Master Photo Workshops : Photography Tutorial DVDs

Reviews

Landscape Photography at its best!, April 5, 2010

Completing Your Outdoor Photography with Landscape Filters DVD video is really informative! This package contains 2 DVD, one for the field and one for the studio. The field trips takes you along on 7 separate photo shoot each having Adam Barker illustrating the use of various filters into your shooting. All photo shoots are very scenic and Adams illustrates many techniques to improve your shooting in the field, just like a pro. This is an awesome video. You will enjoy watching it time and time again. Many of us may never go to these locations but through this excellent DVD we can visit there with Adam and learn his techniques.

Easily understood and presented, June 3, 2010

For me, I am a visual person who needs to see how things work to fully understand their benefits. Mr. Barker presents that wonderfully in this instructional video, especially in regard to how filters work and their added benefits. Furthermore, how a dynamic image is tamed by use of a filter and without is demonstrated with photos to show the real gains. For the money, it is worth it to watch the film to see if investing in filters is worth the expense to you. If you already have filters, then this is a great how-to video on how to use them properly.

D. Parker

It’s like sitting side-by-side with a master while he works, April 29, 2010

Amazing, absolutely amazing. If you’ve ever wanted to look over the shoulder of a master photographer in his “lab”, this is your chance.

Jim moves these projects along at a perfect pace, explaining the how’s and why’s as he goes. He has a real easy going style and is very articulate. As someone said earlier, you can watch these videos over and over again.

I also purchased Jim’s “Dazzling Photoshop” video, and feel the same about it. In that DVD, he emphasizes particular photo projects with the way he groups the lessons, rather than by different skills as in this one. Both are packed with information and technique.

While these videos are not specific to any particular version of Photoshop, they are geared somewhat toward the most recent versions up to CS4 — I can hardly wait to see what Jim does with CS5!

By C. Calder – April 24, 2010

Steve Kossack’s “Every Picture Tells A Story” is an excellent photography workshop DVD that will help your photography move to the next level. Steve is very enthusiastic about his subject and his approach is to help you analyze your surroundings in regard to light and composition–to tell a story! He suggests making many shots, with and without image enhancers and to vary the shots which will increases the possibility you will get the shot you want.

He is full of many, many tid-bits that will enable you to critique your own approach. An important concept he emphasizes is the idea that when you plan and go on a shoot, the conditions you wind up with may not be what wanted…, so you must adjust to the conditions you are presented with. He is filled with many ideas and shares them with the viewer. He analyzes every shot he makes and takes you through his thought process in arriving at the point to make the shot. Changing the angle, including debris and other vegetation helps you to tell the story.

I own works by Zuckerman, Sweet, Reichmann, Cooper, Smith, Barker and many others. Each photographer approaches the subject different but is filled with knowledge as a result of their many years of experience to share with the viewer. I enjoyed Kossack’s workshop DVD and have watched it many times. You will come away with many new ideas to include in your next photo shoot. Well worth the money!!!

He is full of many, many tid-bits that will enable you to critique your own approach. An important concept he emphasizes is the idea that when you plan and go on a shoot, the conditions you wind up with may not be what wanted…, so you must adjust to the conditions you are presented with. He is filled with many ideas and shares them with the viewer. He analyzes every shot he makes and takes you through his thought process in arriving at the point to make the shot. Changing the angle, including debris and other vegetation helps you to tell the story.

I own works by Zuckerman, Sweet, Reichmann, Cooper, Smith, Barker and many others. Each photographer approaches the subject different but is filled with knowledge as a result of their many years of experience to share with the viewer. I enjoyed Kossack’s workshop DVD and have watched it many times. You will come away with many new ideas to include in your next photo shoot. Well worth the money!!!

By C. Calder – April 23, 2010

Be A Photoshop Guru DVD is very informative and rewarding. He makes working with Photoshop® simple and easy to understand. His approach is straight forward step by step and he reveals his thought process as he attempts difference approaches to solve a problem. Layers, selecting just certain parts of the photo, coping to scratch pad, replacing the sky or a background, adding the moon to a scene and much more are covered in good detail. I recommend it to highly.
He presents important concepts used in Photoshop® rather than just a bunch of steps. Although, there are steps there, but if you don’t understand the concepts, you will probably forget the steps. I did take notes to refer to later. I think of his DVD as a shorthand approach to many of the tools that I want to master. Not all of us spend 8 hours a day in front of Photoshop® so it’s nice to see a fresh practical approach to solving routine problems.

C. Calder – April 5, 2010

Completing Your Outdoor Photography with Landscape Filters DVD video is really informative! This package contains 2 DVD, one for the field and one for the studio. The field trips takes you along on 7 separate photo shoot each having Adam Barker illustrating the use of various filters into your shooting. All photo shoots are very scenic and Adams illustrates many techniques to improve your shooting in the field, just like a pro. This is an awesome video. You will enjoy watching it time and time again. Many of us may never go to these locations but through this excellent DVD we can visit there with Adam and learn his techniques.

The second DVD is also great also. Into the studio he illustrates composition, lighting and filter choices as well. This DVD project is a must for your collection.

Jeffrey A. CAmpbell, March 6, 2010

To begin with, if you’re interested in HDR photography I would recommend this DVD tutorial from Mr. Sweet.

Understand that in order to use the Photomatix software (abt $100) discussed you need to capture your images in RAW format. If your camera is not capable of producing RAW files then Photomatix will not work, i.e. jpegs are not sufficient enough. Additionally, though one single image can be used (which creates a false HDR), it’s best to use a minimum of two or more photos for processing. Though Photoshop alone can merge multiple photos together to create an HDR picture, my experience with Photomatix has been extremely positive. Mr. Sweet does not provide a technical “tour-de-force” about the software, but he does walk us through each individual processing setting capable of being utilized in the software.

Mr. Sweet teached us the way “he chooses” to process his HDR photos (which may differ from others), and I learned quite a bit from watching the DVD. He teaches how to read the histogram of our camera (assuming you have a histogram) and that is the single most important feature required to produce the best images. Simple point and shoot camera owners I believe will have a difficult time. You’ll need some sort of pro-level camera. My Nikon D40 works fine.

Photoshop is not required software (as one review suggested), however, some sort of post processing software is – Mr. Sweet chooses Photomatix. He simply utilizes Photoshop for specific targeted adjustments after the fact.

He provides step by step instruction for processing the first image (total of ten image processing segments are provided) and circumvents the other nine images to save time. In my opinion, once you process your first image you’ll have an understanding how the software faders work.

Shot on location at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Mr. Sweet tours the prison and selects some fantastic prison cells, hallways, etc. which offer high contrast scenes and are perfect for this type of photography. Please understand that he is a professional photographer with profession equipment.

I would not recommend this DVD to the novice photographer who lacks the proper equipment, but to those of you with a basic understanding how your DSLR camera works, has a tripod, computer, and is willing to purchase Photomatix software (at a minimum) I think you’ll enjoy Mr. Sweet’s instruction. If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I will assist you – grandkin@gmail.com. I have watched the DVD multiple times, and each time I pick up on something new.

December 3, 2009 – David in Vermont

I loved this set of Videos… i put them on my iPhone and watched them all about 3 times each! My favorites where walking along and looking over Tony’s shoulder while on a photography trip to Great Smoky Mts. Seeing how another photographer works is always valuable, but to see how hard and how fast Tony works every location for images was inspiring!

December 2, 2009 – Mary Reynolds

I Love everything this man does. His videos are fantastic. I want to learn photography in this style. Love doing macros. Had been trying flowers and landscapes, his books, videos and how to’s have been a godsend. I’ve gained more from his stuff then from a professional class. I buy everything the man puts out. It’s well worth the money. I watch where he shoots his videos and want to get in the car and travel to all these beautiful places. Great! Excellent! Beautiful!