Hello my friends

I think this journal won't make me look that friendly but I need to write it once so that I could redirect people there.
To sum things up:

1. Don't ask for step by step instructions

I have first to tell you how grateful I am for all the feedback you gave me on my work. As a way to thank you (besides answering all your comments), I upload tutorials from time to time. To me, these tutorials should help you learn tools, techniques and approaches, rather than being step by step instructions to create an image.

It takes analysis capabilities to understand WHY people do things in step by step instructions, whereas I try on the other hand to explain you things from a broader point of view. To me, this is much more valuable.

2. I can help you, but I'm not google

Seeing my tutorials (I guess), people often contact me. The problem is that they seem to want answers to vague questions such as "Hey I'm beginning photography, could you tell me how to create cool photos like yours?" or "What do you think of this camera?".

I'm amazed that people send me notes like that rather than googling. "photography" would directly lead to photo.net (www.photo.net), one of the best resource out there. Similarly, "digital camera" heads to dpreview.com (www.dpreview.com)

Both are great sites and provide much more information than I can give.

3. Stop asking me how I create an image and how I get those colors

I've already wrote tutorials on that. Giving you my settings would be pointless: You don't need my settings, as they will never apply to anything than a specific image. What you need is to learn to SEE things, to KNOW what you want to do and then to pick the right TECHNIQUES to create it. Furthermore, my adjustments are the consequence of years of practice, I don't see how I would explain this to you without spending hours on that.

I've covered the basic things that you should know and even the ones you won't find easily on the internet at this [link]

If you don't know what you want to do BEFORE retouching an image, there are few chances you can create something good with it besides trial and error.

4. LEARN BY YOURSELF

I've learned photography by myself and really, believe me, I wasn't born with that in my blood. I didn't asked for help by sending messages to other photographers, but I've read feedback and comments, books, articles, etc.

Don't be lazy! Nothing will come up as a ten points step by step list or as a cool and easy tutorial. Yes, it takes effort, yes, it takes time but you are the only person responsible for learning.

The more you learn, the easier it will be to learn new things too!

5. Resources

- Photoshop for photographers is the best book available on Photoshop IMHO and the only one I own [link]

- Learn photo from the ground up: [link]

- For all your questions and reviews of digital cameras: [link]


Conclusion

I hope that these resources will help you. I know I might sound a little pretentious when writing this, so please, forgive me and try to understand that I often get help requests from people.

Again, thank you very much for your constant support on my work. I fully understand how lucky I am to get it

Have a nice upcoming week!