Is NAPP worth it?

Saw Scott Shelby's pitch for NAAP and wondering since I just got CS4, is joining NAPP worth it?

Jannie wrote in post #9549209
Saw Scott Shelby's pitch for NAAP and wondering since I just got CS4, is joining NAAP worth it?

IMO YES.

I'm also new to CS and have CS4. The price of admission is well worth it.
Plus all the discounts you get by being a NAPP member will pay for itself when you buy other software and plug-in's.
They have tons of tutorial for CS4 that have helped me. I've only been a member for 3 weeks, but I can tell you I was lost with CS4 before joining NAPP. I now have some plug-in's and other software that has paid for my membership 1.5 X and growing. You wont be disappointed IMO.

Jannie wrote in post #9549209
is joining NAAP worth it?

I've been a member for about 3 years now and I think it's worth it. Some good tutorials for new users and oldies alike. The magazine is decent. I've probably saved enough from the discounts to pay the membership each year.

The tutorials are helpful and definitely worth it in my opinion. Compared to lynda.com, I really have to say that lynda is better, but it's also priced accordingly.

NAAP great for photoshop and I think lightroom too. Great discounts. Very good especially for the price of membership.

I think it's worth it but I take advantage of the discounts to cover the cost, especially the BH free shipping..

I don't know about NAAP but NAPP is a great deal! I've been a member for many years and the discounts alone will pay off your membership each and every year, just on the B&H shipping discount alone. If you do join go to Photoshop World, well worth every penny!

I haven't managed to make it to a Photoshop world yet but I can vouch for the membership itself. Like many others here, I have paid for my membership many times over in the savings via their various discounts. There tutorials are good and they have a weekly podcast (you can get through itunes even if you don't belong) which has some good tutorials but their constant humor is a little over the top for me. I guess it depends on what you are looking to get out of something like this. I would suggest trying it for a year, it is only 100.00.

They also have a help desk that you can email questions to and the couple of times that I used this service I had an answer back in mere minutes.

The magazine alone is worth the cost of membership.

Go for it. I just re-upped for years 4 & 5. Not often you pay admission for a product like this and find so many ways to get more value than you paid for.

Man I guess I'm missing some of the great stuff that people have been raving about. I just paid for a 2 year membership and have only found about 3 of the tutorials out of about 240 that I have browsed so far the vast majority are really cheesey effects like how to make a torn edge, or "faded color" (which is a gradient selective color). Then there's a bit of a problem for me in that some of the videos have really vague or completely non-descriptive titles such as I'm seeing right now "5 tips for camera raw" - how am I supposed to know if I need to even look at that tutorial or not? There's nothing to tell me what the tips will be helping with.

Then there's the fact that some of the content you can find exactly the same thing elsewhere for free. Such as Scott Kelby's lighting kit suggestions on his blog which is stickied in the lighting forum section here on POTN are listed as 6 different tutorials. There could be others too, but I couldn't be sure - but those stood out to me.

I'm kind of irked that I paid the extra money for the second year even at a discount at this point. Since it's called National Association for Photoshop PROFESSIONALS I thought there would be some way more advanced and actual professional techniques being taught - not stuff for scrapbooking mommies.

FELINEDEBOURGES wrote in post #9561443
Man I guess I'm missing some of the great stuff that people have been raving about. I just paid for a 2 year membership and have only found about 3 of the tutorials out of about 240 that I have browsed so far the vast majority are really cheesey effects like how to make a torn edge, or "faded color" (which is a gradient selective color). Then there's a bit of a problem for me in that some of the videos have really vague or completely non-descriptive titles such as I'm seeing right now "5 tips for camera raw" - how am I supposed to know if I need to even look at that tutorial or not? There's nothing to tell me what the tips will be helping with.

Then there's the fact that some of the content you can find exactly the same thing elsewhere for free. Such as Scott Kelby's lighting kit suggestions on his blog which is stickied in the lighting forum section here on POTN are listed as 6 different tutorials. There could be others too, but I couldn't be sure - but those stood out to me.

I'm kind of irked that I paid the extra money for the second year even at a discount at this point. Since it's called National Association for Photoshop PROFESSIONALS I thought there would be some way more advanced and actual professional techniques being taught - not stuff for scrapbooking mommies.

Maybe you would have better luck using the Help section to find what you want.

drdiesel1 wrote in post #9561737
Maybe you would have better luck using the Help section to find what you want.

Well no, that's not really the solution, for me anyhow - I need to be able to browse what is available and then choose from what I see, not tell them what I'm looking to learn specifically and have them tell me where to find a specific tutorial. Yes, maybe I'll use that tool when I'm looking for something precise, but for now I'm looking to soak up everything that can help me beyond my current abilities in post-processing. It's kind of one of those situations of "you don't know what you don't know" - know what I mean??

I have browsed the vast majority of the pages in the "photography" and "retouching" tabs and am still getting around to more areas, but many of them don't apply to a photographer's use of photoshop - which I understand! I don't expect it all to be geared towards photographers since many other professionals use photoshop for lots of different applications. But for me, and from what I've seen, as I mentioned it mostly junky tips and amateur effects being taught.

FELINEDEBOURGES wrote in post #9561971
Well no, that's not really the solution, for me anyhow - I need to be able to browse what is available and then choose from what I see, not tell them what I'm looking to learn specifically and have them tell me where to find a specific tutorial. Yes, maybe I'll use that tool when I'm looking for something precise, but for now I'm looking to soak up everything that can help me beyond my current abilities in post-processing. It's kind of one of those situations of "you don't know what you don't know" - know what I mean??

I have browsed the vast majority of the pages in the "photography" and "retouching" tabs and am still getting around to more areas, but many of them don't apply to a photographer's use of photoshop - which I understand! I don't expect it all to be geared towards photographers since many other professionals use photoshop for lots of different applications. But for me, and from what I've seen, as I mentioned it mostly junky tips and amateur effects being taught.

What about the photoshop for beginners section.

FELINEDEBOURGES wrote in post #9561443
Man I guess I'm missing some of the great stuff that people have been raving about. I just paid for a 2 year membership and have only found about 3 of the tutorials out of about 240 that I have browsed so far the vast majority are really cheesey effects like how to make a torn edge, or "faded color" (which is a gradient selective color). Then there's a bit of a problem for me in that some of the videos have really vague or completely non-descriptive titles such as I'm seeing right now "5 tips for camera raw" - how am I supposed to know if I need to even look at that tutorial or not? There's nothing to tell me what the tips will be helping with.

Then there's the fact that some of the content you can find exactly the same thing elsewhere for free. Such as Scott Kelby's lighting kit suggestions on his blog which is stickied in the lighting forum section here on POTN are listed as 6 different tutorials. There could be others too, but I couldn't be sure - but those stood out to me.

I'm kind of irked that I paid the extra money for the second year even at a discount at this point. Since it's called National Association for Photoshop PROFESSIONALS I thought there would be some way more advanced and actual professional techniques being taught - not stuff for scrapbooking mommies.

Perhaps you are looking for tutorials that lead you by the hand and give you step by step to the end product. I have always found that the tutorials on here were well done and the content had meaning. I always looked at tutorials as a way of learning how a specific tool will react under different circumstances. You speak of the torn edge, this will cover the use of several different tools and in my way of thinking that is what these do. You should be able to take away the concepts in these and apply them to your own real life situations. I will agree that if you look at some of the tutorials in isolation on what it was written for that they could be interpreted as cheesy. I fell you have to look beyond that as they are giving your circumstantial situations on how to use the tool. Can they write a tutorial for every possible situation, I think not, we need to use our own brain power to use the base that these give you.

How long of a title do you want. Titles, imo, give you a basis for what is inside. They provide way more options than simply a title. You can search on text or video as well as keywording. I have seen plenty of authors of paid content put out the odd video tutorial for free. It is called marketing.

I will say that am not a fan of the nonstop constant humor that goes into their weekly podcast (which is free via itunes). I don't mind a little but sometimes it takes away from the subject at hand.

Not everyone is going to be happy with them (obviously). I suppose it is how you choose to interpret the tutorials, literally or as a starting point for using the tool. I have found that there are some very detailed tutorials that are far from the "mommy scrapbooking" concept you allude to.

ssim wrote in post #9564718
Perhaps you are looking for tutorials that lead you by the hand and give you step by step to the end product. I have always found that the tutorials on here were well done and the content had meaning. I always looked at tutorials as a way of learning how a specific tool will react under different circumstances. You speak of the torn edge, this will cover the use of several different tools and in my way of thinking that is what these do. You should be able to take away the concepts in these and apply them to your own real life situations. I will agree that if you look at some of the tutorials in isolation on what it was written for that they could be interpreted as cheesy. I fell you have to look beyond that as they are giving your circumstantial situations on how to use the tool. Can they write a tutorial for every possible situation, I think not, we need to use our own brain power to use the base that these give you.

How long of a title do you want. Titles, imo, give you a basis for what is inside. They provide way more options than simply a title. You can search on text or video as well as keywording. I have seen plenty of authors of paid content put out the odd video tutorial for free. It is called marketing.
....

Not everyone is going to be happy with them (obviously). I suppose it is how you choose to interpret the tutorials, literally or as a starting point for using the tool. I have found that there are some very detailed tutorials that are far from the "mommy scrapbooking" concept you allude to.

Well I know a lot of basics, I've taken digital editing classes at my college and really wasn't looking for more of the same. I was expecting much more - such as what you would get from here: http://www.digitalphot​oshopretouching.com/or​der.htm

Obviously my expectations were just much different than what is actually there. People talk about NAPP memberships as if they are the holy grail, and I just don't see it and I won't be one of those people who will continue to subscribe after this initial period that I already purchased.