Photography at Lynda.com

My friend Steve Rosenblum, who wrote the review of Peter Turnley's Paris workshop the other day, introduced me to Lynda.com about three years ago (...I think. Maybe four). I've subscribed ever since, and have used it intermittently, mainly for coming up to speed on specific aspects of specific software programs (most recently, spreadsheets—ugh!), but also to combat the murky, mucky feeling I occasionally get that I just don't know quite enough about a piece of software I'm using.

Personally, I have a peculiar and annoying affliction where computers are concerned: procedures I don't use regularly tend to wend their way out of my head somehow. You know those people who only have to learn something on a computer once, and then they've got it forever? I'm the opposite. I'll master something completely, and a year later I've forgotten it all and I'm back to the proverbial Square One. So I use Lynda.com for routine reviews, too.

For those of you (few, I would guess) who don't know Lynda.com already, it's the oldest, biggest, and probably best online software training site. Subscribers have access to thousands of hours of video tutorials segmented into easily identifiable smaller snips.

So let's say you already know Lightroom 2 but have just gotten Lightroom 3, and you want to know how to export to Flickr. So you'd skip "Lightroom 3 Essential Training" and go to "Lightroom 3 New Features." There's you'll find an Introduction, nine sections, and a Conclusion—with 53 subsections in all. You'd go to section 3, "Exporting from the Library," and find the subsection "Setting Up Flickr Publishing Services." A 3-minutes, 47-second video later, and you know what you need to know, having gotten it in a more easily ingestible format than scrounging for the book or wading through online help.

Photography, specifically
Lynda.com sports a pretty generous photography section. Mainly, it's organized around software, as you might expect. But it's also got some basics sections, a few tutorials from people such as the legendary glamour photographer Douglas Kirkland, and one-offs like a lecture by Rick Smolan (who did all those 24/7 books, among other projects) or 36 minutes on how to do group shots.

I can't begin to vouch for all the photography content: it's probably the part of the site I use the least. (I'm normally off banging my head against software puzzles in less familiar arenas.)

However (and here we get, finally and at long last, to the purpose for this post) there's now a new section called "Foundations of Photography: Black and White" with tutor/presenter/lecturer Ben Long that weighs in at just over three hours total.

Every digital B&W recommendation I've ever made has been controversial, so I assume all possible recommendations will be...including this one. Tutorials by their very nature are too advanced for some students, too basic for others, and hit only the occasional Goldilocks just right. But I'm looking forward to poking around in the 39 subsections of the B&W tutorial to test how my always-aging knowledge matches up to the current wisdom according to Lynda.com.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by John King: "I've looked at some free preview tutorials at Lynda.com and they are very good. The ongoing subscription model doesn't work for me though. I prefer to pay once and access the material when I want a refresher or quick reference. Just like my library of books. George Jardine's video tutorials are my favorites and he does an excellent job of explaining digital B&W in his Adobe Camera Raw series. It is very high quality instruction with a pay once, access forever model. George was a Lightroom specialist at Adobe for many years, so it's hard to imagine anyone more qualified on this subject."

Featured Comment by MM: "Ah, Lynda, the untold secret of many a graphics professional!

"It's been my observation that—assuming a personal teacher or tutor isn't available—some people learn technical matters best from books and others learn best from videos. Neither way is better or worse, but I would guess that most people gravitate one way or the other.

"A few years ago, after counting up the number of weighty 'Learn Photoshop' and 'Learn Illustrator' and 'Learn Dreamweaver' books on my shelf, all of which remained largely untouched, I realized that I was never going to learn software from studying books (for what it's worth, I do love books and have a large non-technical library).

"So I subscribed to lynda.com. Since then I've never let my subscription lapse, because as a working professional in graphics fields, $300 a year for unlimited training and review, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world, is relatively small potatoes. Obviously the equation is different for hobbyists who aren't planning to make a living with their software knowledge, but in one month with Lynda ($25) they can still, for example, learn Photoshop inside and out.

"True story: My nephew recently graduated from an Ivy League college (4 years = a fifth of a million dollars). Another relative asked me what to get the kid for graduation since the grad wants to work in visual/creative fields and jobs are very hard to come by. I replied that a year's subscription to lynda.com will do far more to help him reach his employment goals than anything he learned in his four years of college. Yes, I know, one should never equate a liberal-arts education with vocational training, but the financial comparison is pretty interesting."

Featured Comment by Stephen Best: "I watched 'Foundations of Photography: Black and White' in its entirety and, though I didn't learn much and had a few points to quibble with, I found it an excellent introduction to not just B&W production, but the language (less so meaning) of photography itself. Ben Long is an engaging presenter and the strength of this talk is its completeness, showing him out shooting and trying to make something of the results. I would think many here could do worse than spending the money and watching this and a few other talks to make their $25 worthwhile. Certainly it will give pause to some here hanging out for monochrome sensors."

Comments

[Stephen Best]

Thanks Mike for the heads up. I found I had an unredeemed benefit from an earlier Photoshop upgrade which gives me 31 days free access to lynda.com. Something to watch in bed on my iPhone ... though it has to compete with the Tour de France at the moment.

[James McDermott]

I suppose I'm one of the few who've never heard of the site. But then, my fear and loathing of software knows no bounds. Raw fiddling in Elements is as far as I've ever gone or wanted to.

[Bryce Lee]

I looked at one or two of the introductory historical notes, and both Lynda and Bruce, simply did not convey anything to me, sort of as if they were doing the presentation because they felt obliged.

And to further expand my own world, reviewing a presentation, any presentation as a moving picture however produced never seems to sink into my little grey cells.

I have a degree as an instructional materials technologist. However in all the time I worked in various schools and school boards found my internal system would not recall the movie presentation rather would recall all the goofs, errors and poorly scripted parts in the presentation. That's my background; which is why even today watching television or a pre-recorded presentation I look for the same goofs error and mishaps. Maybe that's also why I have never utilized Lynda dot com.

Find I have to physically involve myself in a process rather than viewing how it should be, could be or might be done.

[Kurt]

Wow, great post, just posted on my Facebook page last week if any of my friends use Lynda.com. Based on your recommendation I am going to sign up. Thanks.

[Bruce]

Darn you, Mike, you've just introduced me to a woman I shouldn't know. She's going to waste a pile of my time , but obviously save me heaps too!! I haven't been introduced to Lynda before, and she's already seducing me. I learned a heap about Lightroom 3 from http://www.youtube.com/user/guusvanderlinde but possibly Lynda's better looking for all those other bits and pieces which, as you say, you knew a bit of a year ago, but have forgotten. It's very useful to have a 20-something son who knows a lot more about such things -As you're probably aware yourself- but he isn't always available. Thank you for the introduction. She may stay with me some time!!

[erlik]

I've seen one or two of their videos. They are good. But video tutorials somehow seem too demanding. I'll rather spend time going through a well-written tutorial with screenshots.

Of course, I'm talking about software tutorials. Never really tried tutorials for photographic processes, like setting a group shot.

[Ken Croft]

Just looked at the CS3 tutorials and was impressed.....until I discovered the $25 per month minimum subscription. OK, call me a miser, but I will not be using Lynda.com

[Jim Bullard]

Lynda.com rocks. Whatever level you are at with software, you can find a course that will teach you something you didn't know. Deke McClelland has a course there on sharpening that is way more than anyone (except him) ever wanted to know.

I saw the B&W course offering in a Lynda.com newsletter and as a guy who used to teach B&W I was curious about his approach so I watched it all. It's aimed at the digital crowd who've never done film B&W. I disagree with his reliance on the levels adjustment which I consider a blunt instrument, the equivalent of driving finishing nails with a sledge hammer, but for a digital photographer new to B&W the course a good start. One nit-pick is his reference to a railroad bridge as a "trellis". The correct word is trestle. Looking on the web though I see that a fair number of people confuse floral supports and RR bridges. Part of the legacy of Norm Crosby?

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Nope, never heard of Lynda.com that I can recall. Completely unknown in my bubbles.

However, since it's video-oriented, it's not very useful to me. Data rate far too slow. (Sometimes useful for particular physical skills, where descriptions just don't do the job, though.)

It's a cool idea, and despite not being a fan of video (or audio tape) training myself, I'll have to check it out. (I can at least sometimes recognize an idea that's "cool, but not for me".)

[Jack Martin]

Do as I say, not as I do. The best time to subscribe is when you want to learn something and have the time to put into it. Then unsubscribe when you don't have the time.

I resubscribed a few months ago to learn Wordpress so that i could put together a website for a show I was in. I found it useful, though the instructor's voice was very mechanical.

I am going through the Lightroom lessons (I have been using ACS), and did check out the Douglas Kirkland lessons on available light photography. Kirkland comes across as a delightful man, and the way he engages his model is as enlightening as any of the technical stuff.

Lynda.com is well worth checking out.

[Chuck Holst]

Horses for courses, as my wife would say. I'm one who learns best by reading the manual with the program open and playing with each feature as it is described. The material seems to stick better this way. With a tutorial, I frequently can't remember at the end what icons or menus I used to get to that point, and I suspect I would have the same problem with a video.

My biggest problem is finding time to study, but in a way that's a good thing, because intermittent study seems to help reinforce new knowledge in my brain.

Videos and other tutorials might be helpful once I understand what all the controls do. But first I have to get to that point.

I'm currently teaching myself TurboCAD using the read-and-try method, and Lightroom 3 is next.

[Steve Smith]

some people learn technical matters best from books and others learn best from videos. Neither way is better or worse, but I would guess that most people gravitate one way or the other.

And some learn from just working it out for themselves.

I learn by that method and don't like being told how to do things by someone else.