Phototactic Price and 60-Day Money Back Guarantee for the Online Course

Phototactic costs $297, paid once. That price covers all 8 modules and all six bonuses. Checkout runs through ThriveCart.

The sales page puts a list value on each part.

List values are our own estimate, not a price anyone has paid. The number that matters is $297.

The sales page calls it the 60 day "Creative miracle" guarantee. The promise is simple: it either works a creative miracle in your images, in as little as 10 days, or you get your money back.

In the sales page's own terms:

1. Buy Phototactic and use the material.
2. If you don't think it's worth at least five times what you paid, click the "contact us" tab any time in the next 60 days.
3. You get every dime back, as fast as humanly possible.

That's the whole policy. The sales page lists no other conditions. If you have a question about a refund, contact us.

"In as little as 10 days" describes how quickly the method can change how you see. It is not a promise of a result by a date. Your photos depend on how much you practice.

Phototactic is a set of short videos, 3 to 5 minutes each. You get immediate access, and you can stream them online or download the .mp4 files to your phone, tablet or computer. You go at your own pace.

There are 8 modules:

• Installing picture patterns, and the Eye, Heart and Mind of the photographer
• Intent, the one word that separates memorable images from forgettable ones
• Composition keys, including the 8 arrangement principles
• Emotion, and how to make images people remember
• Priming the mind for images
• Cheat sheets for every module, plus an "Image Quest" sheet for your phone
• Editing and the "wow" factor
• Fearless street photography, handling fear with reframing

Each module comes with a cheat sheet and email exercises you can put into practice right away. Think of the exercises as assignments you give yourself on your next walk through your own neighbourhood. Nobody grades them.

Phototactic is built for self-directed learning, and it is designed to help you master composition and capture images on purpose. It aims to build your photography skills and your creative eye, so you notice images in everyday life, from candid moments to everyday moments most people walk past. The goal is authentic pictures that look like yours, not visually loud copies of what everyone else shoots. It doesn't try to teach you the camera first, but if you are a beginner and M mode is still unfamiliar, Bonus 2 covers camera settings like aperture and shutter speed and how to control light. Bonus 1 follows me shooting from morning to night, including low light, and then shows how I cull and sequence the images. That part helps with visual storytelling and when you put a photography portfolio together. Bonus 3 draws lessons from 7 famous paintings, including a simple trick for portrait photography.

The six bonuses are in the table above. For a module by module look, with the downsides, read my Phototactic review. To try the method first, take the free sample lesson.

Phototactic is taught by two photographers. I'm Olivier Duong, a graphic designer turned professional photographer. My work has been featured in newspapers and on sites like HuffPost, and the method opened doors for printing my work, and I've written close to 100 articles about photography on Inspired Eye.

Don Springer has 50 years in photography. He was the protege of Ding McNulty, a photography curator, and his work has been collected by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He also met and shot with Garry Winogrand, one of the best known photographers of the New York streets, and had long conversations with Minor White. Bonus 6 is a two hour interview about what he learned from them.

Neither of us is a certified educator, and Phototactic makes no claim to be accredited.

Know this before you pay.

• No feedback on your photos. Nobody reviews your pictures. Bonus 5 lets you watch 10 images critiqued, but they are images chosen for the course, not yours.
• No community. There's no forum and no live Q&A.
• No live teaching. The shooting demonstration is recorded.
• No certificate. It's for your photography, not your CV.
• No gear or legal advice. Phototactic works with any camera and doesn't cover the law. For those, see the best camera for street photography and is street photography legal.

If feedback from an instructor is what you need, an in-person street photography workshop or a mentor is a better fit.

A workshop and an online course do different jobs. Pick the one that fits how you want to learn.

A workshop gives you a Saturday morning photo walk next to someone who can explore a street with you and point at what you missed. An online course gives you a method you can rewatch until it sticks. Many photographers do both over the years.

What both share: you only improve by going out and photographing people and places, again and again. As the sales page puts it, nothing is more important to a street photographer than the decisive moment, the idea Henri Cartier-Bresson made famous.

It's more than some online courses and less than most in-person workshops. Magnum Learn's street photography course costs $99, and there are good free options on YouTube. A street photography workshop, say a weekend in Venice or on the streets of London, usually costs more once you add tuition and travel, though it gives you an instructor who looks at your work. My guide to the best street photography courses has what you need to know to compare them, from free YouTube channels to workshops with renowned photographers.

The real competitor is usually gear. A Reddit user put the feeling well: "Why so hard to invest money in something you really want to do?" Another admitted: "I have been telling myself this story that if I buy a Sony A7V with a 24-105mm f/4 lens ... It will motivate me to go out." A new lens changes your photos a little. Learning to see changes every photo you take after that.

That is the trade the guarantee covers. You spend $297, use the material, and if it doesn't change how you see, you ask for the money back. For a wider look at the question, read is a street photography course worth it.

Phototactic suits you if you want to learn on your own schedule and take better photos without waiting for a workshop date. It works for a beginner who has just picked up a camera and for a photographer with years behind them who feels stuck. It fits people who shoot close to home and want to explore their own streets with fresh eyes, and anyone who wants to work towards a body of work they are proud of.

It doesn't suit you if you want someone to review your photographic work, or if you want a group to shoot with. It also won't help you with the business side. There's nothing on selling prints, getting an exhibition or growing an audience.

Street photography is a form of photography that rewards patience. Phototactic gives you a method and the imagery to learn from, with the focus on creativity and your personal vision rather than rules. The practice is yours.

These are real testimonials from the sales page, quoted as written.

• "By far the biggest benefit of this course is learning how to SEE and evaluate the different scenes because many photographers can't see the images that are right in front of them." Gian Maagad
• "I am an experienced photographer. So I was in doubt if the course would still enrich my photography. But after I started I became very enthousiastic." Ferdi Norten
• "I had been quite unsure about whether to enrol or not. I am glad I did because the course did make me feel inspired." Sven Petersen
• "The way to approach this course is different and brings concepts unknown to me, which until now, I had not found in books or in many other courses (face-to-face and online) I have done with reputed photographers." Jose Manuel

Checkout is on ThriveCart. You pay $297 once and get access straight away.

Get Phototactic for $297 with the 60 day guarantee

Want the full picture first? The street photography course page has every module, bonus and testimonial.