Saturday, March 20, 2010

Kelby Training Seminars: Affordable, Educational and This Time "Lucky"

I’m a big proponent of Scott Kelby and a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) so when the training arm of his company, Kelbytraining.com recently came to Phoenix, I was there. As a NAPP member their day long workshop is only 79 bucks and that’s a steal in my opinion. This particular session was Photoshop CS4 Down & Dirty Tricks Tour with instructor Corey Barker.

The classes include Layers & Compositing Techniques, Designing with Type, Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks, Photoshop Killer Tips, and Photoshop’s Most Wanted. With each session they also provide a detailed seminar workbook that covers everything taught in the classes and provides sections for taking notes, as many additional tips are given by the instructor during the day. This is a great reference guide, and I still refer to one from a class I attended a couple of years ago; excellent step-by-step instructions. Other freebies include a Goodies DVD and keyboard shortcut guide.

There had to be at least 300 people at the seminar I attended including digital photographers, graphic artists and designers, Windows and Mac users, and DSLR shooters using several of the top manufacturers. It’s a great place to interact with our own kind! Before and during the seminar there is a vendor area where on this day, Wacom, onOne and NAPP were on hand with their latest wears. The amount of vendors varies from city to city and at each seminar there are lots of giveaways in addition to the discounted NAPP merchandise and membership offers available. onOne even gave a demo during the lunch break of their new Plug-In Suite 5 software that includes PhotoTools, PhotoTune, FocalPoint, Genuine Fractals, PhotoFrame and MaskPro. MaskPro is especially a “Wow” software.

I’ve been to three of these seminars so far, and at one last year I renewed my NAPP membership at a discounted price and received a book and two training DVD’s for free! These were well worth the price of the membership which is $99 for one year and $179 for two years. Yes, I am pandering but I like these guys and what they have to offer. If you haven’t checked out the many Scott Kelby training books, you should, they make learning Photoshop, Lightroom, and digital photography simple. The online training classes and DVD’s from Kelbytraining.com are great resources for learning new techniques.

The best part of this most recent seminar was that lady luck must have been sitting in the empty seat next to me, because while other folks won a variety of giveaways such as the many Kelby Training books and DVD’s, even Wacom gave away an Intous4 tablet, the big giveaway was the Plug-in Suite 5 from onOne (a $599 value). When my name was called I let out a loud “Sweeeeet!” and claimed my prize. This is cool software and I’m still just learning it. I indent to post some of my experience with these products soon. Thanks Scott Kelby, NAPP and onOne for a great day of learning new Photoshop techniques, meeting new interesting people, and providing me with an improved post-production workflow to provide great looking images for my clients. By the way onOne is currently providing a $200 discount on its Plug-in Suite 5 product until March 25th, 2010. There I go pandering again.

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