# Annie Leibovitz Photoshop filters and masterclass



## RayDalio (Feb 28, 2018)

I'm normally loathe to spend money on these kind of things, but suddenly they're all over Facebook and Reddit – has anyone given them a go?

Applied Image
Annie Leibovitz Teaches Photography | MasterClass


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## Derrel (Feb 28, 2018)

Have not tried either, but to me, Presets are valuable tools, and I use them a lot in Lightroom. I got a lot of free presets a few year ago, and have LOVED using them. Presets are editable, so you can tweak them to your liking.

The Annie classes...sounds like a good deal to me for $180 for a year. If you could learn just six things from her 15 lessons, you'd be money ahead in the long term.

Yes, these two things cost money, but not "that much" money.


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## vintagesnaps (Feb 28, 2018)

I've seen something before about Annie Leibovitz teaching a video course thru MasterClass. I think there are various courses offered by a number of well known people in various fields. I don't think it has anything to do with the other website linked.


I don't think the presets being sold by what's calling itself Applied Image Research have anything to do with Annie Leibovitz. (I don't get why they're using her name, or the 'research' name of the site since they seem to only be selling one set of presets.) It's a .co and I can't find any contact info. or address or company info. so I'm not sure what the site is or who's behind it or who owns it or anything - other than someone somewhere is selling some presets. And whoever wrote it spells 'color' like 'colour' so that makes me think it's not a US company.


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## RayDalio (Feb 28, 2018)

Thanks. Yeah, I should have said they're not connected, other than they're both popping up on my Facebook at the moment.

I was really wondering if anyone knows how much use the masterclass is for more experienced photographers? It's hard to tell from their blurb, as they're obviously trying to target a broad audience. The presets have been suggested as a pairing, as the retouching side is clearly more technical. From what I gather it's a London studio that reverse engineer the looks of famous photographers like VSCO do with film.

They're also on Creative Market and were being distributed on Reddit, but I don't think 'officially'.
New York Retoucher Photoshop Actions


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## RayDalio (Feb 28, 2018)

Thanks Derrel!

That's how I feel too, and it's good to hear that from someone else. I'm almost surprised the masterclass hasn't got more attention. She's got one of the most commercially appealing looks of any photographer, I've always thought.


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## vintagesnaps (Mar 1, 2018)

It doesn't appear to be the same company. There's an Applied Image in the UK - different website. There's an Applied Image in Rochester NY - different .com website. I think .co is a domain name out of Colombia. The site doesn't seem to provide an address or any info. about who's doing the company/website or where they're located. I wouldn't trust giving some anonymous person/people my credit card info.

I hadn't seen Creative Market before. Their CEO runs on Cheerios and avocados, and if that's his professional bio I'll pass. And there are the Terms... a glance down and I found 4b User Content License Grant - look at that before you use the site, sounds like site users are allowing Creative Market to use their photos from now on, in an unlimited way, etc. etc. No way would I agree to that.

To me it looks like whoever's doing the so called NY presets seems to be using Ms. Leibovitz's name... wouldn't be surprised if it's unauthorized (and if someday their site might just be gone and out of business, who knows).


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## cgw (Mar 1, 2018)

_She's got one of the most commercially appealing looks of any photographer, I've always thought.
_
Yup, change the verb tense to past and you've got why Annie's doing this now. Cynicism(though it seems justified here)aside, she's been convinced that "branding" with a touch of celebrity worship will rake in a few $$$. The idea of a "master class" offered online a la MOOC seems just a bit contradictory.


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## RayDalio (Mar 10, 2018)

vintagesnaps said:


> It doesn't appear to be the same company. There's an Applied Image in the UK - different website. There's an Applied Image in Rochester NY - different .com website. I think .co is a domain name out of Colombia. The site doesn't seem to provide an address or any info. about who's doing the company/website or where they're located. I wouldn't trust giving some anonymous person/people my credit card info.
> 
> I hadn't seen Creative Market before. Their CEO runs on Cheerios and avocados, and if that's his professional bio I'll pass. And there are the Terms... a glance down and I found 4b User Content License Grant - look at that before you use the site, sounds like site users are allowing Creative Market to use their photos from now on, in an unlimited way, etc. etc. No way would I agree to that.
> 
> To me it looks like whoever's doing the so called NY presets seems to be using Ms. Leibovitz's name... wouldn't be surprised if it's unauthorized (and if someday their site might just be gone and out of business, who knows).



Creative Market's a very popular site in the design industry. The terms would refer to people selling their own products through the site. So if you upload a product, they've got the right to promote it on their networks. I get Creative Market ads all the time on Facebook. I'm sure Adobe and VSCO have similar terms where applicable.

So I don't think there's any danger of you signing rights away when you buy anything from them. Applied Image are quite well known too. In their own words I think replicating looks is done unofficially. But they seem pretty careful with their language, and a lot of photo apps do it far more brazenly. I'm not even sure about the legalities of film emulation, when it includes brands like Kodak and Fuji in the advertising.


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## RayDalio (Mar 10, 2018)

cgw said:


> _She's got one of the most commercially appealing looks of any photographer, I've always thought.
> _
> Yup, change the verb tense to past and you've got why Annie's doing this now. Cynicism(though it seems justified here)aside, she's been convinced that "branding" with a touch of celebrity worship will rake in a few $$$. The idea of a "master class" offered online a la MOOC seems just a bit contradictory.



It did make me pause and think. She has quite a track record for accumulating debt. I still enjoy seeing on set videos with her, on some of the highest budget celebrity shoots in the industry, shooting with a Canon 1D and a $50 Soft Lighter.


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## Derrel (Mar 11, 2018)

I just bought the book "Women", by Annie Liebovitz, with an introduction by Susan Sontag. It's a big, coffee table book, with loads of single-page and double-trucks of women of all types and social levels, from poor to royalty, celebrity to regular. Single, doubles, groups, all women.

I tell you what...if a person cannot respect Liebovitz's skills (plural) behind a camera, they're really not that photographically savvy, or they're extremely cynical and deluded. She is, without a doubt, a master-level people photographer. If, after watching fifteen video lessons for a full year, a person cannot justify the expense of learning from one of the 20th centuries greatest portraitists, then that person might as well just throw the cameras and lenses and lights up for sale on e-Bay, and take up a new hobby.

Many people blow more than the cost of her master class on barista-poured coffee within a six month time frame, on something they will literally pi** away within hours.


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## cgw (Mar 11, 2018)

Derrel said:


> I just bought the book "Women", by Annie Liebovitz, with an introduction by Susan Sontag. It's a big, coffee table book, with loads of single-page and double-trucks of women of all types and social levels, from poor to royalty, celebrity to regular. Single, doubles, groups, all women.
> 
> I tell you what...if a person cannot respect Liebovitz's skills (plural) behind a camera, they're really not that photographically savvy, or they're extremely cynical and deluded. She is, without a doubt, a master-level people photographer. If, after watching fifteen video lessons for a full year, a person cannot justify the expense of learning from one of the 20th centuries greatest portraitists, then that person might as well just throw the cameras and lenses and lights up for sale on e-Bay, and take up a new hobby.
> 
> Many people blow more than the cost of her master class on barista-poured coffee within a six month time frame, on something they will literally pi** away within hours.



Agree, in part, but still think as a celebrity "celebrity" photographer, that her best work isn't necessarily her most recent work--OK, she did shoot QE II and who gets to do that? But isn't that the point? She always worked with a regiment of assistants, grips and MUAs--advantages few of us enjoy. I'm choking a bit on this online "Master Class" proposition that she and Meyerowitz et al. are floating and question, apart from bragging rights, what one gets from a few lessons that supposedly concentrate a lifetime's work and knowledge. I'll keep buying the books, thanks. BTW, her "Portraits" is also deserving of a place on your coffee table.


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## espresso2x (Mar 11, 2018)

cgw said:


> --OK, she did shoot QE II and who gets to do that?



John Hedgecoe.



cgw said:


> She always worked with a regiment of assistants, grips and MUAs--advantages few of us enjoy.



Not with Rolling Stone. As i think you might be suggesting, among her best output. Although A Photographer's _Life_: 1990-2005 is quality throughout.


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## SquarePeg (Mar 11, 2018)

Sounds like a bargain to me.  Just to hear her creative thought process would be worth the money.


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## DanOstergren (Mar 12, 2018)

No doubt she is an incredible photographer, and a huge inspiration. I bought the Master Class and personally I feel that it's not worth the price. It's more like watching a long interview where most of the content is Annie talking about herself, and she shows you her photos and tells stories about them. I'm not saying it isn't inspiring or valueable, I just don't think it should be called a "Master Class".


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## cgw (Mar 12, 2018)

DanOstergren said:


> No doubt she is an incredible photographer, and a huge inspiration. I bought the Master Class and personally I feel that it's not worth the price. It's more like watching a long interview where most of the content is Annie talking about herself, and she shows you her photos and tells stories about them. I'm not saying it isn't inspiring or valueable, I just don't think it should be called a "Master Class".



There's a huge aspirational hook in those "Master Classes" but did you truly expect anything more? It's a rare short-term workshop or class that has much of a takeaway beyond vague sharing of the organizer's "vision."


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## DanOstergren (Mar 12, 2018)

cgw said:


> DanOstergren said:
> 
> 
> > No doubt she is an incredible photographer, and a huge inspiration. I bought the Master Class and personally I feel that it's not worth the price. It's more like watching a long interview where most of the content is Annie talking about herself, and she shows you her photos and tells stories about them. I'm not saying it isn't inspiring or valueable, I just don't think it should be called a "Master Class".
> ...


Yes, I expected a lot more. I've purchased similarly marketed video courses from other photographers and from Creative Live for the same price, and learned a ton. So much so that those courses were incredibly influential on my progression as a photographer. Those same courses were also very close to the same length in time. The photographers spent little time talking about themselves and showing their own photos, and dedicated the majority of the time on showing how they shoot, having recorded photoshoots and sharing their camera settings, light setups and even natural lighting setups, as well as in-depth color toning and retouching. One of them even took the time to record a call to their agent, and had a discussion with their agent about finding work, developing your look and skill, how to find an agent, what agents are looking for, etc.

I don't know why you're asking me if I expected more than a long-winded interview from something marketed as a Master Class. The answer again is yes and I don't think it was too much to expect.


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## SquarePeg (Mar 12, 2018)

DanOstergren said:


> cgw said:
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I’ve found the Creative Live courses that I’ve had the chance to watch to be excellent and looking to try a few more.  Would love to know which ones  you liked.


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## DanOstergren (Mar 12, 2018)

SquarePeg said:


> DanOstergren said:
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Fashion Photography 101 with Lara Jade | CreativeLive

Photographer Shoot-off: Lara Jade vs. Joey L (DVD) Usually ships in 12 hours!!!  | eBay


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## cgw (Mar 13, 2018)

DanOstergren said:


> cgw said:
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> > DanOstergren said:
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Why? Because creatives in her league don't do YouTube style how-to videos. They might sell inspiration but instruction? Nope. Aspirational advertising won again, I'm afraid.


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## dunfly (Mar 13, 2018)

[QUOTE="DanOstergren, post: 3851724, member: 150847
I don't know why you're asking me if I expected more than a long-winded interview from something marketed as a Master Class. The answer again is yes and I don't think it was too much to expect.

I’ve found the Creative Live courses that I’ve had the chance to watch to be excellent and looking to try a few more.  Would love to know which ones  you liked.

Fashion Photography 101 with Lara Jade | CreativeLive

Photographer Shoot-off: Lara Jade vs. Joey L (DVD) Usually ships in 12 hours!!!  | eBay[/QUOTE]

Have you (or anyone else) downloaded any of the other CreativeLive classes.  I wasn't interested in the one you posted but looked through the site and found several that looked good.  Any opinions as to the overall quality of the classes.  There was a fundamentals and landscape class I was interested in.   They seem to get good reviews.


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## Derrel (Mar 13, 2018)

Creative Live has a lot of classes, geared to beginning and intermediate-level shooters. I've watched about ten of them, and found them to be very well-done. Quality overall is high, especially if you're an intermediate or beginning-level shooter. Creative Live's goal is to get hobbyists and beginning professional people "up to speed" one might say, and so they really do make things clear, and there is explanation, and there is always "audience call-in (well, e-mail-in!) sprinkled throughout the sessions, which are rather long, as in hours long, and some have been two-day classes. Typically they have two staff members as moderators/facilitators; the presenter; and then a group of in-studio people who are there, taking notes, and asking questions at times. They show the shots "live", on a projection-sized screen, so the setups and the results are seen within seconds, which aids tremendously.

CreativeLive is not a "master class", and it's not for people who want to talk about ideas, or philosophies, or mindsets that underpin various areas of photography; it's instead a place that sells how-to information for people who are getting started, it's more about teaching the well-known industry practices and photographic fundamentals, the type of stuff that people used to learn from books, or from being a studio assistant,etc.. Creative Live classes are free when live, but you have to pay to be able to download the videos. I'm not trying to belittle CL, but it's largely people who are proficient in an area, but not say, Liebovitz-like in stature (since there are only a handful of people in her league). For the majority of people, Creative Live classes will be of a lot of value, and unlike some of the crap on YouTube, you can be confident that the information presented is actually accurate, unlike a LOT of stuff made and slapped up on YouTube by people of minimal experience.

Here's just _one_ CL page, dealing with portraiture; they have many others!

100+ Portrait Photography Tips, Classes, Tutorials | CreativeLive


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## SquarePeg (Mar 13, 2018)

dunfly said:


> Have you (or anyone else) downloaded any of the other CreativeLive classes. I wasn't interested in the one you posted but looked through the site and found several that looked good. Any opinions as to the overall quality of the classes. There was a fundamentals and landscape class I was interested in. They seem to get good reviews.



I own one CL class - The Art of Flower Photography by Kathleen Clemons.  I bought it during a sale and feel it was 100% worth the cost.  Her in person workshops cost $900+ so paying $60 for the CL class was a bargain and you can watch it over and over if you don't get something or need a refresher.  The classes are pricey compared to 

Previously I had a lynda.com membership which I found helpful as a beginner in learning how to use my camera and great tutorials on PSE11.  Lately, now that I feel I'm more in the intermediate category in some things and a beginner - intermediate in others, and I've sort of found where my interest lies, I'm looking to improve in certain areas so I've been watching a lot of youtube but it's just not organized or thorough enough.  I'm thinking of giving Kelbyone a try for a few months.  There are several courses they have on offer in the $10/month membership that I am interested in.


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## SquarePeg (Mar 13, 2018)

@dunfly   Also check the CL "live" schedule - you may be able to preview or watch parts of some of the courses that you're interested in for free and then decide from there.  One weekend a few months ago I was home sick and watched an entire on air CL class in one sitting.


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## vintagesnaps (Mar 13, 2018)

When I've looked at Creative Live I got the impression that it was beginner/intermediate level. Whatever I looked at wasn't all that impressive to me, but then again, I'd only looked at so much of it and have been a photographer for 30+ years so it didn't seem that interesting or challenging to me. But I did look at that 2 minute video preview on Annie Leibovitz and got at least one enlightening moment out of it already (when she talked about editing for the light in a photo).

Spell check doesn't seem to like any way you spell her name...

Maybe master class is a misnomer; it seems to be more 'classes by masters' in their fields rather than teaching mastery of a subject. I don't know that they've all taught classes before or how good the courses would be, but I did see some on writing that looked interesting so I'm thinking about it. If nothing else you'd probably never otherwise have the opportunity to learn from them.

And - it's a real business with an actual office and actual board members etc. and actually exists on planet earth. That's more than I can say about some of what's out there that wants your money/credit card info.


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## SquarePeg (Mar 13, 2018)

If I were into making movies, I would be all over that Ron Howard master class on directing.


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## Derrel (Mar 13, 2018)

vintagesnaps said:


> When I've looked at Creative Live I got the impression that it was beginner/intermediate level. Whatever I looked at wasn't all that impressive to me, but then again, I'd only looked at so much of it and have been a photographer for 30+ years so it didn't seem that interesting or challenging to me. But I did look at that 2 minute video preview on Annie Leibovitz and got at least one enlightening moment out of it already (when she talked about editing for the light in a photo).
> 
> Spell check doesn't seem to like any way you spell her name...
> 
> ...



Wow....so,so well-written. This was/is my experience as well. I've been involved in photography since the mid-1970's. I've read the entire Time-Life series of Photography books. I own a 20-some volume Encyclopedia of Photography. I've read 20 or so of the 32 Hedgecoe how-to books. I've studied photography at the junior high and university levels, as well as in community college. I've worked as a studio shooter 5 days a week, eight hours a day. I've shot for multiple newspapers, from junior high, to high school, to the University of Oregon's Daily Emerald, to community weekly newspapers in my region. I've shot some commercial photos and editorial pics that have appeared in national magazines. To me, the Creative Live classes are,in the main, aimed at beginners or intermediates, but there are some neat things in that CL has a lot of new equipment (Canon radio-triggered speedlights, inexpensive made in China light modifiers, inexpensive triggering systems, Lightroom post work,etc) and products that are very,very current and "new" as far as the photo world goes. I think there's a lot of great how-to stuff on Creative Live. A lot of wonderful material, for sure.

But the way I look at it, one would not pay money to see Annie Liebovitz tell one how to place a main light; that's Studio Photo 101. That's Creative Live's beginner-level stuff. If one wants insight _into the thinking of a 20th century master_ rgarding portraiture and editorial assignment shooting, that's not a Creative Live session, and it sure as heck is NOT aYouTube "tips and tricks" blurb, nor is it an F/stoppers blog post. I think the idea that this is a class taught by a master is the hook.

I love helping people learn about photo-related stuff, but there's only so much nuts-and-bolts stuff one needs to know,and it's fairly easy to get the basics learned, but it takes decades to learn some of the more-intangible, philosophical things about high-end shooting.

If one wants to learn the nuts and bolts stuff, there are plenty of resources; books, blogs, forums, commercial web sites, YouTube,camera clubs,etc.,etc..


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## vintagesnaps (Mar 14, 2018)

I was thinking the same thing Sharon, about taking that Ron Howard class. I took online courses thru Turner Classic Movies and Ball State U. (non credit) and sometimes I'd find something about a film interesting from a photography viewpoint.

Damn Derrel, when you point out all that, makes me realize we're um, not exactly spring chickens?! I haven't read nearly that many Hedgecoe books, I better catch up. I do appreciate the comment, thanks.


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## mrca (Mar 27, 2018)

I took the Annie Leibovitz master class among several others.  It is more about her approach to photography than technical how to.  Did I get a benefit out of it.  Learned a couple of things I had never thought about or tried and have tested them and stored them in my repetoire and will call on it when appropriate.   I was already familiar with Annie's use of light on a stick, but her creative process was enlightening and definitely worth the price of admission.  Oh, she was using a 3' octa in one of the shoots instead of the expected softlighter.  And the guy that runs the French Laundry restaurant in Napa gave me another technique for a french omlet.


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