The Photoshop Guys Guitar Benefit Raffle

Scott Kelby is an author, blogger, instructor, and photographer.  Did you know he also plays a mean guitar?

"The Photoshop Guys are raffling off a Signature Schecter Diamond Series guitar signed by all of the Photoshop Guys; Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Corey Barker, RC Concepcion and Pete Collins!" 

100% of the proceeds benefit the Springs of Hope Kenya orphanage.

Click here or on guitar for more information: Photoshop Guys Guitar Benefit Raffle, the tickets are $25 each and the raffle ends Friday, 09/21/2012.

Better Portraits

Scott Kelby recently invited Joe McNally  to critique viewer submitted portraits on The Grid, Scott's weekly photography show.  You can watch the re-broadcast here: If You're Serious about Taking  Better Portraits, Watch This.  More of a conversation than a lecture, Mr. McNally's critiques are very helpful to anyone wanting to improve their portrait photography.

The most common advice given was (these are paraphrased):

1. Get closer to the subject.  Several of the pictures were good scenes, but not good portraits.
2. Use the Rule of Thirds for better composition in most scenes and portraits.  Placing the subject dead center (or in the bull's eye) is only effective occasionally.
3. Watch the lighting.  It should match the subject and the mood of the composition.

Joe McNally says it better than I do so watch the video.  It is about an hour long, but is so interesting it seemed shorter. 

$50 off Kelby Training - this weekend only!

Scott Kelby is offering a $50 discount on annual subscriptions to his online training.  It's this weekend only - the deal ends July 1, 2012 at midnight (ET).  Go to the Scott Kelby Photoshop Insider blog to get the discount code.

You can view the course listings at Kelby Training.  They offer a free 24 hour test drive so you can 'try it before you buy it', but it's only for a limited number of people per day and as I write this there are only 21 spots left for today.  (Before I finished writing this post, it was down to 0.  Try again tomorrow.)

I took advantage of a similar offer last Christmas so I can and do recommend these classes.  The site itself has a few minor flaws and the class contents are of varying usefulness, but you should be able to get your money's worth and more.

Pros:

• Dozens of classes (Adobe Flash videos) to choose from on many different photography topics and you can watch them all (if you have the time).  Subjects include basic photography, lighting, studio lighting, Photoshop, composition, exposure, wedding photography, wildlife photography, car photography, using the web (Flikr, Wordpress, selling your photos online, etc), fashion photography, sports photography, business/legal, DSLR video, video production, etc, etc, etc.
• Over 50 experienced, well known instructors and photographers including Scott Kelby,  Joe McNally, Rick Sammon, Janine Warner, Moose Peterson, Bill Fortney, etc, etc, etc.  Some are better than others in my opinion, but I know from experience that my opinion and yours will differ somewhere and you may prefer the ones I don't like - which is one of the good things about having so many instructors to choose from.
• New classes added frequently. 
• 24/7 access (when it works).  You can watch, rewind, watch again, or watch later.  This is convenient if you don't have time to sit and watch a whole class   The classes I've viewed have been in 5 - 30 minutes segments so I watch them as I can.  The shortest class I've taken was about a half hour long, I think the longest was about 3 hours.
• Cost - Reasonable for the amount and quality of content.  I'm not sure exactly how many classes there are and how many hours of training, but I saw an estimate that the classes are about 50 cents each with the discount.  And they add new classes frequently.

Cons:

• Few, if any, handouts or takeaways (except for the knowledge you've gained) so you have to take your own notes.  Once your subscription expires you no longer have access to the vids.
• Occasionally the videos will freeze, sometimes for an unacceptably long time.  Once in a while they don't play at all. 
• The site maintains a history of classes you access, but doesn't indicate if you finished them or not.  There's no way to remove classes you started, but decided not to finish so they clutter up the history list.
•  It can be difficult to tell where I've left off in a class - though it does seem to pick up somewhere in the last segment I watched for each class.
• No interaction with other participants or the instructors.

(I don't get any compensation from anyone or any organization for this review.)

Other Reviews:
A Review of Online Training from Kelbytraining.com
Kelby Training Online App Review
Kelby Training a Review
Review of Kelby Training
Kelby Training Review