Newbie: Photography Course Advice

Rainnieclaire

Rainnieclaire

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Lorraine
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Hello,

I joined TP a few hours ago and would love some advice. I currently work in the TV industry and would love to move into Portrait/ Wedding Photography in the future. I have the advantage of being a shift worker and out of every 14 days I work 7 and also have the opportunity to continue to freelance in TV whilst training/ starting out in the photography industr. Becoming a photographer is not a decision I have taken lightly. Within my college and University media courses I studied photography (a very small part of my university degree). I thought TV was where I wanted to go and as a result work for a very well known TV broadcaster. My heart lies in photography and as I have the time to pursue this within my full time job I am going to give it my all.
I have started to design and code my portfolio website and will then write to wedding and portrait photographers to try and get some work experience. I am very serious about this and whilst I do know my way around my camera I am a novice, yes I have photographed family wedding and events but it would be an insult to any professional to claim I am anything beyond a beginner. Being 28, it's 7 years since I've been at University and feel I would greatly benefit from some formal training. I've looked at various courses and am terrified of making a foolish decision when choosing a course. Has anyone got an advice / had any experiences of the following courses?
Barrett & Coe Wedding / Portrait Course
Aspire A - Z Course
Britian's best Photo Wedding/ Photography Course


I am worried the courses will be too much about making money rather than producing beautiful photographs. Yes I know marketing is important but word of mouth is so very powerful. My Dad owned his own Carpentry business and only had to letter drop one in the whole 10 years he ran his business and he got most of his business from recommendations of other clients.
I also want to be at a higher standard before I do photography work experience as it's important for me that the photographer I shadow has trust in my abilities. I would be after all potentially representing them and their brand.
Also any tips on getting Photography work experience would be greatly appreciate. :)

So sorry for the long post, I write like I talk! Thank you for your time.
 
Just the thought of that has totally brightened up my day :) Thank you for the advice Merc.
I'm from Woking in Surrey but often go for trips down to South Devon so would be more than willing to travel. I love canon and currently own 50mm 1.4, 24-70L lens and a 300D (Yes I know the 300D is really old but putting some top quality glass on it makes a massive difference to the kit lens. Also I'm doing loads of overtime 8 12 hour night shift in a row to help pay for a 5D Mkii).
 
just joined this forum too, and saw your post
I had the same issue and did a bit of research, well, a bit more
I tried a couple of courses and they didn't work for me, I wasted a bit of money but this is how you gain experience in life, isn't it :) in the end I took a 2 days class with a guy who is really crazy but I learnt a lot

if you really want to learn proper photography especially portrait have a look at his website how did I choose this? I found one of his projects online

please take my word and go for this, you wont regret, the guy is crazily passionate and he really gives proper lessons about photography as art

I will post some images soon
Jon

Rainnieclaire said:
Hello,

I joined TP a few hours ago and would love some advice. I currently work in the TV industry and would love to move into Portrait/ Wedding Photography in the future. I have the advantage of being a shift worker and out of every 14 days I work 7 and also have the opportunity to continue to freelance in TV whilst training/ starting out in the photography industr. Becoming a photographer is not a decision I have taken lightly. Within my college and University media courses I studied photography (a very small part of my university degree). I thought TV was where I wanted to go and as a result work for a very well known TV broadcaster. My heart lies in photography and as I have the time to pursue this within my full time job I am going to give it my all.
I have started to design and code my portfolio website and will then write to wedding and portrait photographers to try and get some work experience. I am very serious about this and whilst I do know my way around my camera I am a novice, yes I have photographed family wedding and events but it would be an insult to any professional to claim I am anything beyond a beginner. Being 28, it's 7 years since I've been at University and feel I would greatly benefit from some formal training. I've looked at various courses and am terrified of making a foolish decision when choosing a course. Has anyone got an advice / had any experiences of the following courses?
Barrett & Coe Wedding / Portrait Course
Aspire A - Z Course
Britian's best Photo Wedding/ Photography Course


I am worried the courses will be too much about making money rather than producing beautiful photographs. Yes I know marketing is important but word of mouth is so very powerful. My Dad owned his own Carpentry business and only had to letter drop one in the whole 10 years he ran his business and he got most of his business from recommendations of other clients.
I also want to be at a higher standard before I do photography work experience as it's important for me that the photographer I shadow has trust in my abilities. I would be after all potentially representing them and their brand.
Also any tips on getting Photography work experience would be greatly appreciate. :)

So sorry for the long post, I write like I talk! Thank you for your time.
Click to expand...
 
Oh Jon thank you so much. You know I think I will do that :) I just really want the experience so I can put lovely photos in my portfolio so I can (hopefully) convince pros that I do have a talent and a huge passion for photography, so I can get some experience with them. Unfortunately photos don't prove that you are trustworthy person, who isn't going to take them for all their worth and set up competition.
Anyway thanks you so very much.
I was also thinking of taking up an adult learning course, or will the course above cover it all?:
http://www.racc.ac.uk/course/C00358-121301
Mark, Jon ... anyone got any thoughts? :)
Sorry for all the questions chaps, I feel like a lost puppy in need of guidance!
 
Rainnieclaire said:
Oh Jon thank you so much. You know I think I will do that :) I just really want the experience so I can put lovely photos in my portfolio so I can (hopefully) convince pros that I do have a talent and a huge passion for photography, so I can get some experience with them. Unfortunately photos don't prove that you are trustworthy person, who isn't going to take them for all their worth and set up competition.
Anyway thanks you so very much.
I was also thinking of taking up an adult learning course, or will the course above cover it all?:
http://www.racc.ac.uk/course/C00358-121301
Mark, Jon ... anyone got any thoughts? :)
Sorry for all the questions chaps, I feel like a lost puppy in need of guidance!
Click to expand...

you're welcome, I wouldn't go for the universities and diplomas, I think they are waste of money ad time; if you want to become a photographer you need skills, you need to start to understand what makes a good photograph, in the real life nobody asks for diplomas, people want to see results" powerful images.

but that's me :cuckoo:
 
***Blimey, I'll apologise now for this post turning into a wall of text, I didn't realise it had gotten so long!***

Sorry but I'm just going to wade right in here. But Jon has just joined, has 2 posts (both on this thread) and the first is the blatant promotion of a commercial website selling courses, and how amazing it is. I have never heard of it and I did ALOT of research when looking for tuition. I would take an extremely large dose of salt with that information. It wouldn't be the first time a new account has turned up, raved about how great something is and has turned out to be the site owner trying to drum up business.

There is nothing wrong with distance learning, it all depends on how you want to learn, but do your research and use a well acknowledged course. The same applies to direct learning, go somewhere that according to your research is well established and acknowledged as a valued learning resource.

Degrees are not entirely useless, certain photographic positions demand them, such as the nhs and police forces. You don't need a degree to be a wedding tog or open a studio, so a strong portfolio is better in that respect to gain clients. However, it won't hurt to have a strong portfolio and a degree, it's just something else you can promote yourself with.

You seem to be in a fairly similar position as a poster in the basics section which I did a response to, so as its late I'm just going to copy & paste my response to that thread and maybe you will find some useful nuggets of information amongst the ramblings;

And once you have a portfolio together, just start asking around for experience, you don't get if you don't ask!

------------------------------------------

There's nothing wrong with distance learning, it will make you think more about your photos and give a certain element of structure to your learning. But if you're looking for more direct "how do I do x y & z?" it probably won't be suitable.

Grab some books, two great starter books are;

Understanding exposure by Bryan Peterson
&
The photographers eye by Michael freeman

The first will give you an overview on how to create certain effects using exposure settings such as shutter speed.

The second will give you tips and more in an insight into composition with shapes, angles & colours.

I also like to browse bookshops regularly for books, looking for anything that captures my attention, whether it is a book on a certain technique, a collection of photos on a certain subject or photographer who's work interests me.

Posting images on here will get you good feedback and advice. People won't necessarily give you positive feedback, which is good as far as I'm concerned, you won't learn if people always say "great shot". I always ask for honest opinions and take all comments on board, as people will often point out a downside in an image I hadn't noticed. It is a great way to learn & get feedback.

Always be critical of your own work. Look at your shots and always ask yourself honest questions. What do you like about the image? What don't you like? Why? What caused it? What would fix the issue if you repeated the shot? It doesn't hurt to do the same to other peoples work, asking yourself how you would do it differently.

Spend lots of time looking at other peoples work, see how they do things. Whether it's on here, Flickr or where ever. Don't be afraid to ask people how they've done something if you find an image or effect you particularly like. It is easier to approach people on here in that regard as some Flickr users never reply or use their accounts very rarely. For example, I never knew you could create star flares using a very small aperture, but I asked how it was done and I got a very pleasant response explaining how.

Try new things, experiment, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but at least you learn from it. The tutorial section on here is a useful resource.

I don't know of any direct learning courses in your area, you may want to try a part time college course, so call around, have a look on the Internet and you may find something.

Lastly, only you can tap into and unlock your creative side. Sure, it can be encouraged, nurtured, built upon and refined, but creativity cannot be taught if the spark isn't already there in my opinion.

----------------------------------

Forgot to mention, I looked at Barrett Coe and requested more information from them a while back. They want to sell a franchise and as far as I could tell from the materials they sent me, all of the training is based on the idea that you are going to buy into their franchise. I got put off at this stage as I got the feeling that the training would essentially turn into one huge sales pitch, however if a franchise is possibly your thing it may be worth looking into or if you could find someone to vouch for their training. I didn't seek out independent opinions, I just went with my gut feeling after looking over the materials they sent me.

------------

Forgot another bit, the further you are willing to travel for experience the better. You may be able to find someone who is willing to let you go with them to a weekend wedding and you could make a weekend trip out of it.
 
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