View Single Post
  #5  
Old 26-01-13, 10:40 PM
Diveandfly Diveandfly is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 2
I have had two Kelby DVD/books which were very useful but I have not used his website training. The Karl Taylor DVD's are good and you can learn from them but they are a little 'that's how you do it' and don't quite arm you for doing it yourself.

Early on in my photography I brought the Photography Institue course, thankfully they had a big price reduction on so I did not pay full price. To be honest I wish I'd spent the money on a 'hands on course'. Very little was learnt about improving my photography, a lot was learnt about the history of photography and large/medium format but that's not what I wanted from it. When it came to taking pictures and having them assessed, I feel I could have gained the same feedback from one of many forums on the Internet.

I have never been a member of a camera club so cannot add much to that suggestion. But the advice of wavemachine is worth considering. My only word of warning is to check out the credentials of the Pro, there are a lot of self appoint experts who pedal photography and photoshop courses that don't really know much themselves. I know of one who went on a course hosted by a local photographer and then set up doing the same thing based on the local guys notes. It could be worth asking at your local camera shop as they would be unwise to give you a bum steer. Check out whoever you decide to go with, see if their website is credible and google or ask around. Don't commit too much money before sampling their teaching skills.

I have been on a few courses that are aimed at specific skills, these can teach you a lot besides what you signed up for. Hands on is the best way to learn in my view as long as the numbers attending are not high. Some courses are crammed and very little time is spent with individuals. I think this is unfair unless the course price is cheap and expectations not overly high.

The last course I took was the Lee Filter Workshop. This particular one ran Friday to Sunday and included food & accommodation. Also in the price was the use of all the filter kit required and transportation between sites. Fundamentally everything was taken care of. The Pro (Jeremy Walker) was accompanied by to Lee experts, this result in a 2:1 teaching ratio. This along with mini bus discussion, dinner table and bar time and evening chats resulted in an excellent learning per £ experience.

I found that there came a point where books, DVD's and the Internet could do no more and unless I got out there with someone who knew what they were doing I was only going to tread water in my learning process.
Reply With Quote