Qualifications

  • Thread starter Thread starter Animal
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this is what i have been thinking over the last few months... anything i try and apply for says needs experience but i think if you can provide a good portfolio and know what you are talking about you wouldnt really need anything but on the other hand a qualification shows you know atleast what your talking about :)
 
so is it worth going down the line of the City and Guilds or going full time in college?
 
RosiePrecious said:
a qualification shows you know atleast what your talking about :)
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photography is not about talking though - it's about the ability to take great pictures - a good portfolio would win hands down most times.
 
I know a freelance that works for our local paper - has no qualifications at all, even at basic school level - he lets his work do the talking... Just wanting to know myself to see if on the courses might bring out more info that I don't know or practical that might help etc...
 
personaly i honestly think no1 reallly needs a qualification to prove they can take photos like awp said let your photos do the speaking... thats what im doing.. if u know a freelance that has no quals to their name then it should be fine to just carry on how u r... have you asked them for any advice on this subject? :)
 
yeah - they simply said good luck as not sure about the rest of the county but the sw seems to have more photographers than people - lol
 
The qualification in itself doesn't matter much - however, in undertaking a qualification at a proper college / university, you will undergo a significant amount of learning, which will in turn make you a better photographer.

Some people can take great photos by being self-taught, some writers can churn out great novels without ever attending a class - it just depends on where you are. Personally, I always enjoy proper tuition, and have always benefitted from it.

Once you've gained the qualification, your professional worth will entirely be judged on the quality of photos in your portfolio.
 
Photo Plod said:
The qualification in itself doesn't matter much - however, in undertaking a qualification at a proper college / university, you will undergo a significant amount of learning, which will in turn make you a better photographer.

Some people can take great photos by being self-taught, some writers can churn out great novels without ever attending a class - it just depends on where you are. Personally, I always enjoy proper tuition, and have always benefitted from it.

Once you've gained the qualification, your professional worth will entirely be judged on the quality of photos in your portfolio.
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thanks.. will continue to look...
 
that was nice of them lol... well i think you could work from your photos... i love your website :)
 
if you wanna go pro, management / business quals might be a good shout

the time at uni is great for portfolio expansion and those are the skills you will need to make it (assuming you can take the pictures)
 
And it depends what kind of photography you want to be doing!

Some do require a degree and others don't, they rely more heavily on the portfolio. The other thing about doing some sort of study that nobody has mentioned is that you get to make a lot of friends and contacts within various industries. Those can be valuable to you setting out.
 
true - but you couldn't do it along side your normal working day, so you would loose your current income.. um I cannot see the Mrs agreeing to that... may look at evening or online stuff.. failing that just keep sending work out as freelance to people - thanks for all your help people :)

I would join the local camera club but when the average age is 70 and one evening they spent over 1hrs talking about clouds - yawn!
 
If you want to make a career out of photography you are probably going to need to be self employed. THere are staff photography jobs out there but not many.

Being self employed can be tough. You have to know how to promote your business to the right people, manage your business, deal with people who are paying you money etc
Oh yea, and you need to be a competant photographer too - although IMO the competant photographer part is a fairly small fraction of running a sucessful photography business.


Animal said:
I would join the local camera club but when the average age is 70 and one evening they spent over 1hrs talking about clouds - yawn!
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Tell me about it! Could have been a page out of the few sessionas I attended at my local club. :lol:
 
I think this is why a few years ago I said to myself get a job and use photography as a hobby, if you make some money then you make some money - at least you have an income

thanks everyone for your help
 
Photo Plod said:
The qualification in itself doesn't matter much - however, in undertaking a qualification at a proper college / university, you will undergo a significant amount of learning, which will in turn make you a better photographer.

Some people can take great photos by being self-taught, some writers can churn out great novels without ever attending a class - it just depends on where you are. Personally, I always enjoy proper tuition, and have always benefitted from it.

Once you've gained the qualification, your professional worth will entirely be judged on the quality of photos in your portfolio.
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This did not prove to be the case in Channel 4's " Picture This" where several photography grad's competed over several weeks, provided much mirth here at their apparent incompetence with all things photographic.
 
Slipper-one said:
This did not prove to be the case in Channel 4's " Picture This" where several photography grad's competed over several weeks, provided much mirth here at their apparent incompetence with all things photographic.
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because we all know channel 4 documentaries contain perfect truth, and all students use their time wisely and embrace the course using it to better themselves
 
BouncyMelons said:
The other thing about doing some sort of study that nobody has mentioned is that you get to make a lot of friends and contacts within various industries. Those can be valuable to you setting out.
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I'm in my 2nd yr of a foundation degree in photography & the above is VERY true.
I've learned so much this past 18 months & it's been good fun along with a lot of hard work :gag:
 
Having done an HNC and a degree course, I'd say the greatest benefits aren't so much the qualifications themselves as the controlled learning structure, the contacts you make while at college/Uni and the tempo of producing work to deadline.
Most courses will challenge you technically and aesthetically and hopefully push you down avenues you'd not considered.
And two years living, eating and breathing photography with a bunch of like-minded individuals can never be a bad thing.
 
It depends on what type of Photography you want to do. I studied commercial photography ( a long time ago ) and that gave me a very good grounding in a wide range of techniques. I've even got a qualification on a bit of paper (No idea where its now).

Sometimes though practical experience ( which I was fortunate in getting) helps a lot.

To many people the term Photographer covers all forms of photogrphy, from wedding, portraits, press, commercial. Each though is a specialist area with it's own specific skill sets. ( I'd make a lousy wedding photographer).

If you want to take your interest further, decide on what aspect particularly interests you. Then you can decide what path you need to take.
 
Slipper-one said:
This did not prove to be the case in Channel 4's " Picture This" where several photography grad's competed over several weeks, provided much mirth here at their apparent incompetence with all things photographic.
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And yet the winner and runner up are both photography course graduates I believe.

EDIT
If you want to see what the runner up is doing these days just glance at the cover of Charlie Brooker's latest collection.
 
If you can take good photographs already, take a business course. Or at least take a photography course that has a business module in. Some people take great images but don't have a clue how to run a business or make money from their work. Also make sure the course you take involves you getting out in the real world, work experience etc.
 
I am looking at a HND/HNC because it can lead to careers in Forensic photography etc, if I was to go pro on my own i'd probably not bother but it's always good to have something to fall back on :)
 
There are two benefits of a qualification; the qualification itself and how much value potential employers see in it, and what you learn through doing the qualification.

I did a HND and a BA Hons and both taught me a hell of a lot. However, I've learned more actually working at a tog for the past decade but then again, I wouldn't have got the job in the first place without the qualifications.

I was fortunate that digital wasn't a big thing when i did my courses back in 1997 - 2000 so we had to learn by real trial and error; if you shot a film and it was a duffer you made sure the same mistake wasn't repeated again because it cost you chemicals and film. However, it's certainly much more enjoyable these days to see your shots there and then using digital.

If it's professional expertise you're after then like what keiranmcmanus says is quite apt; a business course will teach you more about being a professional photographer than a photography course will.

I'd like to think that i left university with a fair amount of skills and imagination but that alone won't make you successful.... guys who were pretty bad at it who I was on the course with went on to making a lot of money from it because they had business heads....
 
i am looking at going to college too... do u think it would be worth me doing an AS 1 yr course?
 
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