Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?  (Read 2445 times)

jazzy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 38
Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« on: April 11, 2016, 08:23:56 pm »

 
The web is literally littered with photography video tutorials, however most are really quite entry level, taught mostly by people who are "professional photography teachers" rather than practicing professionals, and sometimes do more harm than good.

However every now and then I come across some material that's really good and adds to my work. One I can recommend is RGG EDU video training (http://rggedu.com/), especially the Food Photography with Rob Grimm, or recently a retouching tutorial Studio Beauty with Julia Kuzmenko McKim (http://www.juliakuzmenko.com/gpsb/). Both are high level professionals, and they really do not hold back on what they share. What they are doing is not necessarily in the same area I'm/you are, but there are good ideas to take away and integrate to your work.

Growing your skills after reaching certain level is hard. Of course keep working/practicing is the most important, however professional photography knowledge is shrouded in some level of secrecy.

Please share what other resources that are high-level, well produced that have made a difference to your work.

« Last Edit: April 12, 2016, 09:13:43 am by jazzy »
Logged

Endeavour

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 393
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2016, 08:43:34 am »

It would be great to have a discussion on this topic (wrong section though?)

There has always been a large conflict with this stuff, a 'pro' wants to make more money so they sell video/tutorials/books - but they dont want to give away their real workings for fear of training up their competitors. This means you're left with a bunch of regurgitated material we've all seen/heard a thousand times before

You have to be very brave these days to spend hundreds of $ on unknown training material/videos which may or may not go into the specifics of what you are interested in
Logged

jazzy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 38
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2016, 09:10:56 am »

Sorry I really want to reach out to young/developing professionals so that's why I wanted to post in this section.

I usually view the photographer's work before deciding to buy a training material. Like I said, there are very few that are actually high level practicing professionals, and even fewer that I like/see there's something in their work that I want to learn. And generally, you can see the production effort that they have put in via the trailer/marketing material.

I'm a believer in you get back more when you share. And only those who can integrate new skills in their work in organic way, not just copy what they learn, can develop and raise their work.

Another recommendation is Urs Richer from Broncolor, no official course but various bits on Broncolor website.



« Last Edit: April 12, 2016, 09:14:17 am by jazzy »
Logged

Dshelly

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 82
    • Darryl Shelly Photography
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2016, 10:47:29 am »

Here's a link to an online photography lessons from working commercial photographers in LA. You can pretty much get through all their videos in about 1 month - and there are a lot of videos.

http://www.photoschool.com
Logged

David Grover / Capture One

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1324
    • Capture One
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2016, 10:51:26 am »


The web is literally littered with photography video tutorials, however most are really quite entry level, taught mostly by people who are "professional photography teachers" rather than practicing professionals, and sometimes do more harm than good.

However every now and then I come across some material that's really good and adds to my work. One I can recommend is RGG EDU video training (http://rggedu.com/), especially the Food Photography with Rob Grimm, or recently a retouching tutorial Studio Beauty with Julia Kuzmenko McKim (http://www.juliakuzmenko.com/gpsb/). Both are high level professionals, and they really do not hold back on what they share. What they are doing is not necessarily in the same area I'm/you are, but there are good ideas to take away and integrate to your work.

Growing your skills after reaching certain level is hard. Of course keep working/practicing is the most important, however professional photography knowledge is shrouded in some level of secrecy.

Please share what other resources that are high-level, well produced that have made a difference to your work.


Also Jointhebreed.com
Logged
David Grover
Business Support and Development Manager

peterv

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 160
    • facebook
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2016, 05:48:36 pm »

Amen

Very good advice! I used to teach ENG camera classes, and in my opinion BC shows a good path for young aspired photographers/image creators to learn their trade.
Logged

jazzy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 38
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2016, 11:11:54 pm »

@bcooter: I agree with you completely, passion and dedication is the key for growing and your creative vision is what set you apart.

However you also need practical skills so it frees you to express. What I'm asking here is some further professional, practical training that can help you break a creative rut you are in. Or sometimes you see some work and you want to integrate certain element in your own but not sure how to achieve it. So while I truly appreciate your advice and wisdom, I hope we can also discuss it at more practical level here.

@DShelly: thank you, a little basic/intermediate but very well structured, I would definitely recommend to starting out photographers.

@David: nice site, I'll check it out!


Logged

Transposure

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 76
    • Transposure Creative
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2016, 01:04:22 am »

James,
Heere, heere!
Agree on every pont.  Spot on.
RD rocks.
Best,
Ken



Take this with a grain of salt, because like everything it's just my viewpoint.

There are some excellent instructors, but nothing, let me repeat nothing will drive you like your own passion and goals.

I looked at that site David put up, it's ok,  the imaging is professional with a lot of post work and effects,  but I just quickly flipped through a portion of it and like most instruction, online or personal,  it has one basic flaw.

They teach you how to do a number of things, but not why you do something.

How is good, why is better, because the only reason to produce an image that hopefully a lot of people want to look at is an image with purpose.

If I made a list of what it takes to move forward it is something like this, (remember I'm only spending 5 to 7 minutes on this, so I know I'll miss something).

1.  To learn, view the best work in the world, not locally, or regionally.    Photography (imaging creation) is universal and great image makers come from everywhere.

We live and work in 4 basic markets and every time I go to a supplier in any of the markets I'm presently in, some supplier or assistant or gaffer mentions some local artist.

That's too limited a scope.  You want to study the best of the world, not the people three blocks away and you want to study people that work, not just teach, though both can be good.

2.  Don't limit your study to only still photographers. (if stills are your goal).  Look at all great image makers, from movies to commercials to illustrators.   

Studying Roger Deakins , Anthony Dodd Mantle http://www.dodmantle.com/, The films of Jeff Nichols,you will find goodness in what a movie maker produces, because they work to a theme, a story that will teach you how to cohesively build a certain body of work.

3..   Dedicate yourself completely in every way.   If you can only afford one vehicle make sure it carries stuff.   In other words invest in your work.

In three markets I have 8 vehicles and yes 3 are more for fun than just hauling equipment, but in every market I have vehicles that will carry at least a 9' backdrop.

Granted since I like cars I have two suvs that have 425 hp, (ok it's overkill but I like cars), though they all carry equipment, all of the back windows open up for shooting and all are useable for image making.

4.  Surround yourself wit the best on set artists possible.   Whether you want to shoot food, or fashion, real life and crafted life, your only as good as who is around you and what you point you lens at.

5.  You are what you shoot, or in other words don't cheat yourself.   I've seen young photographers do this all the time.   They want to shoot a portrait and want a specialized background, though have an old canvas, or wall so they use that.

They want an interesting subject with tattoos and a unique look, but they photograph a friend,  they use the lights they have and usually overlight and the image falls down.

Broad strokes are easy, refinement is brutal.   Great lighting and post work won't make a bland setting unique. 

Look at this series from Dan Winters, one of the world's famed portrait photographers.   (you may or may not like this subject because it's a series on guns in Texas), but what makes these images work is everything is crafted, styled, thought out and planned.

It's not the best of Dan's work, but it is a good lesson in refinement.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/called-to-arms/  (this is just a small sampling of the photo series).

The post imaging accents the images, but without the wardrobe, props, styling and locations, the imagery would be just simple portraits.

Learning how to either do or direct post production is important, but post is usually not to save an image, but to accent.

6.  Have a concept and/or reason.  A beautiful photograph is wonderful, but a photographic or series with a message is much more compelling.

To me, when I shot these two images in different genres, creative briefs, they really are the same photograph and though one is crafted light, one if fast and quick with little direction and available light, I don't see the difference, though I know others do.

One is medium format, one is 35mm, but that's the least relevant part of the image.





7.  Be unrelenting.    There is an old saying that a__ h___s shoot better.   You don't have to be mean spirited, but you do have to learn to say no this isn't right, especially if it's on your own money.
Don't let others dumb you down, don't let yourself be limited, don't limit yourself because at the end of the day, they'll judge you on the image, everything else will be forgotten.

8.  If your goal is to sell your work, then show it to people that buy, not just other photographers.  Yes a photographer may give you good advice, but if you gotta make money, you need feedback from buyers and more than one.

9.  Be complete.  Learn how to communicate to crew, subjects, learn how to sell yourself.  You don't have to be a slick wall street trader, but if you can't get your message out you'll be limited.

10.  This and most forums go round and round about equipment, usually cameras and yes equipment is important, but not the end all.  Few of the very good photographs you see "today" are done with the latest and greatest.

Actually most photographers, DP's don't interest themselves in every new announcement.   You can't spend you life testing something out for the next few megapixels, or different workflow. 

 Of course you keep your eye on innovation changes, how the market in commissioned work moves and what is required to adapt, but honestly it's always been essentially the same.    Concept, light, subject, lens, capture device.


IMO

BC

Rob C

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24074
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2016, 05:24:39 am »

BC

That DEAKINS: Shadow In The Valley video is beautiful.

Seems like every sequence makes its own perfect, stylized still image. I've long believed that I get more buzz from looking at motion pros than stills photographers - probably because I know almost nothing about making movies, so more curiosity exists there. But, even where landscape is concerned (I don't feel any desire to shoot that, though), I realise that the motion guys make it far more exciting, perhaps because of the ability to fly over scenes and get a wider, changing take that reveals so much more than one angle can, whilst polishing the curiosity to see around the next bend. Maybe that's the attraction of being on the road somewhere you've never gone before.

Yeah, just like the Lindberg Portofino stuff and even other general "making-of" videos, seeing the overall work-in-progress - that even a completed film really is - adds so much to the substance of the event. I suppoose that's why "making-of" videos are made: they engender a deeper interest in the message.

Thanks for a lovely link.

Rob C

Jager

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 207
    • E vestigio
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2016, 07:57:07 am »

A few years back I took a week-long workshop with a very well-known NYC-based photographer, one with dozens of major magazine cover credits to his name.  I certainly wasn't expecting him to teach me how to photograph - I already knew that.  But I was looking for insight into how he worked.  I was particularly curious about how he interacted with strangers on the street.

Alas.  What I discovered was that his workshop was a very scripted, scheduled affair.  He does a lot of these workshops and it's pretty clear they have become his major source of income.  He's come up with a canned formula - day one, this; day two, that; etc.  And save for a couple hours one afternoon down at Times Square, I never got a chance to see him working.  I also found him to be pretty dogmatic about most things photographic - down to things as simple as the focal length of one's lens.

I'm guessing most of the photographic workshops out there are of a similar ilk.  They do their thing.  Whatever formula seems to work for them.

Then you have true professional photographers - the guys still out there doing it.  Working with clients.  Making their money - or not - based upon the creativity they bring to the table and the resulting imagery they create.

What's the old saw... those who can, do; those who can't, teach.  I know, I know, that's not fair.  But still, there's an element of truth to it.  The doing of it is hard.  The number who make a success at it is slim.  And those who do do it are mostly too busy to share what they're doing. 

There's a whole industry which has arisen around "teaching" professional photography.  Workshops and books and videos and all the rest of it.  Alas, mostly, the folks providing those things aren't exactly the source of wisdom they'd like us to think. 

I'm guessing that's what Jazzy was looking for... that rare intersection of a great photographer, still in the game, who sets aside some time to explore how and what and why they do what they do. 

There are a few resources like that out there.  Dan Witner's Road to Seeing is one.  So is Gregory Heisler's 50 Portraits.  But they're rare.  I, too, would love to hear of other examples of insight from the high end.  Books or videos or whatever that provides a bit of a glimpse into this hard art.

More than anything, that's why I hang out in this particular forum.  Because you periodically get ageless snippets from guys like BC.  Priceless stuff.

The only thing is, forums by their nature impose both a brevity and a tenuousness to what is written.  Deep dives into a subject don't often happen.

Which is why I'd love to see a book by some of you.  Especially you, James.





landscapephoto

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 623
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2016, 03:54:29 pm »

Jazzy (really is your name Jazzy?)

This is when I should just go back to work, because I can tell that was a waste of 11 minutes of my life.

What I tried to explain was the process and dedication it takes for success, not just in photography but any enterprise.

Look, we all are susceptible to outside influences, but the plan is not to copy or interpret someone else's style but develop your own.

Don't ever think that you are wasting your time writing what you write. True: the person for which it was written may not benefit from it (but then, when a newbie post looks like product placement it probably is...), but there are others reading. It is not lost.

And, if I may say something in exchange: the examples you gave are fantastic. Indeed the production values, the attention to detail, are extraordinary. But (and there is a "but"), this kind of "cinema" manipulation of the colour palette will look old very soon. I don't give it more than 5 years to be out of fashion.

(To lurkers who may not understand how these "cinema" looks are made, they are normally created by reducing the number of hues in your images to a set of 2 or 3 equally chosen on the colour circle. It is a very nice trick, also used by Instagram filters, but it makes all pictures using it look similar after a while and people get tired of it.)
Logged

Endeavour

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 393
Re: Professional-level video tutorials/learning resources?
« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2016, 06:12:40 pm »

^^^ yup

teal and orange  :)
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up