Kelby One online reviews?

SquarePeg · Jan 19, 2015

Anyone have a review of the Kelby One online courses/tutorials? I'm specifically looking for PS and LR but there are at least 2 dozen other courses that sound interesting. I really need a from scratch tutorial on PS as I have been winging it with trial and error and the occasional youtube how to but really not making the kind of progress I'd like.

TIA for any first hand experiences/reviews.

pixmedic · Jan 19, 2015

i would be really cautious about "how to" sites that charge you money.
im not saying they arent effective, but with the internets nowadays, you can really find pretty much anything you want to learn on youtube.
along with some stuff you really didn't want to learn....or even know existed.

find someone local that can help you.
barring that, skype with someone.
I did a skype call with Lew (the_traveler) once where it showed his desktop and he was able to show me how he did some things in LR and i could watch him edit in real time as well as being on the phone with him simultaneously.

personally, with the immense amount of free online resources, even if I had to hunt and peck for them, i would not really be too keen on paying for online "classes"

Light Guru · Jan 19, 2015

pixmedic said:
with the internets nowadays, you can really find pretty much anything you want to learn on youtube.

Yes that is an option, but the problem with it is all the time you have to spend to find the good free videos out there. There are far more crappy training videos to be found then good free ones.

As for the question in the about kelly training. I have not used them myself but I have heard good things about them.

Another good online training option is Lynda.com I know they offer a trial of a free week.

SquarePeg · Jan 19, 2015

I've tried the youtube/free Internet tutorial searching and yes, everything you could look for is probably out there somewhere but its a disjointed way to learn and sometimes I'm not sure I even know what to look for. I'm certain that there are millions of things you can do in post that would never even occur to me without some type of basicstuff to build off of.

SquarePeg · Jan 19, 2015

No one on TPF has any personal experience with Kelby One? Was really hoping for a first hand thumbs up or down from someone. Any first hand users of Lynda.com, specifically for PS and LR tutorials?

dennybeall · Jan 19, 2015

I have Kelby books on Photoshop and they are excellent. I've viewed many episodes on ( Kelby TV - Online Shows for Creative Professionals. )KelbyTV and they are also excellent. I've also listened to Scott give lectures. Based on that I'd say that if Scott Kelby and his team offers it, whatever it is, is good.
He does have a bit of a different approach to things so I'd suggest trying a book first.

sm4him · Jan 19, 2015

I've used Lynda.com some, because the city I work for has an account. It's a bit of hassle (for ME, wouldn't apply to you) because I only get like two weeks or something at a time, then I get kicked off the system and have to request access again (which usually means being on a short waiting list). But as I said, that's just because the city only has a certain number of "slots" they can allow at once, so we have to all take turns.

I've found the few classes I've taken that way fairly useful. The biggest thing I *like* about doing tutorials that way is you know the quality of instruction is going to be decent--you don't have to wade through pages and pages of search results and try to figure out whether THIS link is going to be amazingly useful, or amateurish or flat-out wrong.

On lynda.com, you can also set up a queue of classes you want to take, so you can kind of make a plan without having to search anew every single time you're ready for another class.

They aren't as good, or as useful to me personally, as some of the "distance learning" classes I've taken, like with Ed2Go. Those classes are more expensive, BUT I like them because you have assignments with each lesson, and at least some degree of interaction with an actual instructor. The lesson is done on your own time, but if you have a question you can post it and either the instructor, or sometimes another student, will help you with it.

Anyway--like I said, ed2go is more expensive, but it might be an option if that sort of instruction is better for you.

I've been looking at Kelby One lately. I'm pretty sure I'm going to spring for a month of it and see what I think, just have to wait another week or so, until a time when I think I'm going to have a fairly good amount of spare time to DO some classes once I sign up.
My suspicion is that Kelby One is pretty much on the same par as lynda.com--good, reliable quality of instruction. I do think lynda.com may have a wider variety of videos, but Kelby maybe has more in-depth on the subjects they tackle, I don't know.

KmH · Jan 19, 2015

KelbyOne used to be 2 separate web sites - Kelby Training and Photoshop User (National Association of Photoshop Professionals - NAPP).

I had been a NAPP member for many years and was grandfathered into KelbyOne.
The videos and other training are only part of what you get joining KelbyOne.
There is a 24 hour help desk, a member only forum, members get 10 issues of Photoshop user magazine, and members get many discounts - hardware, software, rental cars, hotel/motel rooms, etc..
A big discount for me before I retired was free regular shipping from B&H Photo Video and Adorama.

SquarePeg · Jan 19, 2015

@sm4him Thanks for the info on Lynda. I think I'll do the free trial and see how it goes. I have some free time the next month or so and want to make it productive plus I hate going out in the cold.

@KmH Pricing is similar for both of them but Kelby does seem to come with extras. That B&H free shipping is nice but I don't want to do anything to cause a GAS flare up! I'm interested in the Apple discount as I am in the market for a new desktop and have been considering a Mac. Any idea what the actual discount is?

KmH · Jan 19, 2015

Apple discounts vary by the product(s) you buy, but you get free shipping for orders over $50.

ronlane · Jan 19, 2015

I subscribed to KeblyOne for a few months last year and I signed back up this month for another month or two. I like them and watched a lot of the photography videos the first time. This time I have been focused on Photoshop stuff since I just got it on CC.

Forkie · Jan 20, 2015

If you'd rather have a book with exercises to do rather than YouTube or online tutorials, I would recommend no other book than Adobe's own Photoshop Classroom in a Book: Adobe Photoshop CC Classroom in a Book (2014 Release): Amazon.co.uk: Andrew Faulkner, Brie Gyncild: 9780133924442: Books

It comes with images to use and exercises to follow from opening an image all the way to layers and masking and using text.

KmH · Jan 20, 2015

Having had a earlier version I can say the Adobe Classroom In A Book series is more geared to graphic arts type Photoshop functions, techniques, and edits rather than the type of edits photographers tend to do.

SquarePeg · Jan 20, 2015

Thanks all for the helpful info and advice. I tried the PS guide book route previously because typically I prefer to read my info rather than watch videos but it was a wash out. Lynda.com has a 10 day free trial and kelbyone also has a free trial (7 days) so I think I'm going to start there and see if either of their tutorial styles work for me.

Buckster · Jan 20, 2015

I had KelbyTraining for a year and enjoyed learning what I did there and learned a lot.

I've had Lynda off an on, usually for a year at a time, but sometimes just a month or two in order to learn something specific, for maybe 10 years, and have also enjoyed learning there, and learned a lot.

The difference for me was that I found the photography courses and tutorials on Kelby MUCH better than on Lynda, and found the Photoshop and other software courses on Lynda MUCH better than on Kelby.

From my point of view, the structured curriculum style courses on either/both are FAR more valuable than the shotgun approach of hunting and pecking your way through odds and ends on YouTube and other resources all over the net, mixing bad practices with good, when you don't know which is which yet, and not having a proper foundation to build upon.

It's just like in school, how you learn the alphabet before you learn to spell simple words, then you learn more difficult words, then still more difficult words, then you learn the proper way to put them together and use grammar and punctuation, then you write sentences, then you compose paragraphs, then chapters, and finally books. Each step is built upon the stuff you learned up until that point.

With the shotgun approach, mysteries and confusion and wasted time because of it are typically rampant. You jump in and click on a video to learn how to do something, but you don't have the proper foundation to know how to do the stuff that led up to it, nor why you should.

When you decide to build a house, you don't just start erecting walls and hanging curtains, then build a roof, then put a hole in it for a chimney, cut a few holes here and there for doors, then plaster and paint the walls, then realize you need frames for the doors, then realize you'll need water, sewer and electricity so you tear into the walls to install pipes and wires and have to repair the walls again, and THEN later when you think you're basically all done, try to put a concrete foundation under it all because the whole thing is starting to tilt like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Start at the bottom, at the base, at the foundation, and build your way up in a logical, structured, ordered manner if you want to learn something, correctly, efficiently and thoroughly. That goes for anything you want to learn, but it's especially true of more complicated things.