A New Year brings a new calendar, new goals, and re-programing that muscle memory to write 18 when filling out the date. But the end of one season and the beginning of another also brings along something else — end-of-season sales.
Unlike the clearance racks at your favorite department store (where you might go through five racks of bedazzled jeans and outdated tops to maybe find one thing in your size), CreativeLive’s classes haven’t gone out of style. Starting today, we’re discounting all 2017 classes and unlike thumbing through those clearance racks, you’ll probably have a hard time choosing just which classes you dig into. So, we’re rounding up a few of our 2017 favorites — here are our top five favorite 2017 photography classes.
Brooke Shaden’s Complete Guide to Fine Art Photography
Photographing a scene that exists in real life is hard enough — but what about photographing a dream, an idea or a story? That’s the process that Brooke Shaden walks photographers through in her 20-day bootcamp on fine art photography that covers everything from that spark of an idea to working with a gallery.
After starting with just a hand-me-down camera and a thrift store tripod, Brooke now has photographed for galleries on multiple continents — know-how she’s now sharing with other creatives. In this bootcamp, she covers exactly what photographers need to do to launch their own venture in fine art with their own voice and vision. The class works with the creative aspects like turning inspiration into a story to tell and finding your own artistic voice. But with 138 lessons, this bootcamp also covers the technical, from set building to creating Photoshop composites, and the business elements from social media marketing to creating a press package.
Brooke’s fine art bootcamp makes our top list because of the very vast amount of genre-specific information all presented in a way that’s easy to follow along at your own pace. By adding her own personal experience, Brooke’s teaching style is easy to follow while also offering encouragement for aspiring fine art photographers.
Its here – all of our 2017 classes are on sale, but only for a limited time so stock up before this deal is gone.
From Capture to Print with Rocco Ancora
Photographs shouldn’t exist in just photos and data on a hard drive — printing is essential, whether you photograph people or landscapes. The problem is that many photographers don’t understand exactly how the decisions they make as they shoot and edit influences the image not in pixels but in print.
Rocco Ancora’s class bridges that digital know-how with the print, covering everything from shooting with a color card to monitor calibration, from color management in Lightroom to choosing paper. Rocco’s easy-listening Australian accent makes the class enjoyable while breaking down the complex science of color into manageable data photographers can put into their workflow.
While many leave color up to just calibration and editing, Rocco walks photographers through the entire shoot with the goal of a successful print in mind. Learn how reflected light can create odd color casts in the shoot all the way to how a printed image varies under different light sources. The breadth of this class plus Rocco’s expertise and easy-to follow teaching makes this one of our favorite photo classes from 2017.
Jared Platt’s Adobe Lightroom CC for Beginners
Adobe Lightroom is photo editing software, but it’s also an organizing tool — and Jared Platt discusses the ins and outs of both in his Lightroom CC for Beginners class. This class is designed for beginners as well as the self-taught that have always wondered, “is there an easier way to do that in Lightroom?”
From importing photos into the library to perfecting the shot inside the Develop module, Jared walks photographers through the different tools — and how to best implement them into your workflow. Jared’s teaching style is detailed with both the how and the why, along with examples and stories for a real-world look at how that Lightroom feature works.
Lightroom CC for Beginners makes our list of 2017 favorites both because the course is valuable to photographers across any genre and for the detailed look into how photographers can best integrate this popular tool into their workflow to both save time and create better edits.
Its here – all of our 2017 classes are on sale, but only for a limited time so stock up before this deal is gone.
Making a Short Documentary with Ed Kashi and Julie Winokur
Told through both the eyes of a filmmaker and a director, Making a Short Documentary covers everything from determining which ideas are worth pursuing to post-production workflows. The course demystifies the genre and opens up a whole new avenue for creatives to tell a story.
Ed Kashi, photojournalist and filmmaker, and Julie Winokur, director, are both documentary filmmakers — and a married couple. By having a duo rather than just a filmmaker or just a director, this class covers documentary production from every step of the process. Ed and Julie’s teaching styles compliment each other — and lighten the lessons with a bit of laughter.
Both the teaching duo and the possibilities of the genre make this class a 2017 favorite.
Joe McNally’s Lighting, Logistics and Strategies for a Life in Photography
Light makes a photograph — but what happens when that shot in your head needs a location that’s at best tricky to shoot in? Lighting, Logistics and Strategies for a Life in Photography is all about giving photographers the tools to climb over that obstacle to help those shots actually turn out better than they looked in your head.
Joe McNally’s work has lead him (and his camera) to over 70 countries and the photo veteran is sharing is sharing his troubleshooting tricks for lighting, locations and even managing a business. Designed for intermediate photographers, the class helps creatives overcome those lighting, location and business hurdles to create an image that, as Joe would say, “grabs your eyeballs.”
This class is a 2017 favorite for both Joe’s expertise and his easy-going teaching style that makes the class as enjoyable as it is informative.
Need more inspiration? Find the entire list of 2017 classes here.
Its here – all of our 2017 classes are on sale, but only for a limited time so stock up before this deal is gone.