Am I good enough to make a HDR tutorial?

JRE313 · Jul 7, 2013

I have gotten some requests for tips on HDR. My question is do you think I am good enough
to make a tutorial? Here is some of my work. Let me know what you think.

amolitor · Jul 7, 2013

Actually you don't really need to be particularly good at a task, to make a tutorial. What matters is that you're good at explaining things, and don't say stuff that's wrong.

mwild · Jul 7, 2013

Even though I'm not the hugest fan of HDR photos... you do them very well and I'd say rock the tutorial!

Overread · Jul 7, 2013

amolitor said:
Actually you don't really need to be particularly good at a task, to make a tutorial. What matters is that you're good at explaining things, and don't say stuff that's wrong.

Aye many of the best teachers are not always the best skilled - and many who are the best skilled are not always any good at teaching it.

There is, of course (as in all things) thresholds - you have to have some experience and ability to teach and in the creative world also an element of experimentation. It's often something that annoys me (esp with a lot of beginner tutorials*) when only a single approach is mentioned and its given the air that its the on and only way. If you're teaching your "style" of photography that is fine, your style has its one defined way - but be sure to make sure that you're clear that its your style that you're teaching (if you so choose to take this approach) and not the "gospel" method for the situation.

You do have some skill, indeed I would personally say that I like your HDR work - now if you want to make a tutorial decide - are you teaching HDR or YOUR HDR method? Alongside that you need to choose your audience - a more advanced audience will require more information and expansion of points - however whilst a beginner won't need that amount of information its best to write from a position of knowing more than to write from one of just knowing enough.

*I do fully understand that simple beginner tutorials often have to take this approach to avoid swamping the beginner in too much information and leading to confusion or presenting so many options that they become overwhelmed with choice. Like many things the basic tutorial expects the learner to move onto further learning and not just pause and call it finished at the end of the tutorial

Ilovemycam · Jul 7, 2013

OP, sure. But just for the freaked out HDR versions. You have not submitted any of the invisible HDR or lower / slightly freaked out HDR. But nice work!

JRE313 · Jul 7, 2013

Overread said:
amolitor said:

Actually you don't really need to be particularly good at a task, to make a tutorial. What matters is that you're good at explaining things, and don't say stuff that's wrong.

Click to expand...

Aye many of the best teachers are not always the best skilled - and many who are the best skilled are not always any good at teaching it.

There is, of course (as in all things) thresholds - you have to have some experience and ability to teach and in the creative world also an element of experimentation. It's often something that annoys me (esp with a lot of beginner tutorials*) when only a single approach is mentioned and its given the air that its the on and only way. If you're teaching your "style" of photography that is fine, your style has its one defined way - but be sure to make sure that you're clear that its your style that you're teaching (if you so choose to take this approach) and not the "gospel" method for the situation.

You do have some skill, indeed I would personally say that I like your HDR work - now if you want to make a tutorial decide - are you teaching HDR or YOUR HDR method? Alongside that you need to choose your audience - a more advanced audience will require more information and expansion of points - however whilst a beginner won't need that amount of information its best to write from a position of knowing more than to write from one of just knowing enough.

*I do fully understand that simple beginner tutorials often have to take this approach to avoid swamping the beginner in too much information and leading to confusion or presenting so many options that they become overwhelmed with choice. Like many things the basic tutorial expects the learner to move onto further learning and not just pause and call it finished at the end of the tutorial

Thanks alot! I might make a beginner HDR photomatix tutorial. then maybe work my way up depending on the feedback! Good suggestion on explaining style too

SCraig · Jul 7, 2013

If you have to ask then you probably are. The people that shouldn't be writing tutorials are those who are convinced that they should be.

I've seen you go from someone who didn't even realize that he was grossly over-processing an image to one who knows when to over-process one and when to leave well enough alone. I don't use HDR much, a little tone-mapping to recover a poor exposure on occasion, but I know how to recognize a good one when I see it. I say go for it. I'll read it when you're done with it

JRE313 · Jul 7, 2013

SCraig said:
If you have to ask then you probably are. The people that shouldn't be writing tutorials are those who are convinced that they should be.

I've seen you go from someone who didn't even realize that he was grossly over-processing an image to one who knows when to over-process one and when to leave well enough alone. I don't use HDR much, a little tone-mapping to recover a poor exposure on occasion, but I know how to recognize a good one when I see it. I say go for it. I'll read it when you're done with it

I actually have a youtube account. I was going to make a video!

Designer · Jul 7, 2013

JRE313; these are good, for sure. The thing about teaching is the students always seem to outpace the teacher eventually. Some will take what you do, and no more. Some others will take that and make it better.

Overread · Jul 7, 2013

JRE313 said:
SCraig said:

If you have to ask then you probably are. The people that shouldn't be writing tutorials are those who are convinced that they should be.

I've seen you go from someone who didn't even realize that he was grossly over-processing an image to one who knows when to over-process one and when to leave well enough alone. I don't use HDR much, a little tone-mapping to recover a poor exposure on occasion, but I know how to recognize a good one when I see it. I say go for it. I'll read it when you're done with it

Click to expand...

I actually have a youtube account. I was going to make a video!

Are you any good with video recording? I've seen a LOT of youtube videos for tutorials for various things which often utterly fail because of:

1) Terrible lighting - often its the 5 minute wonder tutorial done in their bedroom (often at night) with little thought to exposure or lighting

2) Webcam or worse - not being a gearsnob and some webcams are very good; but in general lower end cameras produce lower end results; this directly makes it harder to focus on the content when you're trying to work out what the heck it is (esp if combined with point 1)

3) Bad audio - the worst being on-camera when they are holding the camera and most of the time you're trying to hear them over the sound of AF motors, their hands and the sound of them fiddling with buttons on the camera.

4) Wibbly wobbly my tripod vanished - ok you don't have to use a tripod, but honestly at least try to keep the camera still enough so the viewer can focus on the scene rather than feel like they are in a sea storm

5) My face! Yes some videos are just the person sitting in their chair talking and honestly most people do not do this well enough to make it valid. IF its a tutorial you want more than just your face in the screen otherwise do an audio clip and forget the visual aspect if it has nothing to contribute.

There are more points to consider of course, but keep in mind that a whilst writing takes time it at least avoids many presentation problems. If you've got the right methods and good enough gear then by all means go for video - a well presented and put together video can be a great resource

jessica_t · Jul 23, 2013

did you ever make that video?

TehYoyo · Jul 24, 2013

Excellent photographs - your style is a lot like some of Trey Ratcliff's more surreal stuff.

As for a tutorial, I'd say your "good enough", that is, credible enough, to make a tutorial, but my question is do you need to?

There are so many HDR tutorials on the web. It's insane. If you're only receiving a few requests/week, I wouldn't make one - it's so saturated, it's not worth your time. I would just respond with a personal message. I always appreciate that.

jamesbjenkins · Jul 24, 2013

If you're doing it for a friend, and there's no money involved...I can't see any reason why not if you feel so inclined. If you're attempting to create a video and try to make any revenue off of it...good luck. You'd be better off putting more effort into winning clients or increasing the average/total revenue per client.

And if you want to have more credibility, you need to include the more realistic kind of HDR, ie. images that the casual viewer wouldn't know were HDR...

Your overcooked, surreal images are "good enough", but they're certainly not my cup of tea. I'd like to see your attempt at realistic HDR.