Photography Course ?

ernie90 · Jan 5, 2010

Does anyone have any advice on a good intro course please ?

bigtwinky · Jan 5, 2010

can you be a bit more vague?

are you looking for classroom, online, dvd, book,...?

I can give you a good intro course, but do you want to travel to Montreal?

ernie90 · Jan 5, 2010

Thanks for the reply, I was trying to ask which type of course would best suit a novice,on-line, 1to 1, etc.
Montreal a little far but thanks for the offer ;-)

Tappout · Jan 5, 2010

I would recommend checking your local community college. They are usually very cost reasonable and have several options for schedules and classes.

Pugs · Jan 5, 2010

For a novice, one-on-one is generally the most productive, but that's asking a lot of someone's time. If you can find a mentor willing to do that, go for it. Otherwise, I'd check out a class at a community college as mentioned. One of the benefits of a class environment is hearing C&C from a lot of different points of view, even if they are all beginners (other than the instructor, I hope). Also, I think you'll find that giving C&C really helps to solidify concepts in your head and define YOUR preferences and style.

Online would be a waste of time in my opinion.

Bambi · Jan 5, 2010

check out local photography stores-they often have something or know where they are.

I would LOVE to travel to Montreal to take your course Bigtwinky (can we do St. Catherine's street???) :lmao:

In terms of online you can do a search on youtube and get all kinds of free tips and techniques. There are also websites with podcasts that are excellent. There are also blogs. I am not sure of the rules regarding linking to other sites on this forum so I won't. But you can P.M me if you like.

bigtwinky · Jan 5, 2010

Everyone has a different way of learning. I actually seem to enjoy typically structured courses, teacher in front, etc.

Others, like my wife, excell when they are in a more mentor/tutor kind of learning system.

Getting private courses from a good photographer who can teach is your best bet, but the most expensive.

Camera stores often offer courses for novices, but I find that these are packed with people who really are just there to get quick info on how to shoot masterpieces with their P&S cameras.

I would lean towards going to a college locally and seeing what they offer. I went to a university here in Montreal who offered a Photography diploma at night. 1 course = 4 hours per week for 10 weeks. And there are 9 courses to be taken. It does cost me a few hundred per course, but I'm not only learning with hands on, I'm also making great contacts with other photographers and such as we are usually the same 10-12 people we see in the courses

PatrickHMS · Jan 5, 2010

Haven't been to one in awhile but I always learned a lot whenever I attended a "Nikon School"

MosaicW · Jan 5, 2010

Take a look at Photo Workshops; New York, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco | Digital Photo Academy

They offer 1 day classes (usually a Saturday) in various cities and are taught by local photographers there. It's sponsored by Panasonic Lumix but you can attend no matter what camera brand you own. They're pretty reasonable... I took a 2 hour composition class and a 4 hour intermediate class back-to-back for $100 total. The classes are small-- like 6 people-- which means there's plenty of time for you to ask all the questions you want, no matter how stupid :drool:

(the most useful part!). I just signed up for the all-day advanced class which takes you on a photo shoot then back to the studio for critique so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm also looking into Nikon school, since that's what I use-
Nikon School - Photography Education
Looks like a huge-class setting but probably still worth it since it'd be so specific to my camera.

Hope this helps... Good luck!!! :smileys:

fiveoboy01 · Jan 5, 2010

With all the books available and all the info online, I don't see the need to take a course.

A year ago I knew nothing about photography and I've learned a TON since then by reading some books and using various photography forums. Why not save the $ you'd use on a class by teaching yourself?

Pugs · Jan 5, 2010

fiveoboy01 said:
With all the books available and all the info online, I don't see the need to take a course.

A year ago I knew nothing about photography and I've learned a TON since then by reading some books and using various photography forums. Why not save the $ you'd use on a class by teaching yourself?

Different learning styles? Benefit of quick feedback?

fiveoboy01 · Jan 5, 2010

Books let you learn at your own pace. One can get instantaneous feedback on the web.

Pugs · Jan 5, 2010

fiveoboy01 said:
Books let you learn at your own pace. One can get instantaneous feedback on the web.

If you're capable of learning from books. And instantaneous feedback from the web is suspect.

The different learning styles bit is the biggest part. I know brilliant people who cannot learn from books. Einstein was learning disabled. Stevie Ray Vaughan couldn't read music.

People's brains are wired differently. If you can learn from books, great! Someone else who may be twice the photographer than either of us are may not be able to.

fiveoboy01 · Jan 5, 2010

I don't disagree, I'm just offering alternatives. Many people mistakenly think the basics of photography are some sort of magic, and they need to take a college course to learn them.