Help needed quick...

Kizzie

Kizzie

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Kizzie
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Hiya Guys..

I joined this site a few weeks ago as I am hoping to get on a photography course and learn all there is to know. So far I have been browsing and not really talking. But now I need some help...


I was trying to get on a BTEC National Diploma course but it is full up but then got told as I am over 18 that I should try to get on the HND course instead. The whole course sounds great and its just what I want but I have to ring back tomorrow to speak to the tutor and I need to be able to show him I understand photography enough to start on his course a little late...

But I dont really know anything.. I just play around and see what results I get. My Dad taught me some stuff but not really anything I could use to blag my way onto this course. I am sat online trying to find sites that will tell me stuff but nothing seems to be sinking in sadly.

I really want to get on this course even though it means my other half spending £1250 on the course and then having to buy me a DSLR too.

So please if anyone could help me with things I should know about photography I would be so so so grateful.

Thank you in advance.

Kizz
 
do you know about aperture, controls depth of field ( how much of the background is blurry. The lower the aperture as in 2.8 the more blurred the background and shutter speed which is realted to aperature.
 
see my Dad mentioned it.. but it was years ago so its not right at the front of my memory. I know that the speed of the film and the shutter has an effect on the photo and that....

Yes I hold my hands up Im rubbish.. I just normally have this ability to pick things up quickly and blag my way through them quite well which is why I want to jump into the course but maybe with this Im jumping too far....

Hmmm..

Can u tell me about Aperture and that?? plz.
 
InaGlo said:
Kizzie ... see if this helps any :)
Click to expand...

An excellent Linky Glo ... :clap:

Great for beginners and refreshers Kizzie ... :thumbs: ... spend some time playing with the settings and sliders and check out the results on the sample picture each time and it should give you enough of an insight to enable a bluffer's blag ... :D



:p
 
So the link is helping.. but can I ask ... (as I only have a Pentax ME Super to play with) will I get to see the effects on the screen on a DSLR as I am taking the photo or do I have to guess like I do on my camera and then find out afterwards?

I get that the amount of light and shutter speeds affects the exposure now, I think I did all along but I have made myself so nervous about this that I cant remember much my Dad taught me.

It doesnt help either that I have no DSLR to play with and I have been ill this last week so havent even been out playing with my SLR like I wanted to to see how good I was or wasnt.
 
Kizzie,
Print out the link,read it a couple of times,take it with you at least the tutor will see you have done some research....then blag?:rules:
Good luck!

digipix
 
i'd be asking why do you want to do a course?
what do you expect to gain from a course, that some well placed searches and questions around here or interweb in general added to good old experience wont get you..
thats a lotta cash - think of the glass you could buy plus a good book instead :D

just my twopennorth
 
Hi Andy

I want to do the course as I want to look back and say I did it and I achieved something through it. And also so that it will help me for a new career. At the minute because I dont have specific qualifications it is hindering me getting a job and as I want a new career I might as well get the HND and then Degree so I do have the Qualifications in it and have a better knowledge and chance when it comes to looking for jobs.

That and I do love learning in that kind of environment. Just wish I had known before I quit my A Levels that this was the career line I wanted to go down as I wouldnt have wasted my time between then and now! Opps.
 
Hi
Good luck getting on to the course and on the course.

I’m sure you know the course by now but it’s split into six mandatory sections (with another ten possible depending on the college and its staff’s ability).
1. Professional Studies
2. Photographic Technique
3. Computers in Photography
4. Visual Language in Photography
5. Critical Study
6. Business Practice.

If you know how many of the additional sections the college in question offers I would suggest something like “I’d really like to study with your department because of its excellent reputation and the fact you offer x, y and z in addition to the six mandatory fields”. Academics love this kind of thing as they don’t get much external recognition in their rarefied atmosphere.

I think playing up an understanding of visual language would be smart as it’s a “soft” subject so there are no wrong points of view but you might want to look up the syllabus online before hand just to be sure.

If you have used any studio lighting or been published anywhere (even the local parish mag) then play on that experience. Some simple Photographic technique you could mention in passing might include:-

Control of depth of field
The smaller the aperture (bigger the f number) the more depth of field you get. A near focus point results in less depth of field for a given lens and aperture.
The longer the lens the less DoF you get.

Control of movement
Faster shutter speed equals less subject blur. For sport you would want a fast speed, for pictorial use with a moving subject such as water in a landscape a slower shutter speed (on a tripod) would blur the water movement in the image.

Fill in flash
Use an electronic flash to “fill in” shadows in a subject. If the mother of the bride has a hat on, on a sunny day her face will be in shadow, turn on the flash to fill the shadow over her face in. When the flash light is equal in exposure terms to the day light this is a 1:1 (one to one) fill light ratio i.e the natural light aperture is say f8 and the flash light aperture for the flash to subject distance is also f8 this is 1:1 fill. Mostly you would use less flash 1:2 where the flash exposure should be f5.6 but you shoot at f8 for the natural light as this will blend the two light sources more naturally.

Studio flash
Works much as fill light above but with the “main light” taking the roll of the sun. You could have a main light with a big soft box giving side lighting at f11 and a hair light accentuating erm… well the hair (obviously) at f8. The most popular type of studio lighting currently in use is high key. With a white background illuminated evenly (usually with two flash heads) you light the subject with a third one a stop lower than the background in order that the background comes out pure white. i.e the background exposure should be f16 but the subject light is set to work at f11. You shoot at f11 and the subject is correct and the background very white.
This style, which is very old (see Bailey at al), has been made commercially popular by the growing franchise of Venture portrait studios and there blanket advertising. Knowing this shows some business savvy as well.

I’ve no idea what cortical study is but you might want to throw into the conversation reference to some compos ional techniques used elsewhere.
Lowery paintings often have a V shape in the composition to lead the eye.
Mondrian is famous for simple block paintings (as previously used on studio line hair care products). His idea was to ultra simplify an image to just a few blocks; this could be likened to printing an image of just four or six pixels. Top right blue for sky, bottom right green for grass, top left silver for a glass building bottom left dark green for the grass in the shadow of the building, but with the blocks uneven perhaps the two left ones only a third of the canvas and the bottom only a third up providing a focal point a third up and in. This would be using the “rule of thirds”
Turner is obviously famous for blurry pictures (and porn images latter in life!) but earlier in his career he painted “Dartmouth and the river Dart” this shows the river moving away into the distance and objects close to the front are crisp, in the mid ground they are blurry and in the background they are very soft, this shows an observation of air Bourne water vapour which is what makes landscapes blurry as you pass into the distance.

You should not be expected to be an expert during a telephone interview or else there is no point in doing the course, so don’t worry too much about small technical errors. Just relax and win the guy over with enthusiasm and the force of your personality.
Feel free to use any of the pointers above but don’t try to be too cleaver as you could get caught out. I should perhaps point out I’m a professional salesman so it’s second nature to “blag” stuff or “wing it” but for the armature please stay within your comfort zone!

Once again good luck.
 
You might ba able to blag your way on but will you be able to keep up with the rest of the class that do understand how to use there camera. I think you would be better off getting your foundations right first then build up to the higher level. Only my opinion :thumbs:
Bob
 
It sounds like a recipe for disaster to me Kizzie. Starting the course late and not knowing the basics you should is just going to put you under undue pressure to catch up.

My advice is take your time and start the course on a firmer footing. ;)
 
Thanks Ilikebowens thats a great help. Yes I guess you are right I shouldnt really have to know too much.

I get your point Bob but as I will have time to make sure my foundations are right after the phonecall and during the course I feel that I should be able to get myself to the same abilities as the other students quite quickly. The course is only 3 days a week so I have the other 4 days to cover myself by studying what I missed and reading up on photography. I of course may not even be able to blag it but you only live once so I will try my best and see where I come out.

I am now trying to remember everything my Dad taught me about my current camera so I at least know all that as I dont have access to an DSLR right now.

If anyone else is in the same boat as me I also found this website which is helping aswell as InaGlo's one did. http://www.photonhead.com/

Thanks for the help so far guys.
 
Save your partner £1250 on the course and another £1000 or so on a dSLR with lenses, and save yourself a lot of wasted time, aggravation, and frustration:
buy a book on the basics of photography for 10 bucks and study it until you really understand it. Prove that to yourself in practice with your current gear.
Then you're ready to start that course and get an expensive dSLR system. Not before.

Have fun!
 
IF you are so determined to go on the course ask if you can pay on a modular basis rather than upfront. that way if it all goes pearshaped, for whatever reason, you have laid out a minimal ammount. Just an aside, have you thought of studying for the City and Guilds qualification? having done several HND's (none in Photography), it really is a high level to aim for especially when you hardly know the basics (no offence meant).

Lol
 
Heres my humble advice,
You obviously like photography, get your other half to buy you a DSLR and put your course back a year. Go to a local college and enrole in a basic photography course, these are usually about 12 weeks long and very cheap. If at the end you still want to do the HND then go for it, at least you will have the basic foundations to build upon. If you decide its not really the path you want to follow, it will make for a great hobby.
Good luck.
Dean:)
 
Dino f said:
Heres my humble advice,
You obviously like photography, get your other half to buy you a DSLR and put your course back a year. Go to a local college and enrole in a basic photography course, these are usually about 12 weeks long and very cheap. If at the end you still want to do the HND then go for it, at least you will have the basic foundations to build upon. If you decide its not really the path you want to follow, it will make for a great hobby.
Good luck.
Dean:)
Click to expand...

Just scrolling down to see if anyone was offering the above advice before I posted the same, Dino you beat me to it.

On a similar line and maybe a bit of topic, myself and my better half once enrolled for a course in learning Japanese, we only knew a few words at the time. On the first night we sat down with all the other students, laid out our pencils and notebooks, the other students appear to better equipped than us,tutor walks in and immediately starts talking in Japanese:eek:
What followed was one of the most embarrassing times of my life as it soon became obvious that we had enrolled on the wrong course. The tutor pointed us in the right direction for the starter course. Can I speak japanese fluently ? no.it is one of the most difficult languages to master!.

So the point I am making is you may find yourself in an embarrassing situation when you realise the rest of the students are already streets ahead of you.
 
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