How to Be a Commercial Photographer with Rob Grimm, Gary Martin, Aaron Nace

If you shoot with a Hasselblad and have access to fake ice from an obsure US special effects company, go for it. Otherwise I really don't see the point of this course. What a disappointment. Oh - and the most bizarre piece of advice: if you don't have fake ice from the specialised supplier you can maybe cut it out of a diaper because they use the same chemical. Which is like telling someone who wants eggs to extract it from mayo...

The. Best.

One of the best over all informative and creative classes I have seen.

There is a lot of good information in this tutorial. You get to walk through the process of several commercial shoots, one with the art director there. The interview with the artist representative is really interesting. Rob and Gary can be silly at times but are really into the process and good teachers and Aaron Nice is brilliant. I have watched and re-watched this and plan to again.

Rob Grimm is taking time in putting glicerine and not giving informations about shooting. I have learned nothing from him because he is taking too much time on the esthetism of the object without giving informations to the people. There is a lot of silences in this workshop : I didn't feel that I have learned something in studio's lightning. The retouching theme is helpful.

Loving this so far!! The insight into how a professional is making it as a commercial photographer is priceless!! Great value for the money!!

Listening to this conversation and boy is it dull.

Outstanding course! I'm a former creative director, now photographer full time and have had the unique experience working with studio photographers for commercial products in the past. This course is right on and very close to my experiences, and now that I'm behind the camera, it's nice to see some of those trade secrets revealed. Commercial work is fussy and you often have to sweat the details, but the results can be astonishing and rewarding. Rob and Gary do an excellent job explaining the ins and outs, without any pretention or hold-back on secrets. Something that's always annoyed me in the past, photographers never liked revealing their process. It's great fun watching Rob and Gary work a shoot, and Aaron Nace is beyond amazing in his retouching skills. I don't expect to break into this field, but I wanted to learn how things are done, for my own personal projects. I particularly enjoyed learning how they get the look of ice, ice crystals, and frost on the sides of glass bottles. I purchased several items from Trengrove, as they suggested. Their acrylic products are not cheap, but the quality is amazing and I'm very pleased and looking forward to experimenting. Thanks to all at Creative Live, RGG studios and Aaron Nace for this presentation.

This course is outstanding. I would consider it an advanced level. Having a good understanding of the technical aspects of photography and lighting is recommended. Rob Grimm takes you into two real product shoots. These were not canned demonstrations, but the real thing including working to get the lighting setup just right. The postproduction section with Aaron Nace was enlightening. This does require a good preliminary understanding of Photoshop. It was amazing to watch them build the final images for the client in real time. This is by far my favorite course to date.

I would almost give it five stars. The retouching part, while amazing in its application was lacking just a little in explanation for tutorial purposes. While it shows what a mask does, it does not show you how to actually implement the process in your workflow at less than light-speed. It’s close, but leaves just enough out to leave you scratching your head. Also, it talks about shortcuts and creating them in PS but was vague enough that I could only get the first one to work, but the others he mentioned won’t take and there was no information given. I attended college for two years for commercial photography in the “film” days. Whether shooting 35mm, medium format or 4x5, you had to get it right in camera. I still have that mindset, now that I have finally come back to photography, but in digital. My images are editable in Lightroom. Robb is pushing me out (way out) of my comfort zone and compositing and PhotoShop are a big leap for me. Looking forward to the journey. At one point while Robb and Aaron where going over retouching on the Hibiki bottle (I think it was that one) Robb said, “he does things so fast I can’t even see what he’s doing” (rough quote). That should have been an indication that we, as purchasers of the complete guide were going to struggle even more to understand than Robb does sitting right beside Aaron. I should not need to purchase more tutorials to understand my “complete" tutorial. Hence the 4 star instead of 5. As far as everything else, I can tell you that I have worked in the film industry for many years in LA (commercials and short films) and have spent the last few years comming back to commercial photography by assisting commercial photographers in Portland Maine for LL.Bean, Orvis, food magazines and fashion and I think I have learned more useful information about the “why" of it than the “what" of it from Robb than I have in those three years humping lightstands and sets. Photographers here play it pretty close to the vest so you have to extrapolate everything in order to pick up any nuance that makes the real difference in an image. That, and about the time you do start learning, you seem to no longer be appreciated. ;) Robb and Aaron just put it right out there for you, giving away some great secrets to actually help you become a great photographer. He knows that he will keep up-ing his game so he is happy to let you learn from his mastery. Well worth the dollars for sure. Just do it. Dennis Manske Portland Maine

Amazing course. Learned a lot and Rob is great at explaining the all process. Worth every $.

If you shoot products you can take information that Rob and his team share and apply it to anything. This course is well worth the time and money. I have now watched the complete series and it has given so much more to think about when set up my shots. The teams attention to the detail is by far more than I ever expected. Thanks Rob, Gary and Aaron you guys rock.

I have gratefully been watching this tutorial for free online, and as always CreativeLIVE has done an awesome job in bringing one of the best instructors of the trade and his creative team to help us improve and enjoy a higher level of understanding and performance in the skills we would like to achieve. I am humbled as always and ever so grateful. I would love to purchase the course myself, but since I live abroad, it is practically impossible, I hope those who can, would. I would just like to add one of the most interesting things I have learnt from this course is the careful attention these guys are paying to minute details and the amount of patience it takes to achieve their goals in each project. Stay inspiring, Totoo in China

I highly recommend this course for anyone wanting to get into food and beverage or product photography. Rob is very detailed in his approach and you learn a ton just watching him problem solve. Getting Aaron Nace to do the retouching is also an added bonus. You really get a feel of what is required from conception to completion. I highly recommend this course. Thanks Rob, Gary and Aaron.