Photography Course

I'm down South. :(

Also I am not really a complete “noob”, I have done the walking around thing for years and also done the OU Photography course.

I am looking at "Maybe" wanting to do something with a bit more substance where I actually get a bit of paper at the end that says "Yes he does know what he is doing" type thing. LOL :)

Pipe dreams and all that. :(
 
There will be more advanced CreativeSpark courses in coming months, but being down south doesn't help that!

Just FWIW a bit of paper means jack squat in this industry...trust me, I'm the guy teaching the CreativeSpark workshops ;)
 
I've always had the impression that college/uni courses in photography can only teach you so much. You might learn the fundamentals, but you can't be taught when to take a photo :)
 
The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. The vast majority of photographers have no formal training.

For the price of that course, I'd personally just get a new lens, or put it towards something else more practical.

If you'd feel you'd learn well from doing it, though, and if you need a bit of a push to take your photography a bit more seriously, then go for it. It's your money.
 
The benefit of courses is it is regimented it gives you a direction and a schedule.

You have a specific theme and a timescale to complete it so you stick to it and do the required work without putting it off or doing other things, or losing direction on what you should be photographing etc.

I think if you can get guides online and stick to a schedule yourself then you don't need a course and you can churn out more shots and improve outside of their guidelines.

I went on a one day course, and while it was interesting it wasn't worth the money.
 
If the discipline is attractive, you could achieve the same thing by setting up a schedule and some challenges yourself (perhaps with the help of others), and then spend the money on something shiny! :D
 
I think it depends on where you feel you are with your photography. It sounds to me as though you know your way around a camera so i don't know how useful the course you mentioned would be to you. If there is an area of your photography you'd like to improve on it may be worth looking at one day/weekend courses that specialise in what you want to improve instead -which will also work out much cheaper! :)

I also like the previous suggestions of saving your money and buying equipment instead! :D
 
I wonder how many people on here rubbishing the idea have ever done a course? A good tutor will be able to tell you half a dozen things about composition I would bet 90% of people on here don't know.

That's dependent on getting the right course obviously but that's partly the point, there are lots of options out there.

Buying something shiny is pretty unlikely to improve your photography in the the short term for most people. It's something new to learn and that'll be unique to whatever you've bought, learning how to use a 35mm prime best won't help when you go to use a 50 or 85, learning how to use a flash won't improve your landscape photography. If you want to spend money on learning specifically then try and spend it on learning something which is as close as possible to universally useful (composition, exposure, post processing,etc...)

Personally I think you've done well to avoid the obvious trap of 'oh lets buy some fancy new thing' and even thought about spending it on a course....
 
Have a look here http://www.ephotozine.com/article/ePHOTOzine-goes-on-the-Photography-Institute-course-13819 for a review. I think overall they've been quite kind to it. Nothing you couldn't learn from the web for free. The only thing it does is perhaps bolster your self discipline (having parted with your hard earned) to go out and do stuff you may not otherwise do - you could easily set yourself similar projects.

I have actually seen 'pro' wedding photographers advertising the fact they have a 'diploma' from these guys.

A while ago I booked the School of Photographic Imaging Diploma in Digital Photography Course, set up by Amateur Photographer and endorsed by Nikon. It was beyond basic and probbaly only fully any use if you didn't know which end of a camera was which. Sent it back under there retrurns policy and they refunded no quibble at all.

I have no doubt they have some value but £500? No.
 
Over at TP, there was a post about this course and it got a bit derailed and discussion moved onto this one: Photography course. There are numerous people updating the thread with their views and opinions on it, and to me it sounds quite good, so much so that I'm looking at doing it :). I do believe that from the right course, you can learn a lot more than just going out and taking photos on your own, especially if you have a good professional tutor providing the feedback. It does come down to what type of learner you are, but for me, having a structured course is more benfecial than reading random tutorials and going out taking photos of whatever.
 
bigredshark said:
And??

That's like saying 'you fancy a three course meal? a pizza would be cheaper'

Of course it would be cheaper, how could a mass produced DVD tutorial fail to be cheaper than a course delivered by an actual human being with, you know, feedback...
Click to expand...

If the guy want's to learn the basic's (or more advanced stuff), he'l probably get more from a DVD produced by a talented photographer, that has been carefully planned and edited, than a course with a photography teacher who's probably not as good at photography.

Those who can 'do', those who can't 'teach'.
 
Ejizz said:
Those who can 'do', those who can't 'teach'.
Click to expand...

What rubbish. Those who have a passion for passing on their skills to others teach, maybe you've had a bad experience, no need to generalise quite so wildly.

That's before you get onto the complete lack of feedback from even the best planned DVD, if you don't get one of the concepts, that's it. If you don't get something on a course, you ask for it be explained again. There are good and bad ones, this is best addressed by avoiding the bad ones, it's not that hard.

I wasn't actually saying the DVDs were worthless, just that they're completely different to a course. If you think they're comparable (that is, a couple of hours watching a DVD produced to cater to as wide an audience as possible compared to spending a day with a good photographer, asking questions and discussing technique) then I'm not going to bother arguing with you.
 
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