That led me to the web site Karl Taylor Photography Masterclass where I discovered he offered a free mini-course in photography as an introduction to his DVD courses. Look at what you get with this free course: Over 1 1/2 hours of video tutorials and 8 articles.
Lesson 1 - The Six Essentials - PDF
Lesson 2 - Understanding Light (Part 1) - 6 minutes
Lesson 3 - Understanding Light (Part 2) - 5 minutes
Lesson 4 - A Review of Light - PDF
Lesson 5 - Natural Light Portraiture - 5 minutes
Lesson 6 - Advanced Portraiture Techniques - PDF
Lesson 7 - Shutter Speeds - PDF
Lesson 8 - Action Photography - 6 minutes
Lesson 9 - Six Essentials Review - PDF
Lesson 10 - Travel Photography - 6 minutes
Lesson 11 - Ambient & Artificial Light - PDF
Lesson 12 - Fashion Shoot with Flash & Ambient Light - 6 1/2 minutes
Lesson 13 - Perfect Photo Composition - PDF
Lesson 14 - Converting Images to Black & White in Photoshop - PDF
Bonus Video 1 - Tripods & Maintenance – 8 ½ minutes
Bonus Video 2 - Polarising Filters – 7 minutes
Bonus Video 3 - Lens Hoods – 2 minutes
Bonus Video 4 - Camera Bags & Straps – 6 minutes
Bonus Video 5 - Using on Camera Flash – 3 minutes
Bonus Video 6 - Lens Quality – 5 minutes
Bonus Video 7 - ND Graduated Filters – 2 minutes
Bonus Video 8 - Exposure & Histograms – 4 minutes
Bonus Video 9 - Adding Graduated Skys in Photoshop – 4 ½ minutes
Bonus Video 10 - Preparing Your Images for Print – 9 minutes
Bonus Video 11 - Pro-Lab Printing – 10 ½ minutes
Bonus Video 12 - Enhancing Skies in Photoshop – 5 minutes
Bonus Video 13 - Shooting for Black & White – 2 minutes
If you like the free course, you can buy the DVDs. For $99.90 you get Introduction to Photography, Travel and Landscape Photography, and Advanced Digital SLR Photography. Each DVD is about 1 1/2 hours in length; a total of 4 1/2 hours of training for under $100. That seems like a reasonable price, but that's not all (like they say on TV)! You get 30 bonus videos for probably an additional 3 hours. The bonus videos include some Photoshop tutorials.
I haven't seen the DVDs so I can't voice an opinion either yea or nay, but the free stuff is more than worth the price. Despite his English accent, Karl is easy to understand, explanations are clear, he repeats things for clarity, not fill, and it's information beginners can use. I did google reviews for the DVDs and didn't see any negative ones (some had issues with some aspects of the intro course, but still liked it), Here's a "professional" review from ePHOTOzine (which may be somewhat biased as Karl's a contributor to ePHOTOzine).
The one thing I don't like about his PDF files and his website is the white text on black background. I don't know why, but I always find that combination online stark, irritating, and depressing. That has nothing to do with the content or quality of the site or DVDs, but I just don't like it. [Updated 01/22/12 - Karl's main site does not have a black background - it's bright and modern; the training videos page still has a black background, but you're watching the vids not reading so it's more tolerable.]
Addendum 6/28/2012: I get a lot of hits on this page and for those who want to know - The free mini course truly is free. It's a great way to start learning more about photography. You do have to provide an email address and Karl will send you emails every few days or so selling his DVDs, but they usually contain tips and videos and other interesting stuff as well. And you can always unsubscribe.
[Update 6/28/2012: I purchased the 3 DVD professional course about a year ago. I found the Introduction to Photography beneficial. The others less so but they were interesting and educational. The one "con" I had for all the DVDs was that they didn't allow enough time for me to look at the photographs. They weren't shown till the end and special effects made it appear more as if I were watching a movie. I wanted to take my time and study the photos. (I know - I could hit pause on the ol' remote.) Since my purchase Karl has expanded his product line. Some packages include certification and portfolio reviews. Learn more at USA DVD series or UK DVD series.]
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