The Perfect Picture School of Photography

flyingdutchie · May 5, 2006

A while ago I helped the photographyer Danilo Piccioni with some issues he had with his smugmug-site. I haven't visited his site for a while and decided to have a quick look again. It's worth it, he has some beautiful pics:

http://theitalianeye.smugmug.com

I noticed that he is one of the instructors for an online photography school called "The Perfect Picture School of Photography". Its web-address is:
http://www.ppsop.com/

Anyone has experience with one of the school's courses?
Thanks!

Malte · May 5, 2006

Yeah there are some great shots in there, this one stuck with me:

http://theitalianeye.smugmug.com/gallery/502358/1/21376046/Medium

Very "in the moment", you feel like a fly on the wall.

Malte

ian408 · May 5, 2006

A friend of mine signed up for a class being taught by Moose Peterson.
Last time I spoke with him, he was pretty happy. I can't remember but
I think the other instructer is Laurie something. Apparently, both
instructors review your work and send comments/areas for improvement,
etc.

I never asked about the cost though.

kdrager · May 8, 2006

BetterPhoto.com's Online Courses
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Thanks!

JKLionheart · January 7, 2009

Any more feedback on PPSOP?
I just stumbled across PPSOP and their courses sound amazing. Can anyone who's tried any of their courses provide some feedback? Some courses start this Friday so I wanted to get some answers flowing here

flyingdutchie · January 7, 2009

JKLionheart wrote:

I just stumbled across PPSOP and their courses sound amazing. Can anyone who's tried any of their courses provide some feedback? Some courses start this Friday so I wanted to get some answers flowing here

I did one of their courses (photoshop) and i've been very happy with the course. I learned a lot.

They are legit and the teachers seem very knowledgeable

Of course, your mileage may vary, but I can recommend this school to you whole-heartedly.

JKLionheart · January 7, 2009

flyingdutchie wrote:

I did one of their courses (photoshop) and i've been very happy with the course. I learned a lot.

They are legit and the teachers seem very knowledgeable

Of course, your mileage may vary, but I can recommend this school to you whole-heartedly.

That's great news! This will be my first course ever, but I feel the money is better spent here with live feedback than on a bunch of books that won't force me to apply any knowledge until much later. Their courses seem specialized enough and requirements (both knowledge and equipment) seem to show how serious they are. Should be good.

Just glad I found an online course to take, with a full-time job, local community college courses just won't fit my schedule.

I'll post feedback if I end up taking a course!

xtremepro · March 23, 2009

Hey JKLionheart
was just wondering if you ended up taking the course and how you are finding it.. I am considering signing up for their Understanding Exposure Course, just thought I should get some real feedback before I do.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

JKLionheart wrote:

That's great news! This will be my first course ever, but I feel the money is better spent here with live feedback than on a bunch of books that won't force me to apply any knowledge until much later. Their courses seem specialized enough and requirements (both knowledge and equipment) seem to show how serious they are. Should be good.

Just glad I found an online course to take, with a full-time job, local community college courses just won't fit my schedule.

I'll post feedback if I end up taking a course!

JKLionheart · March 23, 2009

xtremepro wrote:

Hey JKLionheart
was just wondering if you ended up taking the course and how you are finding it.. I am considering signing up for their Understanding Exposure Course, just thought I should get some real feedback before I do.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

Hi Rob,

Yes, I did end up taking the course. I took the wedding photography course by Kevin Focht. The course itself was good, if not a bit short, but the key is that Kevin was very straightforward and willing to teach. It was a 4 week course and each week came with a new lesson (PDF written by Kevin) and assignment. As you may suspect, assignments aren't as interactive as they could be in person, but the PDF lessons were full of information relating to his metods, concepts, preferences, and business.

My assumption going into the class was that the price of admission (for me) was mainly for the forum. Kevin responds to each and every question, no matter how basic. Some things you just want a pro to verify for you (Do you feel so-and-so combinations of camera+lens would work?, How often do you really use flash?, etc.) and some things you really don't know and want to ask (how do I save money while not sacrificing my professional image?). It's very nice to see him responding to questions throughout the day, within 30 minutes of posting questions. The students ranged from fairly new to SLRs to professionals coming from other fields. I am personally just enjoying a very expensive hobby but would like to find ways to raise funds for my hobby too

So basically, my recommendation is to go in with as many questions as possible, you're paying a professional to get answers! I made a huge list of questions going into the class, and just wrote down more as they came up. The more you prepare yourself, the more you'll get out of it.

Understanding Exposure is taught by Bryan Peterson, if you want to get a feel for what he's like, the blog off PPSoP's main site seems to be mostly written by him. He has plenty of YouTube videos too if you search for either his name or his course title. I haven't taken that course, so I can't give you specifics, but in terms of how the website and classes work, feel free to ask more questions

Sorry for the long post but hope it helped!

xtremepro · March 24, 2009

Thanks for your feedback JKLionheart. I was wondering whether your access to their forums stays good forever or is it revoked as soon as you are done witha specific course. (*since you said their forums are a good resource). And is the educational material in downloadable format (PDFs and Videos for class material)
Thanks,
-Rob

JKLionheart wrote:

Hi Rob,

Yes, I did end up taking the course. I took the wedding photography course by Kevin Focht. The course itself was good, if not a bit short, but the key is that Kevin was very straightforward and willing to teach. It was a 4 week course and each week came with a new lesson (PDF written by Kevin) and assignment. As you may suspect, assignments aren't as interactive as they could be in person, but the PDF lessons were full of information relating to his metods, concepts, preferences, and business.

My assumption going into the class was that the price of admission (for me) was mainly for the forum. Kevin responds to each and every question, no matter how basic. Some things you just want a pro to verify for you (Do you feel so-and-so combinations of camera+lens would work?, How often do you really use flash?, etc.) and some things you really don't know and want to ask (how do I save money while not sacrificing my professional image?). It's very nice to see him responding to questions throughout the day, within 30 minutes of posting questions. The students ranged from fairly new to SLRs to professionals coming from other fields. I am personally just enjoying a very expensive hobby but would like to find ways to raise funds for my hobby too

So basically, my recommendation is to go in with as many questions as possible, you're paying a professional to get answers! I made a huge list of questions going into the class, and just wrote down more as they came up. The more you prepare yourself, the more you'll get out of it.

Understanding Exposure is taught by Bryan Peterson, if you want to get a feel for what he's like, the blog off PPSoP's main site seems to be mostly written by him. He has plenty of YouTube videos too if you search for either his name or his course title. I haven't taken that course, so I can't give you specifics, but in terms of how the website and classes work, feel free to ask more questions Sorry for the long post but hope it helped!

JKLionheart · March 24, 2009

xtremepro wrote:

Thanks for your feedback JKLionheart. I was wondering whether your access to their forums stays good forever or is it revoked as soon as you are done witha specific course. (*since you said their forums are a good resource). And is the educational material in downloadable format (PDFs and Videos for class material)
Thanks,
-Rob

Hi Rob,

The forum supposedly stays open for 1 year after your class ends according to the instructor, I don't have any direct experience with this but I trust that the instructor asked somebody who knew. The PDF lessons are downloadable (either right click, save as or you can save while it's open in Acrobat). There were no videos for this class, so I'm not sure about that (whether there's a link, or you'll have to fish around the source code

).

Understanding Exposure is a longer course, and more expensive, so I can understand the hesitation. Maybe stop by a bookstore and check out his book under the same name first, and if you feel like you know most of the stuff there, that may help you make a decision once way or another!

xtremepro · March 24, 2009

I just got his two books on this topic (Understanding exposure and Understanding Shutter speed) yesterday, and the contents' headings almost do match up - the only big reason I see that someone like me to do this course would be to get the critiques for my shots from the instructor or other fellow course-mates. I do have understanding of fundamentals of correct exposure and have been clicking 'correct'ly exposed shots since I have owned my Canon Xsi for last 1 year or so. But I thought if someone can provide feedback on my shots, I can really perfect my skills. Here's a link to one of my recently clicked shots
http://xtremepro.smugmug.com/<wbr>gallery/7286217_HDygg/1/<wbr>468446409_okuYa
[Sidenote-I used a Canon Xsi with 18-55 mm stock lens with Canon 580EXII flash for these shots.
After this shoot, I have recently bought canon 24-70mm f/2.8L and 50mm F/1.8 lens so hopefully my shots should improve in low light situations as well + the above two books should help as well as they cover a lot about exposure and low light photography.]

As you can see, I am in a little bit of dilemma here. :-(
ofcourse because their courses are pretty costly ..
Do you think its worth paying so much money (395USD) for getting my shots critiqued.. (that money
could pretty much buy me all the books I might just need for learning different photography skills)

Later on, of course I might enroll in some specialized (and cheaper) courses with PPSOP like the one on "Portraits" etc.
Of course its just my personal decision, I thought someone here can help me make up my mind..:-)

-Rob

JKLionheart wrote:

Hi Rob,

The forum supposedly stays open for 1 year after your class ends according to the instructor, I don't have any direct experience with this but I trust that the instructor asked somebody who knew. The PDF lessons are downloadable (either right click, save as or you can save while it's open in Acrobat). There were no videos for this class, so I'm not sure about that (whether there's a link, or you'll have to fish around the source code <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/mwink.gif" border="0" alt="" >).

Understanding Exposure is a longer course, and more expensive, so I can understand the hesitation. Maybe stop by a bookstore and check out his book under the same name first, and if you feel like you know most of the stuff there, that may help you make a decision once way or another!

JKLionheart · March 24, 2009

xtremepro wrote:

I just got his two books on this topic (Understanding exposure and Understanding Shutter speed) yesterday, and the contents' headings almost do match up - the only big reason I see that someone like me to do this course would be to get the critiques for my shots from the instructor or other fellow course-mates. I do have understanding of fundamentals of correct exposure and have been clicking 'correct'ly exposed shots since I have owned my Canon Xsi for last 1 year or so. But I thought if someone can provide feedback on my shots, I can really perfect my skills. Here's a link to one of my recently clicked shots
http://xtremepro.smugmug.com/<wbr>gallery/7286217_HDygg/1/<wbr>468446409_okuYa
[Sidenote-I used a Canon Xsi with 18-55 mm stock lens with Canon 580EXII flash for these shots. ]

As you can see, I am in a little bit of dilemma here. :-(
ofcourse because their courses are pretty costly ..
Do you think its worth paying so much money (395USD) for getting my shots critiqued..

Great color and detail in your shots! Even the snow shot is handled well in my opinion. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/thumb.gif" border="0" alt="" > Either you did a good job with post-process sharpening, or my lenses need calibration, because I haven't gotten a sharp shot like these in a while!

Maybe check out PPSOP/Bryan's videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ppsop2009 and see if you feel you have more to learn. I agree that critiques would be great, but you can get that from tons of dgrin'ers too right? One reason I personally avoid such general classes is because the class may not be specific enough to make you feel you're learning exactly what you paid for, even if it is teaching you a lot of things you may or may not know, especially if you've been using your XSi for a year now. The youtube videos make a lot of concepts feel easy though, and that's not something to be underestimated.

Besides, if you need time to think, the courses repeat every x weeks (8 week courses repeat every 8 weeks), so don't feel rushed!

xtremepro · March 24, 2009

Yea I agree. I guess I should participate a bit more in the dgrin and flickr like forums where a lot of experts can provide me feedback on my shots. I like the colors in the most recent one that I shared myself. But the snow shots were massively cropped and were clicked with a 55-250mm IS lens from very far.. I guess they are okay too. Regardless, your compliments are much appreciated..

-Rob

JKLionheart wrote:

Great color and detail in your shots! Even the snow shot is handled well in my opinion. Either you did a good job with post-process sharpening, or my lenses need calibration, because I haven't gotten a sharp shot like these in a while!

Maybe check out PPSOP/Bryan's videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ppsop2009 and see if you feel you have more to learn. I agree that critiques would be great, but you can get that from tons of dgrin'ers too right? One reason I personally avoid such general classes is because the class may not be specific enough to make you feel you're learning exactly what you paid for, even if it is teaching you a lot of things you may or may not know, especially if you've been using your XSi for a year now. The youtube videos make a lot of concepts feel easy though, and that's not something to be underestimated.

Besides, if you need time to think, the courses repeat every x weeks (8 week courses repeat every 8 weeks), so don't feel rushed!

catspaw · May 31, 2009

Took the Lensbaby class....
I'm totally into book learning (erm, in case the sudden influx of new book reviews in the dgrin tab didn't give THAT away...) but there's no decent LensBaby book out there and I felt I need more handson/feedback learning to make use of the 'toy' I had. so yes, I doubled the price ($150 lens, $150 class) with this, but it was WORTH IT.

Inter activeness is as much as you want it to be. But each weeks' lessons were set up to help us along and get us using it in different ways, styles and just mastering the tricky bugger (I've the Muse, which requires a finer touch). I ended up a lot more 'ready' to use this sucker in any setting now than I expected when I started this 4 weeks ago.

Well worth it!

saurora · June 1, 2009

JKLionheart wrote:

Hi Rob,

My assumption going into the class was that the price of admission (for me) was mainly for the forum. Kevin responds to each and every question, no matter how basic....

So basically, my recommendation is to go in with as many questions as possible, you're paying a professional to get answers! I made a huge list of questions going into the class, and just wrote down more as they came up. The more you prepare yourself, the more you'll get out of it.

Understanding Exposure is taught by Bryan Peterson, if you want to get a feel for what he's like, the blog off PPSOP's main site seems to be mostly written by him. He has plenty of YouTube videos too if you search for either his name or his course title. I haven't taken that course, so I can't give you specifics, but in terms of how the website and classes work, feel free to ask more questions Sorry for the long post but hope it helped!

Great response!

Bryan Peterson is also the founder of the school. I signed up for email from Adorama once as they send out a monthly photo tip directly from PPSOP. (You can sign up for that on Adorama's website) Right now (through June 6th) Adorama is offering a 10% discount on summer class registration. I haven't taken any classes, but have been very tempted, and yes, they are pricey. But you are paying for professional critique as well. I have wanted to take the LensBaby class as I really struggle with the learning curve on that lens, so I'm glad to hear that you thought it was well worth it, Catspaw. I have a previous model, and I'm never sure what I'm doing with it.

Here is the online link to Adorama's discount on PPSOP classes. (Remember, June 6 is this coming Saturday.)

Awais Yaqub · June 1, 2009

Inspirational work ! thanks for sharing with us

The Perfect Picture School of Photography

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