Kelby One

 Scott Kelby is one of the most prolific and best selling authors/publishers of books related to photography and image editing. He's been at the forefront of online training when it comes to Photography and image editing with Photoshop. Creating the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) along with his self branded Kelby training site and recently combined the two subscription based entities into KelbyOne which did not win the favor of his membership due to the new combined subscription price point.

 I have been a member of NAPP & Kelby for some time but I feel that their product has lacked the polish it once had and more and more content has less and less to do with photography. New courses seem to be for design and illustrator or interviews with photographers in the business which are sometimes interesting but are not too instructive for a photographer who isn't trying to make a buck.

 I'm reminded of a training seminar that I once attended in Buffalo where David Hobby and Joe McNally were the instructors on learning about flash photography. While Joe was amazing, David spent more time telling us how the photography market has died and how he intends to save his business by focusing on a local market around where he lives. Sorry I could care less what you are doing to make a buck, I paid my money and traveled here to hear how to light an image. Same for Kelby I want to hear how to set up my camera gear to get a better image and how edit it with Photoshop not how to design and create a better flyer to attract customers.

 The KelbyOne site and Web App has been a cluster since the merge too. Often not being able to sign in to the site and their iOS app is crashing for no apparent reason. I recently received an email telling me that my order to renew my subscription was completed. Which is a problem since I didn't initiate a renewal? It was a yet another problem with their system which I was told to ignore.  This system problem seems to have removed all records of my membership history, including my real membership expiry date. I tried to remove my credit card information from their system to avoid any other system problems and to preemptively head off an unauthorized renewal but couldn't, I get a system error, not good!

  I do not plan to renew my membership because the value isn't there, hasn't been for a while. All of the NAPP content disappeared when merged into KelbyOne and the recent content isn't worth the cost anymore, at least for me. Looking at their business it's hard to determine where they are headed. Last year they added more studios at their Florida location I though so they could create more content, which hasn't happened. This year they have laid off most of their on air talent. Yes RC their "Director of Content and Education" and content creator / main on air person was released. Mia McCormick who was a content creator for video creation and editing, a recent interest of mine who has also interviewed photographers in the business was axed too. Photoshop guy Pete Collins was also shown the door along with Scott's right hand man Brad Moore. Photoshop design guru Corey Barker was also let go making what I'd consider a clean sweep of the content creators/on air personalities.

 Researching social media for these individuals showed no hard feelings for being let go, but my recent unauthorized renewal email was sent the same day as people were being let go. Did someone in the web/billing department decide to send out a bulk email before leaving the company?

 Scott's letter explaining the company's direction makes little since to me, saying that they are going to concentrate on their core business again by providing affordable world class training for creative people instead of supplying content to third party companies. So who is going to produce this content? Are we to assume that the recognizable people you just laid off were not providing your world class training up til now? Your head of "Content and Education" (RC) I would think is pretty important going forward, no?  Who will provide content for your now PDF only version of Photoshop User magazine? Who is going to run your Weekly Podcast "The Grid" since all of the people let go were past hosts and no longer work at Kelby?  I watched a recent episode (since the layoff) hosted by Scott and unknown guest, awkward to say the least.

  I know that all the talented and creative people let go will soon find themselves in a better place.  As for Kelby I think it needs to be less guitar store and sport illustrated NFL review and more as Scott said a world class training site. You have millions of digital camera owners many of them new looking for direction on finding their way around a camera and what to do with their images once they make them. Most are not trying to make a living with photography. It seems many of the pros are now running educational field trips to exotic locations or doing training themselves becoming your competition.

   

Strobist in Toronto

Like thousands of other photographers around the world I've been following David Hobby's "Strobist" blog trying learn about photographic lighting. The Strobist site is all about using small speedlight flash units as effective light sources. Small flash units can be used on location or in a studio to provide you with a professional looking lighting setup and this site has hundreds of articles to show you how. An instructional DVD series the "Strobist lighting seminar" can also be obtained which shows these lighting techniques in practice.

The first step to improve your flash photography, is getting the flash off your SLR's hotshoe, often referred to as Off Camera Flash (OCF) to do this you must:

• Sync the flash unit(s) to your camera's shutter (PC cord/Remote trigger).
• Provide a way to position your OCF in the three dimensional space around your subject (Light stands, Clamps or Brackets).
• Often you'll want to modify your light source to make it softer etc.. (Umbrella or Light boxes).
• You may also want to direct to or restrict your light from an area in your photograph (Snoots, Grids and Gobos).

David explains all of these techniques and multiple ways to accomplish the above tasks, often with a cheap solution to replace an expensive accessory that is being sold. After watching the training seminars and reading the articles, I started looking around Toronto for some of the equipment that was recommended. I soon found that the major camera shops do not carry some of the items, so here is a list of less known places that do:

• Light Stand: Manfrotto Nano 001 light weight sturdy stand that folds up to 18 inches. (www.dvshop.ca carried as the 5001B Nano $79)
• Rosco filter sample kit: used to color correct or changed the color of your flash output. (www.sourceshop.com Free)
• Coroplast: black plastic like cardboard used to create homemade grids. (www.currys.com $4.25 for 24"x32" sheet sold under the name Plasticor)
• Botero #23 collapsible background: 5'x7' light grey background. (couldn't find this locally Vistek carries similar but expensive Lastolite products, you can order the Botero from B&H in New York $63 USD).
• Sync Cords and Flash accessories: cables and such that are required to sync the flash to your camera shutter. (not local either but a super cheap source with amazing customer service www.flashzebra.com)
  
• Sweet and Sour Soup container: used instead of Stophen or Garry Fong diffuser. (Sorry I don't eat Chinese you're on your own)

Hope this small list helps you track down some of these Strobist recommended items here in the GTA.