Before Jeff

As an amateur photographer I spent many years and many more thousands of dollars attempting to recreate the vivid images which filled every one of my magazines. I simply could not, until I found the best photography teacher online. In a few short months with Jeff Black I could finally produce those professional photos.

Desperation led me to buy a refurb Nikon D5000, close-up lenses, a few reflector discs, all top-of-line. My photos before this stunk, and despite all my pricey equipment their mediocrity persisted. I clearly needed help, instead I toiled away for another year, practice shoot after practice shoot. I was showing slight improvement over my original basement shots, using an easyshare zd15, but certainly not what I had expected when laying down over a grand on my new gear.

I nearly lost the dream of making money from my expensive hobby, when I realized I had spent all my money on cameras and none on myself. I had no idea my meter was not actually calibrated to my camera, or even that basic post-production can have such a huge affect on the quality of my photos. I got a basic overview of these tips from a quick browse of the net.

The Best

My search ended when I came across a website by a photographer named Jeff Black. The site was pretty flashy but I was immediately attracted to the free videos page for obvious reasons. In one sitting I watched every video and felt like I had been brought out of the dark ages of photography, I could finally achieve the proper lighting which had been missing in all my photos so far.

I decided I could afford a month of access to the member's lessons and I'd watch all he had to offer in that time. I found this to be quite impossible. The amount of information contained on this page astonished me. I entered a whole new world of F stops, shutter speed, and ISOs before I finished the basics section. Another six month subscription, that will soon run out, and I finished the basics and moved on to the wonders of the post-production editing.

Today

Working through Jeff's lessons on using photoshop has brought my images to a new level of quality. I can now go back to my original shoots and refine the images to a quality I could not have imagined was possible at the time. I would strongly recommend to anyone aspiring to become a professional , or well-educated hobby, photographer to check out this photography school by Jeff Black included at the end of my article.