Learn Photography Skills
A big part of making successful images is knowing how to process them for print or display. I am deeply indebted to the many individuals and software producers that post free and paid tutorials on the web to share their knowledge and skill. Making good images requires a certain level of mastery of tools like Lightroom, Photoshop, and the Nik collection of photo tools.
Listed below are some of my favorite learning sites. I enjoy exploring them and trying out the ideas they demonstrate. It's not always easy to apply what they demonstrate, but every time I watch one of them, I learn something new, and bit by bit, my skills improve. I especially enjoy watching other people work on images to see their workflow.
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| PictureCorrectPhotography | Lots of quick and useful videos and tips for improving your photos. Subscribe to their newsletter and get a daily email with five or six interesting tips and links |
| Phlearn | Aaron Nace does a fantastic job of demonstrating how to use Photoshop to bring out the best in your pictures. Tons of free tutorials |
| ShutterEvolve | A series of very interesting Photoshop tutorials by Jimmy McEntyre. They'll inspire you to try new things. |
| B&H Videos | B&H puts on a series of hour-long lectures by sometimes famous photographers, and they make many of them available for the viewing. There are lots of "how-to" videos here, but also many that get at the heart and art of photography |
| AdoramaTV | Similar to B&H, Adorama has a whole series of short videos on a number of useful topics |
| Creative Cloud Tutorials | Lots of detailed "how-to" videos on Adobe products. |
| LightStalking | Many useful short videos and printed tutorials |
| StuckInCustoms | Interesting and offbeat videos from Trey Ratcliff |
| NikCollection by DxO | For a short while, Nik tools used to be free, but now they're owned by DxO and you have to pay for them. I highly recommend them as add-ins for Lightroom and Photoshop. |
| DigitalPhotographySchool | 25 tips for shooting landscapes |
| PostProcessingMastery | Series of reasonably-priced tutorials on how to do luminosity masking in Photoshop. Steve Arnold walks you through the steps at a reasonable pace and shows how to make dramatic changes to images using layer masking. Well worth the price. |
| Best Free Photo Editors | While Photoshop and Lightroom are the standout favorites for photographers, there are a number of free tools offering various levels of complexity and capability. These include GIMP, Paint.net, Photoshop Express, Photoscape X, Pixlr, Photo Pea, and a few others. Check them out in this review. |
| Free Editing Tools |
Darktable --a viable alternative to Lightroom. Allows non-destructive editing. |
| FotoTripper | Gavin Hardcastle has a number of really great tutorial videos on composition, Photoshop, and field work that are well worth checking out. He also does a regular video episode mixed with humor (sometimes a little off-color) and great field instruction |
|
Landscape Photographers to Follow (A Very Short List--There Are Many, Many More) Sean Bagshaw |
|
| Inspiration |
These photographers go beyond making amazing photographs. They have an approach which is inspiring to me and helps me think about my own work. Dewitt Jones: Celebrate What's Right With the World
|