Open University course

[andywright182]

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/t189.htm

is this worth the entry fee of £190 or spending a bit more for £500 on this course?

http://www.thephotographyinstitute.co.uk/

 

[Revels]

Personally, unless you actually need the qualification, I think courses are largely pointless.

I did one, admittedly not an OU one, but it was awful. Had I not paid for the whole thing up-front, I wouldn't have gone back.

With photography, the things that can be taught are the technical things, which you can teach yourself very easily. Aperture/shutters etc etc. The rest, is practice.

Get that 'Understand Exposure' book and then just keep shooting. Day after day after day. Look at flickr a lot for inspiration, which in turn gives you hints on the technical bits with the EXIF.

Photography IMO, isn't something that can be taught. You can get better, but if you have zero idea what you're shooting at and what you're doing, you're not going to fix that. I've seen various degree students who still can't shoot for s**t.

 

[andywright182]

good advice revels. will have a look around for the book

 

[theduck]

Agree with revels 100%

 

[DaveDreads]

I've got GCSEs, A-Levels and a BA Hons in photography and none of them prepared me for trying to make a living out of photography,
i've met amatuers with far more technical knowlegde than me but no natural talent, and i've met professionals that know very little but make a bloody fortune!

Theres no substitute for experimentation, everything I've learned about real photography i've taught myself including photoshop,
after years of education the one thing I learnt was that you don't need a professional qualification to be a photographer.

 

[dunganick]

Revels speaks the truth.

I just cheat, steal other peoples ideas and settings (exif reader) and then sort of make it up from there. Its all good fun.

 

[Tigger]

Was thinking of doing a course too but for the above reasons and having a lot on, I gave it a miss this year.

I agree with people being "professional photographers" not having the first notion what they are up to
I did photos at an event not long ago and there were togs from the local papers, some with 2 cameras on their shoulder and still had awful photos! :S