I was participating in a thread on the Digital Photography School forums this morning asking about what formats people prefer for photography tutorials. This is my answer:
The exact presentation depends on the aim of the tutorial. If it seeks to inspire, then lots of excellent pictures are good; if it seeks to educate, it might be better to start with one picture and then explore how it was created (additional shots of the set up and any stages of post-processing would be good supplements).
I don’t like standalone video or powerpoint type tutorials. They demand time to watch and then, if they turned out to be any good, it is hard to follow them. A page of information is much easier – you can skim ahead and then return to concentrate on the details. I think the best place for those media is to supplement one of the other formats – for example, “here is a slideshow of ten pictures taken with this type of lens”, “here is a video which shows me setting up and taking the shot” or “here is a screencast of the simple postprocessing steps outlined, so you can see just quick and easy it is”.
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