British Academy of Photography Course

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Name
Gary
Edit My Images
Yes
Hiya people, I'm thinking of doing a course with them and just wondered if anyone had any feedback about them.
 
never done any courses just joined the local camera club you will learn all you need to know there
 
Can't say I've ever heard of them. They look legitimate enough, if rather expensive. I like the idea of having a tutor to support you but it's unclear as to what form that support is in. If you feel you have the self discipline for distance learning it might well be worth pursuing, but you could probably find a city and guilds course at a local college cheaper.

As for a camera club, no I don't think so. In my own personal experience they're not really about learning and even if you found one that had some form of mentoring it wouldn't be to the same standard as an academic based syllabus.
 
Can't say I've ever heard of them. They look legitimate enough, if rather expensive. I like the idea of having a tutor to support you but it's unclear as to what form that support is in. If you feel you have the self discipline for distance learning it might well be worth pursuing, but you could probably find a city and guilds course at a local college cheaper.

As for a camera club, no I don't think so. In my own personal experience they're not really about learning and even if you found one that had some form of mentoring it wouldn't be to the same standard as an academic based syllabus.

I'm still looking at possibilities regarding the course and as for joining a camera club :exit:
 
Camera clubs vary. I would say at most you will learn because you will see the standard set by other amateurs. Many people's photography is in a bubble and they are not self critical enough or get a loads of likes on Facebook from a tiny image. If you have a club with a reasonable budget and plenty of members you get external judges and good advice plus you see what other people are doing. It's not the be all and end all of photography, nor are club photography images, and I'm sure there are plenty of naff clubs around, but many people pooh pooh them based on what they hear rather than experience. I'd have nothing but praise for my own club. Yes, there are one or two of the Nikon vs Canon brigade, or don't really understand anything beyond birds and landscapes, but many people are very helpful and set a very high standard. Besides loads of guest speakers they run a separate workshop night and studio night every week thanks to a few dedicated members. You also get working photographers and photography teachers. Maybe we are lucky, but bigger clubs up and down the country will probably be similar. Some of the online courses are good to stimulate you to do the assignments and get some critique on your results. I've thought they may be good for focussing your interest and learning, but not all give you a qualification of any academic value. However, going for a job somewhere though it is to me who have been involved in recruiting into my field of work a symbol that someone has made an effort to get something that the last candidate didn't do.
 
Yes I meant to write that camera clubs aren't about teaching, as opposed to learning. I learnt stuff in the 8 years I was a member and it certainly raised the standard of my photography but there was no actual instruction as such.

There are other ways to learn of course - someone normally comes along on these threads and says that you can learn everything you need to know on YouTube and there is an incomprehensible amount of material on there of varying degrees of quality. If you are happy to learn by watching and then applying then this is an excellent free resource. If you prefer learning from a real live human being or in a more structured academic way then consider courses or workshops.
 
My big caveat about self teaching (or any unstructured learning) is that it's too easy to skip the things that are boring and of zero interest. And sometimes, knowing those things can help in unexpected (and often unrelated) ways later on.
 
Hiya people, I'm thinking of doing a course with them and just wondered if anyone had any feedback about them.
Hi Gary, sorry I can't answer your question because I myself am looking for a course to join. There are so many different ones to choose from; it's hard! This British Academy of Photography looks good. If you do sign up for it, could you let me know how it is? :p Thanks!
 
Hi Gary, sorry I can't answer your question because I myself am looking for a course to join. There are so many different ones to choose from; it's hard! This British Academy of Photography looks good. If you do sign up for it, could you let me know how it is? :p Thanks!
Will do, though it won't be until late February lol
 
Will do, though it won't be until late February lol
lol, ok that's fine. I will try doing some free online courses first and see how that goes before I decide whether I need paid courses.
 
Hi! I too am looking to do this course but can't seem to find anymore information about them other than their own website! Has anyone found any more information?
There's so many courses to choose from that you just can't be sure of the quality of some of them!
 
Hi! I too am looking to do this course but can't seem to find anymore information about them other than their own website! Has anyone found any more information?
There's so many courses to choose from that you just can't be sure of the quality of some of them!
Hey, did you do this British academy of photography in the end?
 
I appreciate this post is 6 months old but thought i would put something on in case anyone else picks it up. I committed to doing the BTEC course the HNC in photography but only did so after first independently checking with BTEC that BAP were an approved learning centre. First the bad point - When i was asking about the course I made it clear what the areas of photography I enjoyed were, namely still life, macro and landscape. I was told this course would be great for that. However after the first few assignments and doing a lot of portraiture i checked with my tutor and it turned out there was next to none of the photography I wanted to do. At this point I suspect a refund was out of the question so I have stuck with course. Overall the course has been pretty well laid out, there is quite a good support with BAP own forum and a FB group. I think the course is largely designed for class room teaching so being home study your are at a slight disadvantage but with some effort it can be done. The tutor has been supportive and feedback on the assignments has been helpful. I still have a few assignments left to go but hopefully I will pass the last three and get my qualification. Now the qualification wasn't the main reason for doing it thats more a bonus. What I wanted to do was become a better photographer and certainly I have achieved that aim. Its not so much my camera craft that has improved, although it has, a lot of the course is based around research and planning your shots and then how you deal with the images after. That has really been a great help. Also the fact that you are getting regular feedback on your images and being given pointers as to how you can improve has been really good. Is it worth the money well only you can decide. You could have 3 or 4 one to one days with a pro and maybe learn as much or maybe even more. You do also spend probably around 4- 8 hours of research and planning, essay writing etc per assignment so if you only want practical assignments this isn't probably for you. Hope this helps.
 
Photography is one of those few professions.
It's not a profession: it's a trade and good tradesmen command good incomes in most markets. Apart from that I agree with the post.
 
Photography is one of those few professions where you really need to stand out in order to make it as a sole source of income. You need to learn a lot more than just clicking good pictures. You need to learn how to market yourself, build a portfolio website, work on its optimization, edit your photos and much more.

And become a master of processing software, something we didn't need before the age of DSLR's :)
 
Photography is one of those few professions where you really need to stand out in order to make it as a sole source of income. You need to learn a lot more than just clicking good pictures. You need to learn how to market yourself, build a portfolio website, work on its optimization, edit your photos and much more.
Maybe so if you want to earn an income as a photographer, but that hadn't been mentioned in this thread. Not everyone wants to do a course in order to make a living at it.

Having said that, I would guess that the majority of successful (in terms of income) wedding/portrait photographers are at least as good, if not better, at marketing than they are at photography.
 
Photography is one of those few professions where you really need to stand out in order to make it as a sole source of income. You need to learn a lot more than just clicking good pictures. You need to learn how to market yourself, build a portfolio website, work on its optimization, edit your photos and much more.
Much here that I agree with...
but it’s rather a narrow view, some pro photographers are not sole traders, making that moot.
And as above photography isn’t really a ‘profession’, it’s a trade. (In the full knowledge I just wrote pro photographers, isn’t English interesting.
 
And become a master of processing software, something we didn't need before the age of DSLR's :)

I wouldn’t say that was necessarily the case:

There are reportage and sports photographers who deliver 99% what comes out of the camera
Top end pros who have people do their processing in house
Others who outsource much of their processing

In fact the similarities to pre digital days are more than the differences, with one exception... the amount of processing done and the number of people doing their own has grown exponentially.
 
This is a digression, but I would hardly say post processing is something that didn't happen before DSLRs.

Most of the tools (and their icons) in Photoshop are taken directly from their darkroom forebearers. The difference now is that you don't need a darkroom and chemicals, just a PC and some software.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2mQsUIc97E
 
This is a digression, but I would hardly say post processing is something that didn't happen before DSLRs.

Most of the tools (and their icons) in Photoshop are taken directly from their darkroom forebearers. The difference now is that you don't need a darkroom and chemicals, just a PC and some software.

No more clambering about in the loft or under the stairs, sitting in red light watch the images appear as if by magic from the blank sheet of paper. Loved doing that stuff with my Dad back int he sixties when I was about 8-years old. Photoshop and Lightroom are a lot more convenient, and kind of magical in their own way.
 
I’ve bumped into them out and about near Brick Lane, and I was giving tips as someone was covering a session. I also have a friend of who using them, and some people seem to prefer using them to going out and just shooting.

My main advice is find a friend that you can do photography with, a great way to learn is to just do it with people you know. Someone mentioned a photography group, which can be cool.
 
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