Teaching a photography class

[visualpoetry]

I've been having alot of people ask me to 'mentor' them - to take them on a shoot and give pointers.. answer lighting questions and photoshop questions. I love helping - but it's become pretty time consuming.

What, if any (other than skill), are the requirements to put on a photography class and charge a class fee? Do you need to be certified in any way?

(Yes, I have a tax ID number and plan to pay uncle sam. I know everyone inquires about that so I thought I'd say it up front.)

Anyone know anything about this? Thanks in advance! :mrgreen:

 

[ann]

are you going to be on your own or teaching at a school?
All will depend on what your background needs to be.

 

[visualpoetry]

On my own.

 

[Overread]

I think you will have to decide what sort of class you are going to teach - a lecture classroom based one or a workshop based one out in the field (or in the studio).

That will determin a lot - a classroom based lesson will be more theory than practical application and people would probably expect you to have a teaching qualification at least to setup the class - though it does have the advantage that you could work through something like a night/evening class centre and also your not dependant on weather or lighting as you are in an outside workshop (or on providing a studio to work in).

As photography is an art you can trust in your website and portfolio to attract eager students and a photography qualification is not as essentail as it would be if you were teaching something like maths or physics

That said make sure you are prepared - have notes handy for your refrence for when you are asked questions and also outline clearly what the lesson is going to be teaching people

 

[visualpoetry]

overread, excellent advise.

my thoughts were to do more of a workshop type for beginners on-location. i hated the actual school enviroment, myself. i want hands-on experience and the air open for questions and comments.

i would most definitly go in prepared, no doubt.

 

[Overread]

if your doing that kind of work then keep the class sizes down - 10-15 at the most - and then I would be somewhere where they can wander off or do their own thing a bit so as to keep occupied whislt your dealing with them separatly.
Part of it is going to depend on the students as well = spend the first part of the session getting an idea of who they are, what they are after and what they know - as well as what kit they have. Idealy try to get as much of this done before the lesson as you can - that way you can get things started off sooner and also be prepared for the students that have different needs/expectations of what to get