Kelby Online Training rocks!

Image Copyright of Kelby Training

I have been a fan of Scott Kelby since I read his first series of digital photography books. These books are never far from my reach, and are now dog-earred, much-loved references. As Scott says, reading these books is like having your own personal tutor, telling you how he shoots a multitude of scenes, and how he handles different lighting situations. They're SO full of practical advice at whatever level of photography you're at. I keep going back to these books time and time again! Perhaps it's because I'm a slow learner...

When my interest in PhotoShop CS5 started to get a bit more obsessive earlier this year, I bought Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers. What another awesome book! I sit with it at the computer and try techniques as I read. It's taking me a while to work my way through the book, but I practice as I go. It's also very practical and uses screen shots and before/after shots to show the effects in action.

Further fuelling my Kelby obsession, is my recent subscription to Kelby Training. For a couple of hundred bucks, you can subscribe for a year with unlimited access, to this MASSIVE library of online tutorials about pretty much any aspect of photograhy which interests you.

I have spent the last couple of nights watching tutorials about my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. It's seriously easier to follow than the instruction manual! Ok, so it might seem a bit lame to watch video tutorials about which buttons do what, but the tutorials are helping me to learn more about my camera every day. For example, I have been meaning to test out the HD video function on the 5D, and when I watched a tutorial that walked me through the (very few and simple) steps, I tried it straight away. So cool!

Through Kelby Training, you also get access to tutorials about flash by photography legend, Joe McNally and many other photography experts. Incidentally, I'm halfway through Joe's book, The Hot Shoe Diaries, which discusses his amazing work with flash photography. So far, I've watched tutorials about landscape photography, macro photgraphy, studio lighting and all manner of useful stuff. There's also tutorials on how to use photo editing software, including Photoshop and Lightroom, complete with downloadable files for you to practice on. Oh, so much to learn, so little time!

I love that I can keep going back to these tutorials (I told you I was a slow learner!), and that there are tutorials for pretty much anything I want to know about photography. I love that I can watch the tutorials in my own time, and at a time that the subject is relevant to me.

If there's a photographer in your life, buy 'em a subscription to this for Xmas. They'll love ya for it.