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I've only seen Disc 4 (Basics), which is where it has been recommended that a lighting beginner start. About half of disc 4 is strobe lighting, the other half outdoor lighting. All of it is concerned with portrait photography. There are occasional tips concerning what modelling agencies are looking for and other aspects of working with a model.
The lighting setups are built up step by step, showing the setup in a diagram and results of each step... a photo of the raw main light, photo after diffuser is inserted, photo after the reflector, etc. This disc, at least, assumes very little knowledge on the part of the viewer. The use of a flag to block light from the strobe from hitting the lens is explained more than once, for instance.
Much of the studio work is done with a single strobe... and an inexpensive portable flash just a step up from a powerful hotshoe flash. (I'm told that the Metz strobe used here is about one stop more powerful than my Sunpak 383, which has a GN of 120. That's one thing that's oddly missing in the video, is nothing about the strobe other than its brand name is mentioned.) All of the strobe techniques are very adaptable to off-camera hot-shoe flashes that can be bought used for $40 to $100.
As noted, these are VHS transfers from the 80's. The material is slightly dated (no mention of digital), but the basic techniques haven't changed... light is still light, and a cheap PVC-and-fabric panel is still cheap.
Some of it is repetitive (lighting control involves five values, the diffuse area, the shadow area, the specular highlight, and the boundaries between the diffuse and shadow and the diffuse and specular... you'll hear this at the beginning of each segment, but you'll _remember_ it by the end. It seems that each segment must have been an independent VHS tape in original release or something, because they stand alone and repeat information.
The only thing I actually disliked was that during the shooting scenes, the voice-over is done by a narrator and not Collins himself. When Collins speaks, we just get to see his talking head in a studio interview format... so it doesn't really feel like Collins is doing the teaching.
All-in-all, the introductory lessons in disc 4 are solid and very helpful to the beginning photographer on a budget. The content is top-notch, and I only rate the video a 4 because the videos are old and don't take advantage of the video presentation that modern tools would have provided.
This is the first issue of a video magazine, and for a first issue, I'm very impressed with the production quality. But the content is only so-so. Still, not bad for a first issue.
Some of the content (two of the three interviews at the end) could have been entirely audio, so didn't benefit from video.
The table-of-contents is broken up into many parts, but there are really only four segments... the shoot in Death Valley, the camera review, shooting in the zoo, and interviews with Alain Briot.
Nearly a third of the running time is devoted to the camera review. The zoo segment is very short, but has useful shooting tips.
Both the desert segment and the Briot interview were interesting and worth the time to watch, but didn't bring much in the way of useful information for someone looking to improve their photography.
