Review? I meant to say “reaction”. And that’s the way I like to keep it.
First of all, I do not do reviews that offer blatant kick-backs. Second, I am NOT being paid by Mastering Lighting for this review, and the authoring I gratefully did for Mastering Compositing was a one-time flat rate. I’ve done a review of a Phase One, my manly leather bag, and my sweet rolling desk. I will only review things that I personally want associated with my name.
Now, let’s add another to the short list: Nick Saglimbeni’s Mastering Lighting.
Some of you may first know me through the Mastering Compositing DVD tutorials I authored, which was a suppliment to Nick’s ridiculoulsy detailed Mastering Retouching series. Now it’s Nick’s turn again, and DAMN did he deliver. Nick will be the first to say that I am his worst/best critic, and I was flat out impressed by this first installment of Mastering Lighting.
To be honest, when I first saw the preview trailer for this set (featured below this paragraph), I was a bit hesitant since it took something as basic as a photography tutorial video, and slathered it with Michael Bay sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Transformers and The Rock… but I watch those for entertainment, not for education.
BUT!!!! Pop in the full feature, and I am INCREDIBLY impressed from start to finish. It’s like Nick is the love-child of Michael Bay and Bob Ross. The entertainment and special effects are there, but it’s mixed with a highly educational artistic guru with a buttery smooth voice that inspires you to do it yourself. How impressed was I?? Since Nick and I are buddies and have cellular devices, we were messaging live as I was watching the tutorials. Give or take a few personal super top secret messages here or there, this is the conversation verbatim:
What did I learn? It is a fact that Nick is one of the most professional and successful photographers/retouchers in the world… and for anyone to say they didn’t learn from his techniques are fooling themselves. Even after knowing and working with Nick for over 7yrs, I never exactly knew how he approached light until this tutorial. He explains his workflow perfectly. This first installment of Mastering Lighting is *only* 70 minutes long, but, every single minute is packed harder than a Starbucks during finals week. The $149 introductory price is more than worth it, especially considering that price will easily be swallowed by 1 paying gig, no matter what level you are.
I was one of the lucky few who got their hands on the V.I.P. (Very. Important. Photographer) Box Set. It looks like there are only 100 being made, with more possible in the future. I gotta say the mini softbox + battery pack is the COOLEST desktop item EVER. Yoda approves
Follow the link for more information about Mastering Lighting