Speedlights with Roberto Valenzuela

I’ve purchased several of Mr. Valenzuela’s books; he clearly knows his way around lighting. That said, this class seemed to lack focus regarding its target audience—is it intended for beginners, intermediates or advanced photographers? Although light theory is extremely important for “going deeper” and fully understanding how light works, I don’t think it’s necessary for someone who’s just starting to use flash. And yet, some of the content seemed more “basic,” which may be one of the reasons for some of the negative reviews. Whether you’re at one end of the spectrum or the other, you’ll feel disappointed with content that’s not at your current level. I still give this class a “thumbs-up.” Seeing the thought process, setups and trouble-shooting behind the photos is very valuable. Valenzuela challenges the viewer to apply light principles when taking photos—don’t just hope for the best, but know how light works so you can predict the end result. All are important concepts for intermediate to advanced photographers. Beginners might want to start with something else and save this one for later.

I have to say upfront that I have not purchased this course but the brief information he gave is spot on! I'm a sr. photographer for a large beauty company and I have to give him kudos for how detailed and accurate his explanations are. If the entire video is anything like the preview I highly recommend it.

I haven't finished yet but I think it is awesome. I studied for 4 years now and even though I had studied the flash manual, and tried to catch up as much knowledge as possible when I tried the flash what I really was missing was the procedure. Here I could see how a master (master of photography I mean!) works and got some very precious tips on how to use the brain in every situation. I think if you expect done information this is not for you, but if you want a mental scheme it is awesome. For the rest, you have to study, nobody can teach you anything if you don't study yourself. THANKS ROBERTO :)

This class is like shopping at Marshalls: there are some valuable things to buy but you have to go through a lot of crap to get to them. The production value of this class is awful. The folks at Creative Live must not have a class on video editing to follow because not enough material was left on the editing room floor.. Roberto is fabulous but it must have been one of his earlier forays into teaching because he was scatological in many areas. Creative Live could have minimized this by doing some editing. He's a fabulous photographer and an even better teacher and this class would be much better if it followed the format of his 3 books: orderly and succinct. Learned a lot from this class. I just wish I didn't have to work so hard for it.

If you can get through the first 2-3 videos, it does get significantly better! Roberto covers so much material! No-one covers speedlights like he does! He concentrates on the technical aspects, which may be over whelming for some, but it all is necessary, if you are serious about learning lighting. I found so many valuable tips in this course and the demonstrations were great with the models and the audience participation. I'm glad I bought it! I will watch it again a few more times, just in case I missed something! I teach photography and I always look for new ways to explain lighting etc. to my students, so even from that perspective I benefited! Roberto is a very conscientious instructor.

I liked this course. Except I think on segment 3 of the lighting, as stated by one of the studio audience he got the color balance of warm wrong and blue when he was talking about balancing the light (at 30 minutes in). Having said this I got the theory of balancing, and the rest of the video was excellent. It really does help to see flash as photons and understand what science behind it, to understand how light works and how to use it to your advantage. This a a great course in order to revisit now and again in order to become competent on lighting when put on the spot of having a difficult situation.

I really liked what I saw in the preview snippets. I don't know why others are not happy.

Roberto is amazing. He's an artist and an engaging instructor. This class is not so much for a beginner, but for someone who's been around light, so the logic or science behind it starts to make more sense and opens up a thought process and that's the way to learn -- to know why you made choices. I loved this class. One complaint re: segment three - at the very end, he took two shots and we were about to see them when the video cuts off and goes into the next segment of thanks and credits... I'd rather see the pictures that were cut off!!! Nothing learned in those last suspenseful moments.

Love love love Roberto. He has finally explained the science of light and how everything works. Many creatives may not like all of the theory, but it all finally makes sense to me. Thank you so much.

Loved his explanation of why HSS makes your flash work so hard.