For most people that I know, the changing of seasons from summer into Autumn means Pumpkin Spiced Lattes, cozy sweaters and time to catch up on their photography hobby. Coincidentally, this is also when the team at 5 Day Deal delivers their annual photography bundle, packing so much content, it can keep photographers busy learning, improving their craft, creating, and editing better through the long, cold winter. I have already gotten my download of the bundle and have narrowed down what I am most excited to use this winter. And when you are ready to purchase the nearly $3,000 worth of products for just $89, feel free to use my affiliate link, which will help me keep traveling to tell you the stories from around the world that I am most passionate about.
Oh, and on top of all these awesome products, 10% of each sale goes to a variety of charities. Since day one, the 5 Day Deal flash sales have generated over 1.6 MILLION dollars for charities around the world. So while you are becoming a better photographer this winter, you will also be helping to make the world a little better place.
Aurora HDR 2019
So, I have a confession to make. When I first started in photography over a decade ago, I was always baked. HDR baked! For some reason, I thought those horrible, oversaturated, bad acid-trip HDRs looked cool. And when I uploaded them to my Instagram, my non-photographer friends kept commenting about how cool they looked too, so down the HDR rabbit hole I went. Only as my style progressed did I realize two things. One, my editing was horrible. And two, HDR is simply combining shadow and highlight information from multiple exposures, and when done properly, can increase the dynamic range of a photo in a natural look. From all I have heard about Aurora HDR, it’s a great program to help you blend the exposures together with a finished product that looks natural. Of course, I am sure there are some presets and sliders that will help you obtain the bad acid trip look, but for most of us, working with a TIFF file loaded with light information will be enough.
Joel Grimes: ‘The Artist’
Joel Grimes is a master at his craft. His work is jaw dropping, beautiful and clean. While it is not the type of photography I do (studio lighting, composites), there is no doubt the man knows his stuff when it comes to finding inspiration, making a vision become reality, and running a successful photography business. So when he touches on all of this and more in a 12 lesson course, you sit down and take extensive notes.
Secrets to Amazing Photos from the Masters
As I mentioned, I have been a full time photographer for a decade. I feel like I know my stuff. But, there is ALWAYS something new to learn. And the best place to learn is from other photographers. Marc Silber has condensed years of knowledge he has gained from some of the world’s best known photographers into a complete course. While I feel I may know most of what is outlined, as I said, seeing how other’s in your field approach their art is always a valuable learning experience.
Get Camera Confident
I have known and respected Lauren Bath for years. She knows travel, and she knows social media. So much so, she was able to leave her stable income as a chef to jump into the travel photography business and quickly made her Instagram one of the better curated and most followed on the mobile platform. So like above, I may know a good amount of what Lauren teaches in this course, but to learn her angle is a valuable lesson I will absorb for a long time.
Start to Finish 1&2
Ryan Dyar is a landscape photography god, and this course is exactly what I need. I take a lot of landscape images, and 0.01% of them ever see Photoshop. Why? Because, quite frankly, I don’t know how to use Photoshop! Not like the master landscape photographers, anyway. Focal length blend, focus stacking and luminosity masking are three things that have been on my ‘Need to Master’ list for years now. I can say without a doubt, this will probobly be the most valuable product for me in this year’s bundle.
Photoshop For Lightroom Users
As mentioned above, almost all of my editing is done in Lightroom. While it works great, there is many ways to make my photos even more dynamic by bringing them into Photoshop for some additional tweaks. Combined with Ryan Dyar’s above class, I look forward to finally being confident and efficient in my Photoshop editing.
Charity Bonus Additions
The below three products are only offered in the Charity Bonus Bundle, which is another amazing deal, bringing together over $1,200 worth of products for just $24.
Master Collection: 200 Creative Overlays
If you haven’t met the team behind Pro EDU, well, I feel sorry for you. They are maybe the most fun group in the business. But not only are they fun, they maybe the hardest working guys in the photo educator business. So while I have never used overlays in my work before, watching their trailer about how it can add drama to your images has me frothing at the mouth and thinking about all of the possibilities with some of my older photos sitting stagnant in my Lightroom catalog.
Astrophotography: Post Processing the Milky Way
Oh man, I love love love shooting the Milky Way! Who doesn’t? Surprisingly, photographing the Milky Way is actually much easier than most people think. But, EDITING Milky Way photos? Now that’s a major pain in the you know what. Luckily the awesome photographer Nick Page gives us a step by step guide on how to make those Milky Way images pop off the screen, brining your viewers on a stargazing adventure like no other.
Understanding Exposure & Your DSLR
I have been leading photography workshops for over 7 years now, and the first thing I recommend to my team members and the last thing I leave them with is these words. “Read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson!” In my opinion, it is the bible of mastering photography. I learned my way around a camera and making an ‘exposure’ with this book, and still read it every year to refresh myself on the core fundamentals of photography, which also helps me clearly convey these lessons as a photo educator. I cannot stress it enough. Read this book, and read it often.
So there you have it! This year’s 5 Day Deal is jam packed with some insane goodies, at an even more insane price. So go on, get yourself a Pumpkin Spiced Latte, but a log on the fire, and improve your photography today!