[shuttertalk]

My brother is doing a photography course by correspondence, complete with assignments, a tutor on call and self study modules.

I had a look at the course notes and they actually contain very good content - although it's probably stuff that you can find readily on the net if you are willing to look.

Do you think photography courses are worthwhile? Have you taken any yourself and did it contribute to your photography skills?

[Pavel]

Do you think photography courses are worthwhile? Have you taken any yourself and did it contribute to your photography skills?

I think it depends on multitude of factors.
1) Are you a Beginner (how do I control brightness of my photos?), Practiced (I can not name any 5 compositional tools and/or can not make local changes to my photos in my photo editing program and/or I have trouble getting exposure/sharpenss/DOF right when not in automatic mode, Advanced (I am good with composition/ technical, but I keep on taking the same photos others do with low impact and little creativity) or Master (I know my camera and software inside out, have no trouble getting the colors/brightness/contrast i want on my prints, have full control over the final image. I know a lot about composition and my photos have their own style and they are often creative.)
There are many courses for Beginners. It is hard to design a good course for the Practiced - I think students need individual attention with their own issues. I think Advanced photographers could benefit from learning from Masters if they choose the right one to learn from on a one to one or one to few basis. This could be expensive. Masters can create personal relationship with others at or near their level and help bootstrap each other. My personal experience with 3 courses I took has been to a lesser or greater degree disappointing.

2) Are you good at and motivated to learn on your own? If you are, internet contains huge amount of info in terms of camera technique, post-processing, composition and means to boost creativity. There are also books. I like to learn this way, but some people find it hard or find it hard to motivate themselves.

3) Do you take criticism well and are you willing to learn by putting real effort into comprehensive critique of the photos of others? There are excellent critique sites on the web for photographers at all levels and I consider it the single most effective way of learning (mostly by thinking through critiques as you write them).

4) Clubs offer some learning opportunity through networking, outings and lectures, but at least in my area, they are overly focused on competitions which are not a very helpful way to learn. A good club would focus a lot of pear to pear discussion of member's photos. I am a member of such a club and love it.

5) Networking and joint outings with photographers at or near your level or a lot better, if you can get it is a great way to learn. Clubs can help make such relationships possible.

In summary, I suspect that there are great courses to take. They can be expensive and expect hit and miss. I am not likely to take any courses myself, as the people I would consider taking them from charge a fortune in exotic locations. My personal experience with courses has not been positive.

[EnglishBob]

I've done a few courss with the Photographic Society of America and for the most part, don't think they were much better than book's. The one I did get a lot from was on Photographic Critique.

[Pegger3D]

My brother is doing a photography course by correspondence, complete with assignments, a tutor on call and self study modules.

I had a look at the course notes and they actually contain very good content - although it's probably stuff that you can find readily on the net if you are willing to look.

Do you think photography courses are worthwhile? Have you taken any yourself and did it contribute to your photography skills?

Hi Talker,

About 7 months ago I decided that one of my retirement hobbies would be photography.
So I did the research, bought the best within my budget (D7100) and started with a coupon course for $29. I was not bad, but I quickly surpassed most of the good points by simply gathering tips from the internet at photography sites.
The one thing it may benefit your brother in is that they push you to go out and do assignments. So if he is a procrastinator like me a small fee may be beneficial.

The best $10 I spent was on an E-book for my specific camera by John Batdorff.
Titled: D7100 From Snapshots to Great Shots.

It is targeted at my D7100, but IMO is a great course in itself and I have yet to see any publication put together so well and with great illustrations and cover so much of the real life experiences you will encounter.

FYI, I have no financial interest in this book, nor do I know Mr Batdorff (but I would like to).

My 2 cents