh.
Now, what we see in this particular image is that
our attention is drawn directly to the duck. I think it's a duck.
And all of this is out of focus.
So, this is the bokeh here,
and it draws our attention in there.
Here's another example.
Our attention is drawn to this particular light, right.
And so, all of the bokeh,
all the out of focus area becomes kind of like background.
So, our eye is always told to go to what is in focus in the particular photo.
This photo is a perfect example.
The flowers are in focus.
Everything else is out of focus.
So, it draws our attention here.
And what's interesting is that it helps us to tell the story, right.
Okay, so, in the next video,
we're going to look at composition.
And we're going to look at some examples of photos.
And we're going to look at how all of
these different techniques are used to tell the story. I'll see you there.
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