My Practical Lightroom Video Courses 40% Off
Over at Visual Wilderness, my 3 Practical Lightroom Video Courses are on sale for 40% off. These video courses contain case studies showing how I evaluate an image to decide what adjustments I want to make, and then exactly how I go about processing my images in Lightroom. Note that Volume 1 contains my entire Launch Into Lightroom Video Course.
Practical Lightroom Volume 1 - $29 (normally ($50)
This video course contains:
- my entire Launch Into Lightroom Video Course where you will learn all the essential skills you need to import, organize, develop and export your photos in Lightroom
- 5 case studies showing how I process photos from beginning to end, including:
- How to emphasize the best parts of your photo using white balance, exposure, contrast, tone curves and HSL adjustments
- Make targeted adjustments using graduated filters and adjustment brushes
- Over 3 hours of video content
Practical Lightroom Volume 2 - $29 (normally $50)
This video course contains:
Practical Lightroom Volume 3 - $29 (normally $50)
This video course contains:
- 7 more case studies showing photo processing from beginning to end, including:
- Cleaning up any unwanted elements in a photo using the spot removal tool
- Using the radial filter tool to draw the eye into the frame
- How to emphasize colours and textures
- Using split toning to make subtle to dramatic changes in the colour scheme
- Blending exposures using Lightroom, Photoshop, and other tools like Photomatix
- 1.8 hours of video content
The Practical Lightroom Black Friday Deals are valid from November 23 - 26, 2018.
There are lots of deals out there this weekend, but I only promote products I know, love, and actually use myself.
Luminar + Aurora HDR Bundle - $119 (normally $168)
If you don’t own either of these incredible products yet, now is the perfect time since you can pick up both for only $119.
More information on these products is below. (Note there is no additional coupon code available for this offer.)
Luminar Only - $49 (with coupon code MCKINNELL)
Luminar is my favourite software program for adding the final touches to my images. For Black Friday, the price is the same, but there is an awesome collection of bonuses! Plus, if you purchase Luminar now, you will get the next upgrade that contains digital asset management (Libraries) for free.
Black Friday Bonuses:
- 1 year of free SmugMug Portfolio Plan ($180)
- Viewbug: 3-month Pro membership ($42)
- KelbyOne: 2-month Pro membership ($40)
- Daniel Kordan: Awesome Landscapes Tutorial ($29)
- …and more!
See my full review and video demonstration of Luminar.
Make sure you enter the coupon code MCKINNELL at the bottom of the checkout page to get the additional $10 off.
Aurora Only - $89 (with coupon code MCKINNELL)
Making HDR images is fun again with the natural look you can achieve with Aurora. As with Luminar, the price is the same for Black Friday, but it comes with an amazing pack of bonuses.
Black Friday Bonuses:
- 1 year of free SmugMug Portfolio plan ($180)
- 3 months of free Stuck in Customs Passport membership ($30)
See my full review and video demonstration of Aurora.
Make sure you enter the coupon code MCKINNELL at the bottom of the checkout page to get the additional $10 off.
Topaz Labs Plugins - 25% Off
If you've been following Topaz at all, you might be wondering why I'm not promoting their Topaz Studio Pro Adjustment Bundle, or their AI Bundle. The reason is, I'm just not that impressed. Sorry!
However, I still love the Topaz Plugins, especially the ones that offer super cool effects that you just don't see anywhere else. If you've never owned a Topaz Plugin, you might want to start with Topaz Adjust since you get a bit of everything. Otherwise, these are my favourites right now.
Read my review of Topaz Impression (for absolutely gorgeous painterly effects)
Read my review of Topaz Texture Effects (for adding textures to images)
Read my review of Topaz Restyle (the easiest way to dramatically alter the colour and style)
Now the other thing is that they are slowly moving all the plugins to work inside their free "Topaz Studio". Impression and Texture Effects are inside the Studio now. Adjust and Restyle are not. It doesn't really matter though, it's just a bit confusing to find things on their website. But it's really worth it!! If you follow the links to my reviews above, you will find direct links to the products on those pages.
Of course, if you are interested in the Pro Adjustments or AI Bundle, they are available here. But just for the record, it is the Topaz Plugins I am recommending. You can use them on their own, or as plugins with Lightroom or Photoshop (including Photoshop Elements).
Contrastly Lightroom Preset Bundles - 50% Off
I admit it. I own a lot of Lightroom Presets. I think I'm addicted. I like them for two reasons: they give me new ideas on how an image could look, and I can deconstruct the preset and figure out how they were made which helps me learn little tricks in Lightroom.
Out of all the presets I have, my all time favourite is the Contrastly Complete Lightroom & ACR Presets Bundle which contains 1,300 presets! I know that sounds like a lot, but it includes all 4 of their collections (which you can buy separately if you want, they are on sale here):
- Core Collection $29 (normally $59)
- Analog Collection $29 (normally $59)
- FX Collection $21 (normally $49)
- Seasons & Events Collection $21 (normally $49)
The Complete Lightroom & ACR Presets Bundle is now $49 (normally $99).
SmugMug Annual Plan - 40% Off
I host my photography portfolio on SmugMug and I love it because it is so easy to upload photos directly from Lightroom. Also, they are hooked in with Bay Photo, which makes the most beautiful prints and they drop ship directly to your customers. There are lots of different themes for your site, you can sell your photos, and get unlimited storage space.
SmugMug has 4 different plans depending on what your needs are:
- Basic is $30 (normally $50)
- Power $40 (normally $70)
- Portfolio (which is what I have) is $110 (normally $180)
- Pro is $215 (normally $360)
Before you jump on board here though, make sure you take a closer look above at the bonuses being offered for Luminar and Aurora! They both include one year of SmugMug Portfolio Plan for free!! So you might be better off buying one of those.
Creative Live - up to 60% Off
Here are some of my favourite courses on Creative Live (these are courses I own, have watched, and recommend):
- The Outdoor Photography Experience by Chris Burkard $39 (normally $99)
- Create Art Through Photography by Art Wolfe $39 (normally $99)
- Fine Art Photography by Brooke Shaden $39 (normally $99)
- The Art of Seeing by Frans Lanting $39 (normally $99)
- The Power of Happiness by Vanessa Van Edwards $59 (normally $149) - not photography related, but I loved this course!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I thank you for supporting me by using my links. Every little bit helps to get me another mile down the road.
*This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase, I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Read my disclosure.
Hello Anne, Thank you for the heads up on the Great Deals for Black Friday. I did take advantage of the LUMINAR 3 with your coupon code. Thank you again,
Deborah Hinter, Dusty Road Photos
Hello Anne,
These deals all look great. But I have one question that’s been in my mind. I haven’t postprocessed much with LR (5) but I’m wondering if any of your special software deals sub for LR or are a decent alternative to LR. I’m trying to avoid paying monthly pmts right now. If none of these would do the same job as LR, what would be a good alternative or is LR 5 ok to use?
Regards and happy holidays,
Janet O
Hi Janet,
Honestly, I don’t really think that anything substitutes for Lightroom right now because LR has all the image organization features plus basic raw development. Having said that, Luminar is coming out with “libraries” in the next release and if you were to purchase Luminar now, you would get that release as a free update. And it’s only $49. On the other hand, Luminar Libraries is an unproven product so far. I personally love Luminar, and it does have raw processing now. So it may be a good alternative for you. But I can’t comment on the image management feature since I haven’t tried it yet. I will be doing a review when it comes out, but until then … who knows.
If you want to stick with LR5, that’s perfectly okay! It works. You will be able to continue working with it until either you buy a new camera (which wont be supported in LR5) or you need to update the operating system on your computer for some other reason. What usually happens to people is they buy a new camera, so they need to update LR, but they can’t update LR until they update their operating system, but they can’t update their operating system because their computer is too old and doesn’t have enough power. That’s when you need a new computer! I always used to wait until I had this scenario to buy a new computer and update everything!! It isn’t necessary to update all your stuff every time a new version comes out.
I hope I haven’t complicated things further. You mentioned you hadn’t done a lot of processing in LR, so maybe switching to Luminar might be just the thing for you. At $49 it’s hard to go wrong and then you’ll be able to try out the libraries feature when it comes out (which will be weeks away). You can always pick up the trial version and see if you like it first. You can get a trial here: https://annemckinnell.com/luminartrial