Are courses/seminars worthwhile for beginners?

Cris_L

Cris_L

Take That's Biggest Fan
Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,923
Name
Cris
Edit My Images
Yes
I've seen loads of adverts for one day seminars such as these www.experience-seminars.co.uk offering everything from absolute beginner to advanced.

Would attending something like this give a beginner a decent learning boost of would the money be better spent elsewhere? Does anyone recomment any particular training?
 
I am also a beginner and have been looking at different options.

I saw a course reccomended in another thread on here at the Open University. It's a ten week course and all online - link here http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/t189.htm

Seems pretty cheap and I think someone mentioned tesco vouchers as a way of getting it cheaper.

As to whether it is worth it or not, I suppose that depends on your preferred way of learning. I think any information we could learn on that course would be freely available right here on TP, but you may benefit from the structured learning and progressing through a course with others?

For me I think that a single day would be way too brief to learn and retain much information but I guess if you combined it with something else it could be pretty useful?

If you do find any other courses I would be interested in taking a look!

Hope this helps in some way
 
Last edited:
I'm a great believer in one day sessions in fact they are my business.
I believe they are a great way of getting things kick started and dealing with issues like setting up and using the camera in the creative modes, shooting basics and introducing post processing options.

One day won't make you a good photographer but it's ability to demistify will give you the confidence to go on courses for your specific interest and learn from the amazing web based resources like this site.

Good luck, John
 
Phil789 said:
I am also a beginner and have been looking at different options.

I saw a course reccomended in another thread on here at the Open University. It's a ten week course and all online - link here http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/t189.htm

Seems pretty cheap and I think someone mentioned tesco vouchers as a way of getting it cheaper.

As to whether it is worth it or not, I suppose that depends on your preferred way of learning. I think any information we could learn on that course would be freely available right here on TP, but you may benefit from the structured learning and progressing through a course with others?

For me I think that a single day would be way too brief to learn and retain much information but I guess if you combined it with something else it could be pretty useful?

If you do find any other courses I would be interested in taking a look!

Hope this helps in some way
Click to expand...

I'll have a look at that open uni course, sounds interesting. One advantage I consider with seminars is having the hands on practical tuition and someone to "see" what you are doing.

Just some of the beginers ones seem a tad too basic, kinda what you would learn from reading the manual!
 
phototuition said:
I'm a great believer in one day sessions in fact they are my business.
I believe they are a great way of getting things kick started and dealing with issues like setting up and using the camera in the creative modes, shooting basics and introducing post processing options.

One day won't make you a good photographer but it's ability to demistify will give you the confidence to go on courses for your specific interest and learn from the amazing web based resources like this site.

Good luck, John
Click to expand...

actually your course seems much better than the ones I had been looking at from experience seminars, i've just got a £35 off voucher from them from when i bought my camera whjich is why I'm consideriug them.
 
Hi I was looking at courses last year and then chose to go on the WHF day, this was before I had even found this forum so booked direct. As well as taking pics of the big cats they also give you great advice about taking photos and using your camera.
 
I set up a photography club as a way of learning in bite-size chunks, as I'm a firm believer that becoming a good photographer is about being able to put into practice your new knowledge and see how it actually works.

A lot of the tuition behind the workshops I organise (I get a pro in to do them) and mini "focus on" sessions (which I run myself) are outdoor based with content broken up into manageable pieces. Take a look if you like.
 
When I started out I did a basic City and Guilds at the local evening college. It's good in that you do a bit each week and have various projects to deliver so you get some focus to your days out with the camera.
 
Whether a course is worthwhile or not depends on 2 things...

1. The person running it. It's worth bearing in mind that not all of the people offering courses are competent, either as photographers or as teachers, and some of them provide training because they can't generate enough work as photographers - ask yourself why...
2. How many other people are taking part. One to one is the ideal, and the more people there are the slower the rate of progress.
 
I went on a course yesterday aimed at beginners, it was thoroughly worth it, no question was classed as stupid all the basic stuff was covered and I at the end of the day I felt confident enough that I had learnt enough to start using the camera in manual mode. So bedtime reading last night was the camera manual that suddenly made sense.

It was actually a free day's course, not sure how much it would have cost but it was well worth it. I have done college courses before and ended up giving up last time as not only did I not seem to be learning anything but just wasnt enjoying it.
 
I have done several of Experience Seminar's courses - albeit not the basic ones as I have been using cameras for many years.

I found them to very informative and a good laugh at the same time. While they may not give the in depth knowledge of an OU course (or just reading books) they do give a very quick start on the subject matter from a standpoint of "I can use this knowledge".
 
lucyloopy said:
I went on a course yesterday aimed at beginners, it was thoroughly worth it, no question was classed as stupid all the basic stuff was covered and I at the end of the day I felt confident enough that I had learnt enough to start using the camera in manual mode. So bedtime reading last night was the camera manual that suddenly made sense.

It was actually a free day's course, not sure how much it would have cost but it was well worth it. I have done college courses before and ended up giving up last time as not only did I not seem to be learning anything but just wasnt enjoying it.
Click to expand...


Who was the course done with? (I ask because we don't live far apart!)

And if you don't mind me asking, how did you get it free? :p
 
Phil789 said:
Who was the course done with? (I ask because we don't live far apart!)

And if you don't mind me asking, how did you get it free? :p
Click to expand...

It was in Petersfield, it was free as he's just starting out giving group courses rather than 1:1 and wanted our feedback. It's a member on here, the company is Shutterbug his member name is Jamieoliverstone, but a good example is I've just looked at the lesson thread that MD has got running and this week it's about Histograms and because of the course I actually understand not only what a histogram is but think I could actually join in with the thread.
 
lucyloopy said:
It was in Petersfield, it was free as he's just starting out giving group courses rather than 1:1 and wanted our feedback. It's a member on here, the company is Shutterbug his member name is Jamieoliverstone, but a good example is I've just looked at the lesson thread that MD has got running and this week it's about Histograms and because of the course I actually understand not only what a histogram is but think I could actually join in with the thread.
Click to expand...

Ah yes I found that thread last night actually but was a bit late! Shame I missed out on it
 
im looking at the ou course as well

Im an ou student at me no and would make a change to do something like this for a while
 
So far I have not been on any courses - I am a "trial and error" learner. This may be a slow method but it does mean I tend to remember things. I also search for information online if I am trying to do something specific that is new to me and I cannot find it here, especially where photoshop is concerned.
 
photo-nattie said:
I set up a photography club as a way of learning in bite-size chunks, as I'm a firm believer that becoming a good photographer is about being able to put into practice your new knowledge and see how it actually works.

A lot of the tuition behind the workshops I organise (I get a pro in to do them) and mini "focus on" sessions (which I run myself) are outdoor based with content broken up into manageable pieces. Take a look if you like.
Click to expand...

That sounds a great idea, unfortunately I'm about 120 miles away from where you meet though!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top