Photography has become extremely popular over the past 8 years with the price drop in cameras, but that doesn’t mean people are learning photography. There are a lot of people out there, my father included, that don’t really know what they are doing. They basically turn the camera to an auto setting and point and shoot. Now I’m not saying that everyone needs to be a professional photographer or know everything about his or her camera. I do think, though, that there are a lot of people out there that want to learn but haven’t been able to for whatever reason. Today, I’ll talk about some great resources for learning photography.
Resources for Learning Photography
I’ve talked about several of these sources in previous blogs, but I’m going to go ahead and repeat them so I can have all the sources together in one spot.
1. Kelby One
I just recently resubscribed to this. I used this about 4 years ago, and then got away from it for some reason. Scott Kelby is a famous photographer and great teacher. He created a website where they have videos of people teaching all types of things related to photography or video. From my experience, the teachers are very informed and good at teaching, even entertaining. With the roughly $200 subscription, you also get there magazine, which has more information in it.
2. CreativeLive
I’m not sure how long ago this company started out, but since I started paying attention to them, they have really grown and expanded. The idea is that they bring in an expert and some students for a seminar, and then the whole thing gets broadcast live. When it is live, it is completely free, so you can watch as much as you want. If you want to watch the classes later, you can purchase them. This comes with streaming them online as well as a digital download.
3. Youtube or other video sites
There are tutorials everywhere and over everything. If you simply go to Google and type in a photography topic and look under videos, you will find something. The major issue I have found with this is that some of the videos are low quality or the person on the video isn’t the greatest instructor. What I’ve found helpful is to find either a good teacher or a big company and look at the videos they have posted. Profoto is one company that puts out some pretty helpful videos.
4. Webinars
This is similar to Youtube videos. There are tons of photographers out there doing webinars. Be warned, most of them are trying to sell you something, but you can still get good information from it. I just watched one tonight from Zach and Jody Gray. They had some helpful information about off camera flash, but then they tried to sell me stuff at the end. If you’re into marketing, Sarah Petty is pretty consistently putting something on. Again, though, she’s a marketing genius, so be prepared to be sold to.
Of course there are tons of other resources out there, like books and magazines or going to a class, but I’ve found these to have the most bang for their buck. They have a variety of things to teach, are easy to access, and don’t cost a ton. I hope these resources for learning photography are helpful. If you know any others, feel free to leave a comment.
