Discount on Perfect Picture School Classes

Who: the PERFECT PICTURE school of photography
What: 25% discount on August on-line classes
When: register between July 15, 2012 - July 21, 2012; Classes start August 3, 2012
Where: http://www.ppsop.com/
How much: $99 - $395 USD

• $99 for a 2 week course (with discount approximately $74)
• $195 for a 4 week course (with discount approximately $164)
• $295 for a 6 week course (with discount approximately $221)
• $395 for an 8 week course (with discount approximately $296)

I haven't taken any of the classes, but this is what I learned from the web site:

• The Basics will give you information about how the classes work
• The classes are on the Internet so anybody, anywhere with Internet access can take them
• You have to complete the assignments to get your money's worth and the classes include professional/instructor critique of your work.
• The school offers a money-back guarantee
• Classes range from beginner to advanced and include topics such as exposure, composition, business, building websites, lighting, and digital darkrooms. More focused subjects include nature/landscape, food, street, wedding, portrait, pet, architecture, birding, children/infant, and flower photography .
• Understanding Exposure is based on Bryan Peterson's well-known, frequently recommended book of the same name.  PPSOP says it's their most popular class.

Reviews: For some reason, it was difficult to find recent reviews of this school, but here are a few.  I did find comments in forums from prior students but they were older (2007 - 2009).  I only found one negative comment and it was about the Understanding Exposure course which received good reviews from others.

1. brightstarphotos - The Perfect Picture School of Photography - worth it?  (Check out the YouTube links for examples of critiques)
2. 2 Guys Photo - Perfect Picture School of Photography by Janet McQueen
3. ronmartblog - Review: PPSOP's The Art of Seeing online course by Chris Hurtt and Bryan Peterson

Update: 7/21/2012: This offer has been extended through 7/22/2012

 (I am not associated with the PERFECT PICTURE school of photography in any way and I receive no remuneration of any kind from the PERFECT PICTURE school of photography for this posting.)

$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

Karl Taylor's Free Photography Mini-Course

This morning I watched a very informative video on lighting, Photography Tips, Essential Skills, Quickly Transform Your Photos, by Karl Taylor. 

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.]

NYIP Links

Here are some links to NYIP sites in case you're looking for more information:

New York Institute of Photography home page
NYIP Photo Forum - a great place to read what NYIP students are really saying.
NYIP PhotoWorld - an online magazine featuring NYIP's collection of photography tips and articles
NYIP Blog - features a different style of photography related articles
NYIP PhotoView - audio-podcasts that are similar to the audio CDs that come with the NYIP photography course
NYIP Student Center - read interviews with NYIP students

Photo Joe's On-line Courses

A semi-retired college professor named Joe taught on-line photography courses in the Saint Louis area and has posted courses from 2009 at Joe's Photo Courses so you can take a college photography course free of charge.   When you go to the site click on one of the first 3 barges to find links to the three courses: Photoshop, Digital Photography, and Color Photography. 

I haven't done any of the courses, but I did read through the Digital Photography course.  It is about half Photoshop (starts in Lesson 6 of 12 lessons) and because this is a college course there's a lot of history and stuff like that, but Joe is funny, crusty, and opinionated so what I did read wasn't dry or boring.

You can't submit pictures to Joe for his critique since the course is free, but there are several forums on the Internet where your can get free reviews of your photos.

Here's another freebie for you.

Here's another freebie for you.  Lynda.com  offers a free 14 day trial of their eLearning courses (and you don't have to give a credit card number to get it). 

I just signed up for the trial so I haven't taken any courses yet, but I did watch one of their sample videos from a Photography course and found it very informative and well-done.

If you haven't heard of Lynda.com, here's what I've learned in a nutshell:

1. Lynda.com sells monthly and annual subscriptions to on-line video courses.  You can also buy the courses as books or DVDs.  (NOTE: Your credit card is automatically billed each month or year until you cancel.) 
2. The subscription fees are reasonable for the unlimited access: $25 - $37.50 a month or $250 - $375 a year.  The higher fees include exercise files.  A subscription gives you 24/7 access to all of the over 900 courses and 59,000 tutorials currently available for many different subjects. 
3. There are over 100 courses in photography.  Photography courses include cameras and gear, lighting, exposure, lighting, photo editing, photo assignments, and documentaries.
4. Each course has a table of contents, description of the course, and a brief biography of the author.  You can see this information without a subscription and also sample some segments of a course.
5. You can stop, rewind, and replay segments of a course as often as you need to.  The courses can have closed captioning if you want to read along with the instructor.
6. The courses I looked at were available in 4 formats: Flash, Quicktime Standard and Custom, and Windows Media.  I did notice that some of the general videos on their site were only available in Quicktime.

The first course I'm going to take is Fundamentals of Photography: Exposure (a 12 chapters, 3 1/2 hours long course) taught by Ben Long.  

PCWorld has a review of Lynda.com.
The Santa Barbara Better Business Bureau gives them an A rating, but does show 3 complaints.
There are several examples of Lynda.com videos on YouTube; such as the one on Lenses.