Any good online photography courses?
- Thread starter dickelfan
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I havent, but you could look into local clubs. There is a site called meetup.com, sounds funny but not what you think. Its not a dating site. If you go there and look for local photography clubs, most of them have weekly meet ups to learn new things. They have them up here from Sports to Fashion photography. Usually you pay a small fee for equipment/locations and such but its a good way to meet and learn from other photographers in your area.
I've personally watched a number of the lectures from B&H on youtube, and have learned a lot from them. They are stand alone lectures rather than complete courses, but I think that many of them are pretty good 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=b&h+photography+seminars
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=b&h+photography+seminars
There's always Adorama - YouTube. Lots of good stuff on there.
Thanks for posting that, I meant to check that site out a few months ago and never did.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
A bargain at the original NAPP price, but it's a nearly staggering $250/year now. So glad I joined at the original $99/year - I've learned so much from their various courses and the 10x year magazine Photoshop User. Extremely well done.
I've tried a fair amount of online stuff, unfortunately it never it comes close to the quality of attending a course in person.
I've just stopped my KelbyOne account because I find the lack of quality shocking (based mostly on software lessons, rather than photographic ones for now)
Sometimes I pick up photoshop stuff from Phlearn website which are strange, funny and good to learn from.
Karl Taylor does some good DVD's
uDemy does some stuff to although I've not used them for photography yet (only IT stuff)
But big events like GPP, Fstoppers Workshop, and local stuff from studios in your city are so much more worth while as you not only learn, but you meet people, as they say "networking" (an adults word for socialising) is invaluable. Here you find the opportunity to meet someone to be a shooting buddy, or maybe a mentor which will encourage you to get away from your computer screen and out shooting.
The problem I guess I find with most of these monthly sub sites like KelbyOne, is that all that same material is available free already. There are so many BTS videos to learn from, youtube, vimeo, info sites like Fstoppers and SLRlounge, it just isn't worth paying the monthly sub. KelbyOne isn't even organised well, with so many out of date videos in the way of your searches.
I've just stopped my KelbyOne account because I find the lack of quality shocking (based mostly on software lessons, rather than photographic ones for now)
Sometimes I pick up photoshop stuff from Phlearn website which are strange, funny and good to learn from.
Karl Taylor does some good DVD's
uDemy does some stuff to although I've not used them for photography yet (only IT stuff)
But big events like GPP, Fstoppers Workshop, and local stuff from studios in your city are so much more worth while as you not only learn, but you meet people, as they say "networking" (an adults word for socialising) is invaluable. Here you find the opportunity to meet someone to be a shooting buddy, or maybe a mentor which will encourage you to get away from your computer screen and out shooting.
The problem I guess I find with most of these monthly sub sites like KelbyOne, is that all that same material is available free already. There are so many BTS videos to learn from, youtube, vimeo, info sites like Fstoppers and SLRlounge, it just isn't worth paying the monthly sub. KelbyOne isn't even organised well, with so many out of date videos in the way of your searches.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Very good point, and one that gets lost in the shuffle. KelbyOne is almost all about the digital darkroom, though they do have a number of good tutorials on various photography styles and techniques. It's becoming a very product driven website, so when they get a sponsor you'll learn an awful lot about how to use their stuff - from lighting to accessories to software. You definitely have to go elsewhere if you want to concentrate on the front end of actually taking the photo.
Ah sorry I didn't write that well. I meant my opinion on Kelbyone's lack of quality was mostly based on the videos about the post-processing, where I expected to have a copy of the files they used in the video, so I can learn by imitation rather than trying to make it work with my own files for the first time. So my overall experience on KelbyOne is limited as I haven't watched even half the videos on there.
One of the few front-line videos I did watch by a famous photog/teacher was about photographing everyday people. She tried to explain how to give the client what they want in a studio portrait. In video 2 I think it was, you see picture of how she made an 40-to-50 year old Asian woman look 18 years old. Even though the rest of the tutorial was alright, the ethics behind that Asian woman's pictures was eating at me. But maybe that's what the client wanted for all I know.
I wouldn't warn anyone away from the service, I am sure the vast majority find it very useful, I'm probably just nit-picking because a previous occupation I had was training people, quality and clarity was always so important to me and I pick up on certain things that others can ignore.
One of the few front-line videos I did watch by a famous photog/teacher was about photographing everyday people. She tried to explain how to give the client what they want in a studio portrait. In video 2 I think it was, you see picture of how she made an 40-to-50 year old Asian woman look 18 years old. Even though the rest of the tutorial was alright, the ethics behind that Asian woman's pictures was eating at me. But maybe that's what the client wanted for all I know.
I wouldn't warn anyone away from the service, I am sure the vast majority find it very useful, I'm probably just nit-picking because a previous occupation I had was training people, quality and clarity was always so important to me and I pick up on certain things that others can ignore.
BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Ah, OK. NAPP does provide copies of the files that go with their tutorials in Photoshop User, which is nice. I've never gone thru them with the idea that I would be working along side, step by step, as I find that difficult with video learning, but I can see how having access to the photos to do it would be beneficial.
Perhaps at $250 a year now, it would be a worthy suggestion to add them?
Perhaps at $250 a year now, it would be a worthy suggestion to add them?