Beginner Recommendations for Photography courses (either online or London based)

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mushy

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Hi

I have read up on the basics of how cameras work in terms of how ISO level, aperture and shutter speed combine / offset each other for a photo to be appropriately exposed. And I have a basic understanding of depth of field (low f-spot = background out of focus and subject more prominent) and how shutter speed can be used to create different effects (e.g. slow shutter speed to show a sense of blur / movement). But in all honesty, that's about the sum total of my knowledge.

I don't know much at all about composition or anything technical beyond what I write above

Does anyone have any recommendations for any good courses (online or London based) I could look at please?

Thanks
 
Please don't waste your money.

My ex brother in law has a Masters degree in photography and can't take a photo to save his life.

You can learn everything you need to learn on youtube for free.

Unfortunately you either have an eye for good composition or you don't. It's something I struggle with and it can be learned but I do not believe that any online course is going to teach you that. It just takes practice.

There are a number of very good books on photographic composition so I would get yourself one of two of those and learn the basic rules of composition, then it's up to you to try and incorporate that into your photography until you are good enough to break all those rules and still have a good composition.

Also get yourself on Flickr and look at photographs you like and try to work out why you like them. What draws you into the photo and keeps you there. That is good composition.
 
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Composition wise, the rule of thirds is a very good starting point. A lot of people don't like the idea of following such rules but if you treat it as a beginners guide there's a good chance it will improve your composition quite quickly, even if it doesn't lend itself to every photo.

Leading lines are also another basic composition tool to look out for.

As ecoleman states above, there is a lot you can learn for free in the first instance (eg. Flickr).
Find photos you like and then see if you can identify any recognised composition rules/guides within them.
 
The advice from Elliot above is sage and should be followed. Quite a few times people have had this discussion on this site (search is your friend) and we have usually concluded that unless you just want to do a course for something to do, your photography is not likely to benefit much from most of the courses available but you will notice the effect on your wallet.
A couple of us here have done intro photography courses at our respective local FE colleges in the evening, just as a way of re-learning stuff and being social with other budding togs, and that has been enjoyable. However as an example, on the course I did, composition was covered in less than an hour of one evening, and is often covered by online courses in one "lesson" which usually refers to some good examples from people following the various compositional rules.
So definitely a couple of books, and a lot of YouTube. After that, when you have picked up some ideas, maybe book yourself on a 1-2-1 with a Youtube photographer doing whatever genre you are interested in - most pro's on YT make much of their income from workshops.
 
I think you're better off immersing yourself in a specific element of photography that interests you. Interested in Landscape photography? dedicate yourself to it.. buy some photobooks, learn about great landscape photographers, watch youtube videos on how to make better landscape photos and shoot a ton of it. Don't try to be someone that learns macro (and buys the kit) one week and the following week interested in studio lighting.

I'm doing a distancing learning photography degree, I'm really enjoying it so far but a lot of people wont. It doesn't teach you photography (or it hasn't so far!)
 
Hello Mushy ...

I dare to say it's not entirely truth that "courses" will not help you .. It also depends a lot on genre but as a rule of thumb - you have to do the majority of the footwork yourself. Then I would perhaps recommend (if you can afford that) to buy some kind of one-to-one tuition from your favourite (local) photographer. Spending money like this is not entirely bad idea because your money will go into the "ecosystem" and fellow photographer will get a chance to pay one more bill like that ...

I was 3 or 4 times on one-to-one tuition and it was for me incredibly valuable because it boosted significantly my learning curve. But I was always there *after* I've spend significant effort in given area and the tuition was meant to sharpen my skills rather than starting from square one. To be entirely precise, I was 2 times on postprocess-related tuition, one time on portrait photography (but I am from 99% landscape photographer - this was the only one where I was perhaps starting from square one) and one time on street photography tuition ...

my first one-to-one course came after several years of photography after I knew exactly where I need to improve the most and what I want to learn ...

In other words - guys are right, you have to start and work hard on it primarily yourself, but I am adding that it is possible that after you'll gain some experience and skill you will feel that you need help with sharpening and focusing your powerful skill and raw experience .. and there's nothing wrong about that ..
 
I have the Olympus OM-D E-M10 mk iii micro four thirds camera with the stock lens. I know micro four thirds have a smaller sensor and image quality allegedly suffers but the camera or lens isn't the limiting factor right now. And it's a very small camera which means it's easy to chuck in my bag and therefore take around with me (albeit I can use my phone too for opportunistic shots).

I think for now I'll just try and take a bunch of pictures on either auto, aperture priority or shutter priority and play around.

I will do the Flickr challenges and maybe some on here too, get some constructive feedback, watch a few videos and see where I end up
 
Terry is correct, I feel the same about my Olly kit. Horses for courses, the EM10 especially is small and light and great for casual and street photography.
 
I plan to shoot in jpeg plus raw.

I figure that my post processing skills on a raw file might be less good than the camera's.

I'll still process the jpeg too but I figure it'll give me a better base to work from until my processing of raw improves (I'll play around with that too)
 
I did a 10 week course at my (then) local FE college quite a few years ago, back then it was half film/digital, but it was good for the basics, and was fairly cheap.

But other than that, I've found that taking an sharing photos, somewhere like here is the best way to improve. Also looking at photos and identifying what you like, and thinking about how to recreate them - not always possible given kit limitations. Doing this will help guide you to your style of photography, both in what you shoot and how you shoot.

Photography is a blend of both art and technology, and everyone will fall somewhere on a scale between arty and tech, I'm definitely more towards the technical side, and have to work harder at the arty side, even after many years. But I know what I like in a shot - strong subject plain background, other people may prefer to capture the perfect moment, or expression etc, but it will take you a while to learn what you like. And of course there is no right or wrong.

One area where I have found courses useful are for very specific things, like photographing X or Y location, but the better you have the basics down yourself, the more you are getting from the expert knowledge, e.g. with landscape the instructor is going to spend more time with you working on your composition if they can tell that you already have your exposure/depth of field understood.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I did a 10 week course at my (then) local FE college quite a few years ago, back then it was half film/digital, but it was good for the basics, and was fairly cheap.

But other than that, I've found that taking an sharing photos, somewhere like here is the best way to improve. Also looking at photos and identifying what you like, and thinking about how to recreate them - not always possible given kit limitations. Doing this will help guide you to your style of photography, both in what you shoot and how you shoot.

Photography is a blend of both art and technology, and everyone will fall somewhere on a scale between arty and tech, I'm definitely more towards the technical side, and have to work harder at the arty side, even after many years. But I know what I like in a shot - strong subject plain background, other people may prefer to capture the perfect moment, or expression etc, but it will take you a while to learn what you like. And of course there is no right or wrong.

One area where I have found courses useful are for very specific things, like photographing X or Y location, but the better you have the basics down yourself, the more you are getting from the expert knowledge, e.g. with landscape the instructor is going to spend more time with you working on your composition if they can tell that you already have your exposure/depth of field understood.
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Well said Lewis.

When I go on a photo shoot somewhere I try not to view other tog's photo's of the area or subject.

You are then "competing" with others before you start out.


I like to shoot somewhere, look at my images upon my return and only then look for other's images to see if I could have got a better shot or composition and if I'd made any glaring mistakes.

This way I learn. Not for everyone I guess but works for me.

You can always try what you have learnt on a return visit.
 
Just to expand on that, at least with landscapes, when you are thinking about what could be better, you can include things that are out of your control like weather/seasons, and make a mental note. Then if you have a shot that would work on an autumn morning, you can plan to head there in the autumn.
 
mushy said:
Hi

I have read up on the basics of how cameras work in terms of how ISO level, aperture and shutter speed combine / offset each other for a photo to be appropriately exposed. And I have a basic understanding of depth of field (low f-spot = background out of focus and subject more prominent) and how shutter speed can be used to create different effects (e.g. slow shutter speed to show a sense of blur / movement). But in all honesty, that's about the sum total of my knowledge.

I don't know much at all about composition or anything technical beyond what I write above

Does anyone have any recommendations for any good courses (online or London based) I could look at please?

Thanks
Click to expand...
You can learn as much about composition from a good book and an art gallery as you could from lessons.

That said, take a look at your local collage, quite a few offer adult education courses for cheep or free.
 
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