Ready to sharpen your photography skills? Join our four newest online 500px Classes, available to 500px Awesome, Pro, and Pro+ members.
Read on to meet some of our instructors and learn what they’ll be teaching in their upcoming Classes. Plus, get a sneak preview at some of their best advice!
Then, sign up and get started. Each of these Classes includes access to a live webinar, tutorial content (video or PDF), and a group discussion with other photographers all over the world.
Understanding Natural Light
August 2-4
August 2-4
Photographer: Marco Grassi
Live webinar: August 4, 2 PM EST
Who he is: An award-winning photographer specialized in landscape and travel photography. When it comes to photography, his goal is to “make you wonder and inspire you to travel more and see those amazing places yourself.”
What you’ll learn: How to photograph in all kinds of outdoor lighting conditions, from the golden hour to moonlight.
Check out Marco’s photos on 500px: 500px.com/marcograssi
What’s one piece of advice you wished you knew when you started taking photos?
Marco: I would have loved to have someone telling me not to hurry. Don’t get mad about learning everything straight away because it is impossible and makes no sense; you need to make errors and build experience. As you achieve new skills, your photography improves; and once you’ve properly learned something, you can move to the next thing, and so on, growing step by step as a photographer. There are no limits to widening your knowledge; just take your time and don’t rush things.
Where do you find inspiration?
Marco: At the beginning I used to simply photograph everything I could to learn how to use my camera. Afterwards, I started shooting any kind of landscape, from flat views over the hills to beautiful beaches and villages on the sea, inspired by how beautiful nature is. Right now, what inspires me the most are remote landscapes and mountains.
Q: What can photographers look forward to learning from you?
Marco: During this class, photographers will be able to understand and learn how to recognize different types of light. Light plays an important role in landscape photography, and it’s fundamental to understand how it works. When both location and weather allow us, it’s essential to fully exploit every moment of the day in order to get the best out of it—and this can be possible knowing how to move under different types of light.
Get a membership and register for Marco’s Class.
Mastering the Art of Composition
August 10-12
August 10-12
Photographer: Ian Plant
Live webinar: August 11, 3 PM EST
Who he is: A professional nature and travel photographer who “travels the world, seeking out the hidden spaces in between the familiar.”
What you’ll learn: How to capture your viewer’s attention with composition techniques like “visual vortex,” using leading lines, and more.
Check out Ian’s photos on 500px: 500px.com/IanPlant
Q: What’s one piece of advice you wished you knew when you started taking photos?
Ian: The most important lesson for me as a photographer—one that I wished someone had told me in the very beginning—was to learn to see visual elements as abstract shapes. Once you learn to see your subjects as artistic abstractions, creating meaningful compositions becomes a whole lot easier.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
Ian: I draw my inspiration from the beauty of the world around us. To me, photography is unique among art forms because it is so closely tethered to reality. I’m constantly inspired by those magical moments when composition, light, and emotion come together to produce a stunning photograph.
Q: What can photographers look forward to learning from you?
Ian: Composition is the most important thing you can learn if you want to make great photos, but it is also the most difficult to master. I’ll teach class participants the importance of abstract artistic thinking, and how to use colors, shapes, and lines to command the viewer’s eye.
Get a membership and register for Ian’s Class.
Why Images Work
August 17-19
August 17-19
Photographer: Daniel Fleischhacker
Class: Why images work
Live webinar: August 18, 3 PM EST
Who he is: A landscape photographer from Bavaria who loves travelling.
What you’ll learn: A pro’s insights into what makes a great photo.
Check out Daniel’s photos on 500px: 500px.com/Daniel-Fleischhacker
Q: What’s one piece of advice you wished you knew when you started taking photos?
Daniel: One important lesson I had to learn was that a burning sky is not everything.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
Daniel: I love to look at other photographer’s work. I think that’s a really important part of getting better—and also to find inspiration. I like to use 500px, Instagram, and 1x for this. I also find a lot of inspiration in nature itself. There are landscapes that are so beautiful and perfect—which makes it easy to find good compositions.
Q: What can photographers look forward to learning from you?
Daniel: They will learn that they burning sky is not everything. There are so many ways to make an image look awesome. Most important parts are the composition and the right angle of the light.
Get a membership and register for Daniel’s Class.
Photoshop Compositing: The Subway in the Wilderness
August 24-26
August 24-26
Photographer: Uli Staiger
Class: Photoshop Compositing: The Subway in the Wilderness
Live webinar: August 25, 3 PM EST
Who he is: A photographer and CG artist who “combines photography, Adobe Photoshop and Cinema 4D for his outstanding images full of fantasy and imagination.”
What you’ll learn: The techniques you need to create a high-quality composite image. Uli’s providing photos so you can test out his techniques in Photoshop right away.
Check out Uli’s photos on 500px: 500px.com/Uli_Staiger
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
Uli: I find all my inspiration in the real world. I avoid seeing too many movies that inspire me, because it would make me an imitator rather than an explorer of my own fantasy. When you think about it, the world is a extremely inspiring place, especially the part where I live: Berlin.
Q: What can photographers look forward to learning from you?
Uli: I teach not only Photoshop techniques, but also photo design. I am deeply convinced that only the combination of technique AND design provides great results. You will not only get information, but also inspiration.
Get a membership and register for Uli’s Class.
Get a 500px membership and sign up for these Classes today—and stay tuned for more to come in the future!
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