Photography lessons

[blackadder]

One can get piano lessons etc, but has anyone heard of someone offering photography lessons? I know there are camera clubs and such like, but I'm just wondering if people offer one to one lessons?

 

[alef]

I think you need to be specific about what you're after. Look around for a photographer whose style and knowledge interests you and ask them for lessons.

 

[jeff_leigh]

There should be an amatuer photography club near you, have a look in your local free paper or try the Library

 

[poet]

Most FE colleges run photography courses, you can do a GCSE in Photography if you like. Almost all camera clubs will do informal teaching as part of their remit.

 

[disco_dave_2000]

I did a City and Guilds last year - bit of a commitment as it's a year long course and you have coursework and a multiple choice exam - but really good if you want hands on teaching and a sound knowledge of the basics

The City and Guilds in photography (6923) and it is made up of three units, choosen by the college / tutor out of 7 in total. "Principles of Photogrpahy" is mandatory and covers camera operation / focus etc. The second must be either "Introduction to black and white photography" or "Digital imake making", while the third can be any of these; "Images without lenses", "Exploring colour photography", "Introduction to video production" or "Introduction to the history of photography".

I studied at West Cheshire College and the tutor there teaches traditional methods - no digital cameras allowed - and covered Principles, Black and White and History of Photography. Which suited me, as I knew a fair bit about digital imagery, but wanted experience in darkroom and film camera work.

So it's fairly important if you consider City and Guilds to find out which units they plan to teach.

 

[Oula]

I am a photographer and photography teacher who teaches various short courses in photography. I would also be happy to do one-to-one private lessons. PM me if you are interested.

 

[FunkyUK]

As people have said above, FE colleges run photography courses, and there it the camera club route. While it's not strictly lessons, the web is an excellent resource. Photo.net is very good for ideas, and their learn section us quite useful http://www.photo.net/learn/

HTH

 

[alef]

blackadder, you need to tell us what you're after. Do you want to improve your technical understanding? Improve your eye for spotting shots? Build confidence in handling a manual SLR?

My advice is to post up on here some of your shots that you feel could be better and ask for feedback. Or to link to the sort of shots you wish you had taken and ask how that particular effect was achieved. Because there are so many different fields and styles of photography I think you need to be quite specific when studying or trying to find a course/tutor.

 

[blackadder]

Wow, just days after my asking about this subject, this appears as a small add in the local paper.

'Learn about photography'
A FREE photgraphy workshop is being held from 10.30am until 12.30pm at the Museum and Exhibition Centre, in Church Rd, Leyland, near Preston, on saturday and features Lancashire Digital.
Lancashire Digital aims to share and broaden knowledge of digital imaging techniques.
Monthly meetings feature lectures and demonstrations of digital imaging techniques.



Alef, I want to learn more about the art side of photgraphy, the technical side I pretty much need to start from scratch, such as the terminology and abrheviations etc.

I think I might just pop along to the workshop tomorrow, I'll keep you posted on what it was like.

 

[Robster970]

Alef, I want to learn more about the art side of photgraphy, the technical side I pretty much need to start from scratch, such as the terminology and abrheviations etc.

I did it by reading and going to exhibitions. I've got a couple of books which might be worth a look.

The first is "The photograph as contemporary art" by Charlotte Cotton. It's not heavy, has lots of pictures you will recognise and goes through in some detail how photography as art has evolved, particularly since the introduction of colour.

The second which is more like a text book and I read bits from time to time (because that's all I can stomach) is "Photography: A critical introduction" by Liz Wells. It's hard work but it breaks down photography within the context of art generally and covers the more theoretical side of how it developed.

Is this where you're at?

 

[blackadder]

Is this where you're at?

I'll tell you where I am at, I thought the camera was broken because the flash was flickering like a strobe lamp, my brother explained it was a red eye reducing feature built into the camera.

Iv'e been taking digital pics for years now, but Iv'e never done anything with them, just shot in automatic and uploaded them to the PC. I was getting pissed off with the slowness of the compacts I owned and I found myself with a few hundred quid to spare, so I upgraded to a dSLR, which is way beyond my capabilities. Still, it is money well spent, the speed and quality of the pics I have taken in the automatic point and shoot mode, is much better than what I got from my Olympus ultra.
I can't read books very well unless they have big gaps between each line.

 

[mauvais]

I don't know if you want to do this, but I consider it the best way to learn. Go to Jessops, and buy a Velbon tripod (best cheap ones) for about £20-30.

Then, in a few different conditions (sunny, cloudy, nightime, indoors) and with and without the tripod, just experiment. Read a bit of the manual, dry as it may be, and learn how to use the camera by simply doing it.

Take a load of shots with different settings but keep track of what you changed or what settings you use on a notepad, so you can look at them and play spot the difference on the PC later.

Some of it won't be rewarding, as you won't always be able to see the difference, and there'll be plenty of functions you may never use. However you'll get to grips with the control system and the important settings like aperture and shutter speed, and the results, such as exposure and depth of field.

What's the make/model of your camera?

 

[blackadder]

What's the make/model of your camera?

Thanks for your advice.

The camera is a cannon eos 350d.


I went to the camera club I mentioned above, it was ok, they had a projector and was showing how to use layers for editing photos. They had some awesome pics on display that their members had taken. One such picture was printed on 100% cotton paper, this gave the picture the effect as if it had been painted, which was cool.

 

[mauvais]

I've got the Nikon equivalent, the D70, so we've pretty much got the same capabilities. One problem is that you can't always learn a huge amount about the technical stuff with the supplied wide lenses as for instance there's no depth of field control; if you can afford about £150 then something like the Sigma 70-300mm telephoto gives you more control and in doing so helps you learn. It's by no means a necessity to learn though.

I'd recommend this site for specifics about that camera: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1031

Here's another general photography one; I'm sure there's better:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/BETTERPICS.HTM

As I said before, the best way to learn is by doing it. You can benefit a lot from lessons, learning the importance of stuff like the thirds-rule (imagine a grid splitting the viewfinder into three, and put the main subject at a cross for the best composed photos), about how it all works, and about style, but probably not how to use your own camera.

 

[Firky]

I don't know if you want to do this, but I consider it the best way to learn. Go to Jessops, and buy a Velbon tripod (best cheap ones) for about £20-30.

Then, in a few different conditions (sunny, cloudy, nightime, indoors) and with and without the tripod, just experiment. Read a bit of the manual, dry as it may be, and learn how to use the camera by simply doing it.

Take a load of shots with different settings but keep track of what you changed or what settings you use on a notepad, so you can look at them and play spot the difference on the PC later.

Some of it won't be rewarding, as you won't always be able to see the difference, and there'll be plenty of functions you may never use. However you'll get to grips with the control system and the important settings like aperture and shutter speed, and the results, such as exposure and depth of field.

What's the make/model of your camera?

I agree with this!

 

[blackadder]

if you can afford about £150 then something like the Sigma 70-300mm telephoto gives you more control and in doing so helps you learn. It's by no means a necessity to learn though.

Iv'e got the Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG Macro, It's good for zooming in on your subject, but I can't work out how to focus on close ups like small bugs etc.

 

[mauvais]

Iv'e got the Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG Macro, It's good for zooming in on your subject, but I can't work out how to focus on close ups like small bugs etc.

Ace

That's almost the same as what I have, and what I was recommending. You have to stand a bit back, zoom to between 200 and 300mm and flip the macro switch. Then you can just point and shoot at closer range, with a bit of a delay in focusing.

Note that to get back out of the macro mode, you need to return the focus to a longer level (you can do this easily with manual focusing) otherwise you won't be able to flip the switch or move back past 200mm.

The Sigma lets you get a much better idea of how aperture affects depth-of-field, and that's the most fun to test. I took it to the Paris Air Show and more recently to Cornwall and got something I was quite happy with, even though I'm far from an expert.

Don't be depressed by the shots that go wrong. I still only get about 5-15% printable shots from all the ones I take, but hopefully I can learn from the mistakes.

 

[blackadder]

Cheers, you are a star..

Just one more thing, I take it the macro button is the little flower?

 

[mauvais]

If your lens ("DG Macro") is the same as mine ("Super Macro II"), there's a toggle switch on the left side of it. The macro mode is, unlike the setup of compacts, purely a lens thing.

 

[blackadder]

Cheers again, just looked and it's there.. Macro 200-300

Cheque is in the post for your time

 

[kropotkin]

I can really very highly reccomend the following monster of a thread teaching photoshop and camera skills for Black and White photography, from this guy...

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Thanks for the links Kropotkin. As a result I have now discovered that Fay Godwin the landscape photographer died in May of this year. This got past me for some reason. RIP Fay.

Hocus