Hi, my name is Rich Harrington and I am the publisher of Photofocus.

I wanted to take a quick moment to tell you about something we’re up to.  At Photofocus, our goal has been to educate and inspire photographers of all skill levels.  We love photography, and for more than 18 years we’ve published free articles and podcasts to help you make better photos.

Now it’s time for us to take that learning to another level.  You might have noticed ads on our site for ThinkTAP Learn.  ThinkTAP is my company and also owns Photofocus.  It’s a great group of people: artists, photographers, designers, and storytellers.  They just want to help you enjoy being creative and get even better results.

There are two ways you’ll be able to access classes:

  • Premium classes: Looking to learn from top experts like Joe McNally?  We’ll sell standalone courses that you can watch on-demand from our site.
  • Learning library: Our learning library is expected to offer more than 50 classes by the end of the year.  You’ll be able to access essential courses for shooting, software, and business skills for one flat price with an annual subscription.  We’ll have more details on pricing soon.

For now… how about some totally free classes?

These are full-length classes, absolutely free.  We want you to get a real taste of what we’re working on.  All you need to do is sign up with a valid email address in order to access the catalog.  We’ll message you from time to time about new classes as well as when the library launches.  We may send you some free photo goodies too like eBooks and presets.

Learn Portrait Photography: The Basics with Levi Sim

This course is free until 6/1/17.

In this course, you’ll learn simple techniques for creating great portraits. Join photographer Levi Sim as he shows you how to find and make great light with basic tools, and demonstrates the easiest methods for helping people look their best while remaining comfortable. You’ll learn how to use reflectors, diffusers, and simple strobe setups to maximize existing light, and adjust your camera settings to get excellent raw results. Start watching and you’ll master how to take better portraits with simple tools in almost all shooting situations.

Sports Portraits: Essentials with Vanelli

This course is free until 7/1/17.

How do you create sports portraits that capture the prowess and competitive spirits of athletes, young and old? Robert Vanelli shows how to light, shoot, and edit sports portraits with an “edgy” look.  You’ll learn to use a portable studio setup that produces dramatic harsh lighting that can go right to the practice field. You’ll also learn to stylize a shoot, integrating props like gear and team uniforms. He also shares tips for eliciting emotion from the athlete, and case studies from his experiences shooting cross-country runners and lacrosse players. The course wraps up with some post-processing techniques for portraits and action shots, as well as a trick for compositing images of individual players into a team shot with Lightroom and Photoshop.

After years of publishing training on other websites, I’m proud to be able to bring these courses to you directly.