Photography courses/education

[jazmakio1000]

I'm thinking of doing a photography course, and was wondering a few things.

how important do you feel education in photography is?
what would you look for in a photography course?
what aspects of photography do you feel are key (and would have to be covered in a course)?
how many of you would be interested in doing a course online or in a school of some sort?
have out done a photography course (if so to what level), and what did you get out of it/what would you change?

cheers

 

[JonMackew]

This is also something I'm thinking about... a photography qualification.

Since I got my first SLR a year ago I've done a one day begginers class and a one day intermediate class with Jessops and I found them both very useful. Helped me understand my camera more, but also more about photography itself. Now a have a basic understanding, professional courses is something I'm looking in to.

I think to start to answer your questions, it all depends at what stage you're at and what you want to acheive.

I did the courses to get a basic understanding, and in my opinion they were really good and served their purpose, but I'm not going to stop there. I know there is much more out there that I don't understand and ways to improve, so would be looking at proper part-time courses run by schools or by the PI.

I can see you're new on this forum (like me) but what stage are you at? (beginners/intermediate/a-level/specialism)

 

[PhotoEntrepreneu]

Hi Jon

I am all for training (I offer it myself..), but you need to ask yourself why you want it and what do you want to achieve. Do you want to start your own portrait business or just learn for yourself, so you can creates something great to hang on the wall and share with friends?

There are so many aspects of photography I think that learning the technical capabilities of a camera is something that you can learn online while backing that up with practice. Doing a course is only good if you back it up with putting the advice into work. Going to a weekend course, will give you a "great kick up the bum" if you need pushing. If however you are already self motivated go for an online course.

A start up photography course (not mine, that's all about making money with photography) should at the very least teach you about, shutter speeds, apertures, iso and lenses. Like film making, all these you could learn in a day but spend a life time to master.

Its your inspiration that you need to nurture as a photographer.

Olly

 

[Tunbridge]

I recently did a one day beginners course and found it very useful to get the basics right, some of it I already knew, some of it I thought I did but didn't understand it fully. I certainly got plenty out of it and was glad I did it.

From a personnel point of view I find it much easier to me taught rather than teach myself but thats just me. It was very useful to be able to ask questions and discuss the results of what you are doing as it was happening.

I have no interest in gaining a qualification, it was just to help me with my hobby as I never intend to do photography as a job, for this it suited perfectly.