Photography is an art form that requires practice and experience to master. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your craft to the next level, these photographers will give you the best advice on improving your skills.
The photography educators mentioned in this article have specialized their craft in the form of photography such as newborns, portraits, or weddings, and have decades of experience up their sleeves.
If you are into such a niche in photography, you may want to follow such educators very closely and maybe buy their courses to level up your photography game.
Here are the following photography educators along with their backgrounds and areas of specialization:
Sue Bryce
Sue Bryce is an award-winning portrait photographer who has been photographing since the early 1990s. In 2015, she was chosen to represent Canon USA in the Explorers of Light program.
Sue started her own educational platform “The Portrait System” in 2014 where she uses her signature style and technique, which has changed the face of portrait photography, to mentor and teach other photographers internationally how to create their own portrait photography brand.
The website has more than 350+ courses with 550+ hours of educational videos and workshops with different types of content based on posing, lighting, business, marketing, etc.
Vanessa Joy
Vanessa Joy is an award-winning wedding photographer capturing Texas, New Jersey, New York, and destination weddings. With over 20+ years of experience in wedding photography, she is one of the most well know wedding photographers in the photography industry.
Being a canon ambassador, she is mostly known for her work as a speaker at popular photography conventions and platforms such as WPPI, Shutterfest, Creativelive, Youtube, etc, and also hosting some personal workshops.
She also has her own platform called “Breathe your passion” where she offers presets and online courses for photographers on different topics such as Business, sales, marketing, etc.
You can also check out her videos on her youtube channel to learn about Photography for free.
Katelyn James
Katelyn James is an international wedding photographer and educator who empowers photographers to build profitable and purposeful businesses through online courses, presets behind-the-scenes training, and her Youtube Channel:
Katelyn’s educational courses teach various things based on workflow, lighting, poses, etc, and can help you level up your game as a wedding photographer.
Katelyn also has a Youtube Channel where she regularly posts educational content for wedding photographers.
Peter Hurley
Peter Hurley is a New York and Los Angeles-based portrait photographer who is considered an industry leader when it comes to shooting headshots.
Dubbed “the headshot king” by popular photography, Peter has been shooting headshots for more than 10 years and has developed a signature headshot style.
According to Peter’s website, Peter is “best known for the genuine expressions he captures for his executive business portraits and actor’s headshots.”
When it comes to his educational resources, Peter mostly does offline workshops in the USA. You can check all the dates for his workshops on his website Headshotcrew.
Peter also has some free youtube videos where he shares tips on shooting better headshots and a few online courses on Fstoppers and Creativelive that you can buy to learn how to shoot better headshots.
Pye Jirsa
Pye Jirsa is a wedding photographer, founder, and partner of SLR Lounge. He has taught thousands of wedding photographers across the world through his workshops on SLR Lounge.
According to Pye Jirsa, he makes complex topics in photography easy to comprehend and understand through his simple and relatable frameworks.
With more than 10+ years of experience, he teaches technical concepts, business guidance on how to run a profitable business, as well as the creative side of photography.
You can subscribe to his workshops at the SLR Lounge Workshops website.
Ben Hartley
Ben Hartley is a wedding photography coach who hosts one of the most popular wedding photography podcasts “The six-figure photography podcast with Ben Hartley”.
Ben, a photographer himself, is mostly famous for helping photographers grow their businesses to the next level through his course and through his podcast, which teaches photographers how to market their businesses.
According to Ben, in his educational course, you can, “Learn the EXACT client-getting strategies I used to grow my photography business to over $400,000+ in less than three years…”
Check out the reviews on Ben’s website for more details.
Kelly Brown
Kelly Brown is a newborn photography coach who has 20 years of experience in capturing newborn and family photos. If you are into newborn photography, you can learn new skills or sharpen your knowledge from Kelly.
As a mother herself, she started KellyBrownOnline (KBO) education platform where she teaches other photographers about Newborn Photography.
Her course starts at AUD $29/month. KBO is a worldwide community of photographers achieving their goals through education and peer support with more than 450+ step-by-step tutorial videos.
You can check out the videos on Kelly’s Website.
David Hobby
David Hobby is an American photographer and the author of Strobist.com which is considered the best free source for lighting education in photography.
If you want to learn how to master lighting in your photography work, Strobist is the best resource to learn from.
On the site, David has written three in-depth lighting tutorials from basic to advanced, as well as assignments, gears, and books related to lighting for photographers to master their craft.
The blog has helped jumpstart the professional career of many photographers.
Megan Diperio
Megan Diperio is an international award-winning portrait photographer specializing in headshots, and senior and family Portraits with over 20+ years of portrait experience.
She is also the author of the book “She sells” where she teaches you how to evolve your business and grow your profits for any market in today’s economy without feeling salesy.
She has her own educational platform, “Megan DiPiero Coaching” where she teaches portrait photographers how to grow their businesses.
Her online courses include posing, headshot guides as well as Wall Art Revolution workshops.
You can check out all her courses on Megan DiPerio Coaching website.
Jai Long
Jai Long is a business coach for photographers who has been coaching photographers and other creative entrepreneurs on how to grow their businesses since 2015.
Jai is also the founder of Wedding Photography Summit and hosts a podcast called “Make your Break” where every Monday new creatives come to share their industry secrets on his podcast.
Jai has a 12-month online course for wedding photographers and videographers called “Six Figure Business Map” where he teaches how to build a successful six-figure photography business.
The course is currently limited to 300 people, and you can apply for it on the Business Map Waitlist.
Mark Rossetto
Mark Rossetto is an award-winning master photographer based in Australia.
Mark is a photography expert who has coached hundreds of photographers, from beginners to seasoned professionals, in Australia, USA, UK, Europe, and New Zealand on various topics such as marketing your photography business, creating a website, managing a studio, pricing, etc.
Mark provides students with personalized 1:1 coaching, including 8 hours, 4 hours, and a 1-hour Zoom call session, and guides them on their photography business.
Mark also conducts various offline workshops and hosts a popular webinar called “Walk the Talk” where he invites other professional photographers/ suppliers and talks about different business topics such as marketing, pricing guide, or specific business and photography skill set such as SEO, lighting, etc.
Conclusion
These are the 11 best photography educators or mentors that we know will definitely help you step up your game as a photographer.
Let us know if we missed any photography educators that you know of.
If you found this blog useful, make sure to check out our blog on the Best Photography workflow tools that will help you get the best tools for your workflow.
