Crammed Creative Course

As I have mentioned before, I am taking an intro to photography class at BYU even though I have already taken 6+ years of photography classes. I started out the year thinking that this class would be majorly easy, and I was right for the most part. However, I didn’t expect my professor to push me as hard as he is in both the creative and emotional aspects of photography. So this post is attributed to my professor.

Here I’ll give you some steps of advice on what to do when you’re pressured for time and can’t use your normal creative process:

1. Don’t Stress Out

When you're in a time crunch the worst thing to do is freak out and push the assignment off until the very last minute. Instead of stressing, take a couple of minutes of alone time to sketch out ideas of what you would like to photograph and how you would like to execute it so that you won't waste time when you are out photographing.

2. Plan

Plan out everything down to the little aspects of the outfit the model will be wearing if you are doing portraits. After you plan it all out, make sure that you put it into your car or a familiar place so that you will not forget it.

3. Photograph

Take lots pictures of the variation of the photograph you want. Pose the model in as many ways that you can think of but try not to take multiple of the same poses, this will save you time in post.

4. Edit

Right after the photoshoot download your photos as soon as possible and then examine them in Lightroom. Normally when I’m not pressured for time I use photoshop to get precisely the look that I’m wanting, but with Lightroom it is faster to edit a batch of images because you can either use pre-made presets or copy and paste existing edits.

5. Preview

If you have the time, take a couple of minutes that next day to look over your edited piece to make sure you like your final product and it is executed correctly. If you do not have the time, take into extra consideration the time that you are editing the photo before submitting your piece.

6. Breathe

Now that you’ve turned in what you needed to, take a breather! But not for too long, you never know when your next assignment will come up!