Aaron Hardin (b. 1985) received his MFA from the Hartford Art School International Limited Residency Program in 2016 and is currently the Assistant Professor of Visual Communication at Union University. He also curates The Coalescence; a non-profit gallery utilizing vacant downtown shop fronts to show socially minded art works. Hardin’s clients include The New Yorker, The New York Times, Le Monde, and So Foot Magazine.
Excellent video, Aaron - the most concise, informative and intelligent commentary on sequencing - which I really struggle with - and editing I’ve come across. Cheers!
@@eddieryan7038 glad it helps! After years of teaching, I always try to a logic to everything. I have another video on sequencing that you may also like. There's a few tidbits in that one.
Glad you had good luck with Mixam. I tried to publish a zine containing some of my black and white photos using Mixam and was underwhelmed with the results. Their black and white printers produced images without any real blacks and their color printers produced images with good blacks but an obvious color cast. They tried multiple times and could not deliver satisfactory results. I do agree with you, however, that their customer service is very good. It took me several months, but I finally found a local printer who could deliver good B&W print quality. More expensive than Mixam, but worth it IMO.
Thanks for sharing all your valuable knowledge! Just the push I needed to make my second publication. The first one was greatly inspired by your previous videos and “Hide Me in the Honeysuckle Patch.”
This is great. It’s great to see a real working photographer break this stuff down. Not to hate on the modern cast of photography RU-vidrs, but this is a breath of fresh air.
Hey!! Such an awesome you made this video. My question is are you able to staple bind with longer books. 100 pages or more even?? What are the limits of staples? Thank you so much for making this video! Now more on sequencing, please!!!
@@ordinary.american.beauty I believe Mixam has a 96 page limit on staple binding. I would suggest a max of 60 pages, as it does impact the bow of the book.
I'm learning so much from Aaron. He's incredibly generous with his knowledge and distills (see what I did there) it in such a warm and inviting manner. I haven't began sharing any of my work. I still consider myself a beginner and learning. But Aaron makes this space so comfy... he's inspiring me get to it with the sharing... maybe it doesn't have to be a social platform like Insta... this Magcloud option could be a neat starting point for me!
@@csnerd21 thanks you for such kind words. That truly means a lot. We are all on this strange journey through photography, so it's great that you are seeing ways to put your work out there. It's a healthy (and scary) process. Honestly, even putting out a small publication like this makes me nervous.
Thank you for continuing the video series. When you said “when I’m in the field making the picture I’m not thinking about all this stuff”… it’s all instinctual”. I appreciate you saying that. I feel once you learn the “rules” of composition you start to chase them. Learning to let your instincts work is paramount in my opinion.
I'd like to think a lot of it is osmosis if you are looking at good things and contemplating how they work. But I'm not smart enough to do all that in the field. I just try to find something that is interesting to me and hope that it comes out in the edit.
Really neat assignment Aaron... noticed the honeysuckle patch-style photos right away! Building on the last composition video, noticing very strong/dominant line(s). (Favorite may have been a "baroque" line?) But they seem to be lines that would stem from or seemingly interact with an imaginary "rule of thirds" grid I'm overlaying as I'm seeing your photos.... Are you perhaps cropping to achieve this? I'm sure you're also framing for this when taking the shot... jus wondering how to achieve that and how you feel about cropping?
Also (lol), are the NYT editor(s) "seeing" this in the composition? If you wouldn't mind sharing some of the feedback during the progression of the assignment?
@@csnerd21 as for the cropping, I seldom crop photos and if I do it's very minimal. I try to crop while making the photo, but nobody is perfect. But generally I don't crop. As for feedback from editors, it tends to just be which photos they are drawn to. Most of the time the turn around is fairly quick. But with this assignment, it was nice to have a bit more conversation and hear what the editors connected with. Thankfully, most of the editors I work with want to know what photos I prefer.
*YOU* *HAVE* *TO* *KEEP* *DOING* *THESE* *(please)* *AARON!* For me, it's most likely your background in education and teaching. I appreciate the honest way in which you communicate. To that, your willingness to share your work and teach using your work, was as beneficial as the (composition) lesson. You give me confidence that *my* composition(s) could be *read* or *seen* by others in a similar way.
@@csnerd21 so glad it communicates well! I love teaching, but it is so different doing it in an empty room to a camera. I'll for sure do more of these.
@@AaronHardinPhoto Wondering if you plan on returning to that scene? If so, are you looking to "perfect" the elements in the scene to create a "better" photograph? Could it be part of a project? That 'orange webbing/construction material' presents a before/after view... it goes on and on... I'm just curious as to how you tell "a story"... perhaps with a few photos... of just that scene perhaps?
@@csnerd21 I get bored with things incredibly quickly, so I doubt I'll try to reshoot that photo. It wasn't meant to be part of a greater project, just a photo from my normal life. I tend to make photos with the only purpose of seeing most of the time. As for the storytelling aspect, it always depends on the project and what questions one is trying to raise. Sometimes it's just about creating a world for the viewer to experience. There are hundreds if not thousands of approaches to visual storytelling.
I liked this, thank you! I thought the pacing, visual aids, and thoughts on how this photography could have been better without beating yourself up were all good. I am fascinated by breakdowns like this, so I'd love to see more.
Yeah, this kind of video is awesome!! I love how that little stain on the wall looks like two kids holding hands .. also I do wish shape of the shadow on the wall of the girls was more interesting and I agree about wishing a little more of the flag too.. but it’s subtle too, ya know?
@@ordinary.american.beauty another thing I noticed was if the sun were a bit higher in the sky, it would make that whole shadowy area on the left much more dynamic. But hey, thems the breaks!
I love this kind of videos! Missed your channel for a while. I made the exercise to try to predict what you were going to show when you talked about shapes, and identifying the multiple frames inside the frame and I was mostly correct! One question I wanted to ask you was about the little "Restroom" sign with the arrow pointing outside the frame. You didn't talk about this on the video, but do you think is something to consider and to try to avoid? Anyway, thanks for giving us all this free invaluable knowledge, it's very much appreciated.
@@moodystockholm thanks! I don't have any problem with signs in frames or arrows leading outside the frame, especially at such small sizes. I almost prefer the viewer to imagine what is outside the frame. Great question!
@@AaronHardinPhotoif you could dig up old images you didn’t know you liked that would be awesome .. you could discover some treasure in your archive and you would also be giving us something special to learn about!!
@@ordinary.american.beauty I really, really need to go back through my digital files and negatives to create a proper catalog. It feels like a mountain of work.
Great to hear! I may be a little biased as Robert was my mentor. But I love his work. He has a couple of books from the 1990s called Egypt Time and Another Africa. Both are phenomenal and can be found used.
FINALLY, some practical tips on how to sequence photos for a book using real photos. Very easy to understand and appreciate the choices involved. Thanks very much.
Just came up incidentally. Thank you! Your explanation, discussion on the concept, giving the images their voice within the (text) book - very timely for me.
YT Shorts usually shows me Jordan Peterson, guys luring and then shooting at squirrels with guns or Joe Rogan "Wow, that blew my mind, I didn't know that" nonsense. Finally the algo shows me something nice. :)
Im really at the post photobook stage now I have 100 printed photos that are 20 years old that I would like to put together.....so im thinking what kind of scanner....is my printer scanner good enough that is 10 years old lol 300dpi 600dpi, do I just invest in something better ...thx
I have a video on sequencing for a photo book. That might be helpful for finding some order for your photos. It may also help you edit down a bit to be sure the narrative or vision comes through.
Do you know of The Last Hurrah by Dafydd Jones? I’m just wondering what you think if you have flipped through it or happen to own it by some coincidence. I bought it after seeing his work in an article and really like it, hah! I was assuming it would only be around for a limited time and I wanted to snag a copy.
Hi Aaron, thank you for sharing your impressions on this book. As a Ukrainian emigrant myself, I was deeply moved and will definitely put it on my shelf very soon.
It's such a beautiful, tender book. It gave me a view of Ukraine that I'd never seen. I'm thankful to have experienced just a small part of the country through the photos.
Not many videos on sequencing, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I don't agree necessarily with your accent on letting visual elements tie the pages together - I believe narrative together with visual impact is crucial - but I respect your decisions and the insights they're based on :)
I found it to be a masterful editing class, very well explained and developed. But already, it would be interesting to go to the end with the creation of the photobook in indesing, for example, and see the finished book. Thank you very much and best regards.
