Any photography class instructors out there?

[SanDiegoPhotographer]

Hi,

I am a new photography instructor for San Diego Photography Classes and I was curious if any of you veterans had some tips or suggestions for me starting out. I have only taught one class and I got a really good response, but I know I can improve.

Do you have any tips?

 

[skieur]

The basic starting point is to find out the background of your students. Do they have any photo experience at all? Do any of them have an art background? Are any of their parents involved in photography? Do any of them have any tech interests?

From there, you need to narrow your focus, since you can certainly not cover every aspect of photography in detail in one course. I divided it in two: the tech side and the artistic side, with theory followed by practice.

Complicating it though is that you also need to teach your students to SEE photographically and notice variations in colour, detail, sharpness, lighting etc, so they need experience in comparing shots of the same subject.

Try to compress areas into basic concepts such as in portraiture: Flatter your subject, or in event or sports photography: Planning your shots and choosing your location.

skieur