Headshot Intensive vs. The Art Behind The Heashot: What's the scoop?
Ok PEOPLE! I get a lot of questions from people that have purchased the DVD and are wondering what the difference is between it and the Headshot Intensive info.
For those of you that own the DVD and also have taken the Headshot Intensive or the Headshot Intensive ONLINE I'd love for you to chime in here.
I really don't want to toot my own horn too much, all I have to say is that the DVD is a fantastic precursor to the intensive. I developed the intensive after the DVD and have continued to add content to it over the years, so it goes into a ton more depth.
Some of you have bought the DVD after taking the intensive as well, so maybe you can give your perspective on that as well.
I'd appreciate all the feedback, positive or negative because I'm always looking to improve!
For those interested I've scheduled 1 live intensive on Nov 9-10th and the next Headshot Intensive ONLINE begins January 6th. Sign up on the workshop link above or click here: http://ph2pro.com/workshops
Thanks for your input guys!
12 Comments
The DVD is great info to get you started but the Intensive takes it to the next level! It gives you specific info on dealing with all types of clients and running a successful headshot and portrait business!
Peter offers a variety of tools for Headshooters-to-be: the DVD - this Headshot Intensive Online - the Protégé Coaching Group - and last but not least the Bachelor's of the Fine Art of Shabanging! Group (which you are automatically submitted to after the Intensive).
The question of "what´s right for me" is very simple: IT DEPENDS!
The DVD is a starter. It gives you an idea about what Peter has developped over years into a serious and very successful approach. Will you shoot like Peter after having watched the DVD? I don´t think so. You have to understand, you have to brood about lightning, your setup, your way of dealing with clients ... Watching the DVD helps you to determine whether this line of photography does suit you or not. It helps you to start changing things and improving your photography a bit - nothing less, but nothing more, too.
The next step in my optinion is the Protégé Group even if you do not submit headshots for the group to critique at once - watch, see and learn - the monthly fee is a small investment for what you get offered. There you will see what others have already achieved, you will see, too, what others still have to learn, you will start to change things and you will see that you are starting to take better pics - but still not good enough to be among the best. And this fact will keep you going. If you don´t have this urge to improve - you won´t.
If you start thinking about doing headshots as a business seriously or if you have just become an ethusiast who really wants to become a much better photographer you should sign up for the Headshot Intensive Online. Of all the tutorial stuff I have followed so far this Intensive plays in a different league! Over a period of 12 weeks you are not only given the opportunity to watch 12 lessons, 12 instructor´s commentaries, but you will be given 12 exercises with one week time to fiddle on each assignment and you will see what your fellow pupils are coming up with. And it is not just about shooting. I remember the very first exercise: write your bio. Piece of cake I thought and started writing the story of my photographic life. Gee, I thought, cool bio! Then I got the first commentaries - "Got lost in the middle of it", "too much info" ... I edited this thing about 20 times over the next 10 weeks to come. I red the bios of my fellow students. And I started to develop an idea what my bio should be like. I got help from my online-collegues - and finally I wrote one I still like. This is just one aspect of Peter´s Intensive, but this is what the Intensive is about: time to evolve, a supportive group, The Man who spills out what made his headshooting a craft and an art. It´s simply invaluable! Had anybody told me that so much thought, so many ideas and so many aspects are woven around headshooting, I would not have believed him! Before Peter I thought of headshooting as one sideaspect of photography. Now, even at my stage, I am proud of being part of the Bachelors of the Fine Art of Shabanging! am not getting paid to say this! It is just that I am still surprised by the value of expertise I got with a comparatively small monetary investment.
But: it all depends on YOU! Just sitting and watching is not enough. You will be offered tools of the trade which you have to implement as second nature to yourself. I am still in the middle of all this although I have done the Intensive, too. My photography as developped considerably - the headshots I have taken so far with clients have all been very positive - the clients were exptremely happy about my approach during the shoot that made them feel comfortable and being taken serious as a client and they were all very pleased with the results. There are still things I have to improve and I have to change - but I know what I have to do. It is not done in one day. And I am already much better than a lot of professionals in my area.
I'll see if I can find the images to underscore what I'm abut to say, but here's my experience. And I will speak of the CDs because I went through the Kelby Training Video first and was stunned - and bought the ART CD immediately afterwards.
Before I got the CDs, I had been shooting actors for years for headshots and I was making some very nice, well-focused and portraits of whatever actors would bring to me. That is to say, once in a while I would get someone who would shine and otherwise I shot many - and I do mean many - well-focused and lit shots of people who looked out to lunch or have artificial smiles.
After I went through the CDs, my shooting jumped up in quality by a huge amount. People were now alive in front of my camera - of course some of the best and most-alive and fun shots weren't really usable as headshots, but the headshots now had active and interested people. I had learned through the CDs how to connect with people and get them laughing and play with them more than I had ever done before. If all you want is an improvement, the CDs are an awesome value and you will see an amazing increase in what you can shoot.
Ah, but the on-line intensive.... Wow, Now I have people who are alive, confident and approachable AND usable headshots. I can guide anyone into a headshot that will make a casting director stop in their tracks and wonder, "What are they thinking? I want to know." Actors started talking about how fun I was to shoot with after the CDs, but now they talk about my direction and professionalism. Two encounters this week with actors I shot may underscore this - one said he went home and went on and on with great excitement to his wife about how I coaxed expressions from him in a brief session. He said that after he finished, she looked at him and said simply, "So what you are saying is that he was a professional headshot photographer." The other actor simply booked a full set of portraits for his whole family and each of his children saying that if I could get what I did from him, then he wanted me to capture the same sort of life and interest from each member of his family.
The CDs taught me to play with my clients more than I ever had before. The intensive taught me why I play with them the way that I do, when to change "games" with them, and how to mix the play with the real (direct) direction to get great images.
I guess one other difference would be this. I thought (and people said) that I was a great portrait and headshot photographer before I ever encountered Peter, and my images were better than most images people had ever seen of themselves. After the CDs, I realized that I didn't really have "it" before, but now I did. Once again, I thought I was great and people around me said the same. Now after the intensive, I can see my improvements and people rave about my work, but I see so many things I have yet to learn and can do better in my next session. The intensive has really set me on the journey to become the photographer I used to think I was. :-)
I have only seen bits and pieces of the DVD and also other material on YouTube, but here is the bottom line: a DVD won't give you direct feedback about your own work, nor it will offer the benefit of a group of other photographers dealing with your own challenges.
The Headshot Intensive has presented me with an opportunity to massively improve my skills and consider this experience to be life changing.
That being said, I would like to get it later on, I believe that the Intensive is irreplaceable by any other media,but some other specific topics could be very interesting to invest on, such as lighting, workflow, color calibration, etc ... oh! did I mention that those items were also cover in the Headshot Intensive? :)
James, well put! I love your story! Great end: "The intensive has really set me on the journey to become the photographer I used to think I was." I expressly consent this for me, too!
You should have talked about the "Crossman Move" thou!!
I have had the great fortune to experience the DVD's, the Headshot Intensive, and the Online Headshot Intensive. And...I experienced them in that order...not by design, but by happenstance.
I agree that, while the DVD is absolutely fantastic and certainly improved my work, there was so much more I learned during the Intensive. Plus there is a distinct advantage to being in the same room and watching Peter work live; compared to watching the DVD. From something as simple as seeing how doggone close the subject is to the lights, to the benefit of interacting real time with Peter and being able to ask him questions.
But...the Online Intensive is the Pièce de résistance!! So much more information! Weekly assignments with live spreecast reviews and feedback! Of the three options, the Online Intensive is by far the best learning tool. But, one must make the commitment to watch all the lessons, perform and submit the assignments, and make time to participate in the weekly online sessions. However, if you are willing and able to make this commitment and keep up with the work, then the rewards are remarkable in terms of personal growth. I should add that a tremendous benefit of the Online Intensive is that all the videos, and I think there are about 24 of them, remain online and indefinitely accessible to the students.
All three options offered by Peter are fantastic, and each on it's own will improve your work. However, if I had to do it all over again, and could choose only one...it would be the Online Intensive. I'm sure glad though that I experienced all three!
Simples. The DVD is a fixed in time snapshot & small subset of the information that Peter will impart to you at the Intensive. And nothing beats quality time & human interaction with a teacher, especially one who is a great communicator in the first place.
Being on the receiving end of Peter's camera is a big eye opener - you can't get that off the DVD. Right at the end of the course, and a lot learned right there. Invaluable to experience how it feels as a subject, being directed by the boss himself.
No physical media can completely contain the Hurley experience. He must be experienced in person to appreciate his full majesty. The DVD made me a little better; the intensive made me a ton better.
Thanks guys! Appreciate the feedback.
So how will your Art Behind The Headshot workshop at the Fstoppers event be different from the DVD?
That class is applying my top 10 tips from the DVD Live. Not sure what else to tell you, but speaking rom experience I'm a loose cannon. You never know what you are going to get.
I'm looking forward to it!
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