Advice on Photography classes?

Look for an adult education class in your area. We have a vocational high school in our area that has adult education classes as well. They offer 3 levels of photography classes.

Take the camera off of auto. Put it on Program (P). That will get you acclimated to making some adjustments but not full on manual. I shoot on P on every camera I have... both DSLR and point and shoot. That was recommended to me many years ago by a photographer in a camera club my church had for awhile.

Here is an excellent article about Program Mode.
https://www.photographytalk.com/beginner-photography-tips/7639-why-you-need-to-shoot-in-program-mode

 

I've done both. I did an in person class with a local photographer who is jaw droppingly amazing... Josh Nowicki But it was his first time teaching a class and since he was self taught, I feel like he just has a gift to SEE things that I just don't have. I did learn a little bit, but there was no book or slide show or anything, but him talking and giving us assignments, plus several classes were canceled because of weather, so as excited as I was, it was kind of a dud.

I also took an Understanding Exposure type class with Katrina Kennedy, and honestly the way Katrina explained things in her .pdf handouts was what finally got me to quit defaulting to auto on my DSLR. I don't use my DSLR very often anymore outside of sporting events where the phone just doesn't cut it, but I too wish my photos were better when I do pull out my big girl camera.

I'd love to do a community type in person class again just to force me to do "assignments" and play and then have someone critique my photos so I know how to fix what i don't like. KWIM?

 

The other thing I was told was to never delete a bad photo. You can learn a lot from it by looking at its properties. I see a photo I love, I look at the properties to see what they were. If I am experimenting on manual I can try to duplicate those properties myself. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

Overall, it takes patience and to not expect to be the best photographer overnight. I also do not "fix" my photos in post processing. I am not always after the perfect photo. One of the best photos I ever took was by accident!

 

I've never really taken a formal class, but I love to play around with the camera and learn new things. I really love this guy - Jared Polin https://froknowsphoto.com/ and he has an 11 day mini-video course for beginners that's free https://froknowsphoto.com/11days. He goes over the basics. Our votech here in town does an adult evening class in photography that I've thought about in the past.

 

I have taken quite a few with through our local community college continuing Ed. Our local art council also has classes. If you do take one found out what the qualification of the instructor are - and how the class is run. My instructor had an effective but sometimes frustrating teaching method. He would give us assignments without telling us the point of it. When we brought our printed pics to class, he would tell us if we got the point or not. The lack of upfront purpose was frustrating to some people. However, with 15 examples lined up for us to critique, it was very easy to see what worked or not and why, once we knew the point of the exercise.

 

I took classes online with Candice Stringham years ago. I don't think she does that anymore. She has some Creative Live classes but they are not what you are looking for. I have to say even though it was online, it was wonderful. I'd recommend a "live" class if you can - if it's online. She critiqued our work and we had assignments due each week. I learned so much. She taught a basics, a portrait class and an on camera flash class. I took all of them.

An IRL class would be awesome too.

Agree with @BevG ... the critiquing part is where the learning comes full circle! And the assignments force you to really do the work to learn.

 

That was what I loved the most about my church's camera club. I took a photo after class one night of the moon with a slight cloud cover. I didn't have my tripod so used my car so there was no camera shake. When I looked at the photo, I thought it was meh. I printed out a 4x6 and took it to the next class. Both the photographer and the guy that ran the club (he entered photos in photography shows and won all the time) absolutely loved it. They encouraged me to get it enlarged and framed. We had a gallery in the church and rotated the photos. Mine was there for 6 months. It is now in my living room.

But their critique of that photo meant the world to me. And, other photos I thought were good, they totally shot down! But they explained it in a way that it made sense to me. And, it has made me a little better when taking photos.

 

That's fantastic! @HavaDrPepper By any chance did you scrap that photo? I'd love to see it. (totally laughing at your comment about the ones you liked being the ones they didn't - that happened to me too!)

 

I did back in 2011 with products for a non-TLP designer.

 

I kissed Bart... third time this weekend... he keeps eluding me !

 

Here you go Bart....

I kissed the frog.

 

I credit John Greengo at CreativeLIVE in his class Fundamentals of Digital Photography for making the exposure triangle clear to me. (Note: I watched and own his 2010 version of this class. He has updated it several times and I linked to his 2018 version, which I haven't seen, but I've seen a couple previous updates and they were even better than his first one.)

Then I learned the most from a few more CreativeLIVE classes and also spending a lot of time in the Clickinmoms forum and taking some of their classes. (Note: The last link is an affiliate link so if you register with the forum I'll earn credit for it. Thanks!)

I've also been part of a few local photography clubs that have informative meetings and photowalks. It's more fun to go out on photowalks with other photographers and we learn from each other.

Have fun!

 

i went to a local weekend 'intro to your DSLR' course maybe 7 or 8 years back - it really helped and i think there was a Linda course that was quite good but its so long ago now, i can't really remember if it was there or somewhere else sorry!

 

I also second any classes from Clickin Moms. First Steps with a DSLR is starting next month. I haven't taken it because I already knew how to shoot manual when I joined CM, but I'm sure it would be more than appropriate for you.

CM is a membership based forum, but you do not need to be a member to sign up for classes (although you will not be able to register as soon as a member), and during your class you will have access to other forums. I believe as a non-member you won't be able to sign up until June 1st for this class; if you sign up as a Lifetime Member (a one-time fee, then never pay again), you could sign up now for that particular workshop.

 

I've taken classes over the years, including dark room film developing. Jared Polin in my go-to buy now, also. If I can't figure anything out on my camera, he has it covered on one of his MANY videos. "FRO KNOWS PHOTO".