Our friends at 5DayDeal have put together their “The Complete Photography Bundle” for the 6th straight year. This is their “classic” bundle of eBooks, videos, and software focused on making you a better photographer. It’s available for only $89 for five days only — the deal expires on October 16th at 3 PM ET, and this bundle will never be offered again!
There are two big reasons that this bundle is instantly a great deal: Skylum Luminar 2018 and Photolemur 3, two very popular “automatic” photo-editing tools. These are “lifetime” licenses (not subscription-based), and separately purchased they are $114, which is more than the price of this bundle. If you’re tired of subscription photo-editing software, give Luminar and Photolemur a try. We spent some time watching, reading, and reviewing the rest of the bundle; our thoughts below.
Some of our favorites included in the basic $89 bundle (10% goes to charity):
Skylum’s Luminar 2018 and Photolemur 3 are included. This is not subscription software — it will not expire. These are extremely popular alternatives to Lightroom and PhotoShop, supporting “one-click” photo-editing with AI, as well as Layers and other spot manipulation. Owning these versions should also get you access to discounted future upgrades of the software.
- Introductory photography classes from both Zack Arias (“Photo 101”) and Trey Ratcliff (“Beginning Photography”). Zack and Trey are always entertaining to watch and they have a friendly approach to explaning photography.
- Photo-editing tutorials and classes of all levels, from Serge Ramelli (“Adobe Lightroom Masterclass”), Blake Rudis (“Adobe Photoshop Foundations”), Andrew S. Gibson (“The Art of Black and White in Lightroom and Beyond”), and Christopher O’Donnell (“Color Grading + Creating the Atmosphere in Photoshop”).
- Very detailed video tutorials on specific topics, such as bridal photography, lighting for model shoots, zero-gravity strobe photography, and one especially fascinating (but not very useful) tutorial on how to create photos imitating Rembrandt portraits. Overall, not a big chance of being useful, but fascinating to explore different facets of photography. Alex Koloskov’s rig for “zero-gravity photography” is inspiring, but definitely not practical.
- Many PhotoShop and Lightroom presets, actions, and textures. We really liked Design Aglow‘s “Keepsake Art Promo Kit”, a set of stock frames and displays that are great for creating photography marketing or demos.
- Instructional videos for photography and videography with drones.
- Useful and beautiful eBooks on astrophotography, portrait shooting, Lightroom, and more. We found the astrophotography eBook especially stunning.
You can also optionally add a “charity match” bundle for $19 — which increases the amount that goes to some great charities. Our favorite items in the “charity match” include:
- A very comprehensive video tutorial from Fstoppers.com on “How To Become A Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer”. Over eight chapters, each over an hour long. This one looks comprehensive, but we admit we haven’t gone through all of it yet.
- In “Something from Nothing”, Ryan Dyar shows off some pretty extreme PhotoShop skills in heavily manipulating an average landscape image into a veritable work of art. Christopher O’Donnell takes us through a full workflow in “Start To Finish Workflow: Potts Harbor & Castle Hill”.
- More Photoshop actions, Lightroom presets, and textures, from PHLEARN, Nicole S. Young, Brian Matiash, and Jake Olson.
Finally, a “Pro” add-on bundle for $29 offers these goodies:
- The LawTog includes two very handy General and Limited Model Release form templates, to avoid any legal obstacles when shooting models.
- Zach & Jody Gray‘s eCourse on “Mastering Weddings”, Digital Photography School‘s eBook set on “How to Make Money Through Your Photography”, and Frederick Van Johnson‘s “The Creative Solopreneur” are all well crafted and help an aspiring amateur photographer go pro. I especially enjoyed the interviews in the eBook series, which gave a sense of how to break into the market.
- I didn’t find the Logo course or the pre-written newsletters particularly helpful or interesting.
The Luminar and Photolemur alone make a purchase of “The Complete Photography Bundle” worthwhile at $89. If you have the software already, the bundle is still worth purchasing if one or two of the items are interesting, and perhaps something unexpected in the bundle will inspire you. As this is a huge bundle — 41 items this year — surely something will pique your interest. As before, 10% goes to charities so you are also supporting very worthwhile causes. Check out the bundle before it’s gone!
