Thursday, March 4, 2010

Review of new Scott Kelby DVD...


There is a bunch of stuff to love about Scott Kelby's latest DVD offering "Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes" before you ever dig into the content.

First, Price. The DVD has a retail price of $44.95, but if you enter coupon code "KELBYPREMIERE" during checkout it will be yours for just $29.25. In this economy affordability is important.

Second, content. The DVD spends over 2 hours covering 16 individual photo shoots from portraits, food photography, and product shots all under a variety of lighting scenarios. The DVD also comes with an iPod version so you can take it with you wherever you go. Want more? It includes a 75 page book that has additional and behind the scenes information for each of the 16 lessons. I'm not sure there is anyone who puts as much thought into what they provide to photographers than Scott.

Third, more content. You can get "Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes" in either a DVD or online video format (if you purchase the online version you can download the 75 page book). The above mentioned discount code will work on either.

Finally, the good stuff. What I really like about the lessons is that Scott gives you a real photo shoot, starting at the very beginning when you bring your subject into the scene and walks us through to the finished shot. Have you ever watched an instructional video and while you completely understand what they did, you didn't know why they did it that way? Scott not only covers what works, he explores with us what doesn't work as well which (I think) is an important part of how you learn.

I can ramble on about what is so good about this DVD but wouldn't watching it be even better? Here comes the crazy part, you can watch the first five "recipes" in their entirety below. Yup, almost 50 minutes of what is on the DVD. I told you it was crazy.

The lessons in the video below are the Window Light Portrait, Couples Portrait, 3 Light Setup, Clamshell Lighting part 1, and Clamshell Lighting part 2.

So I guess the only question is not if you should buy it, but can you order it before it sells out.

If you are a subscriber you know video is not pushed through so either return to the blog or head over to Peachpit to watch the video.