Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: online school

  1. #1
    purplepeople8r's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    St. Augustine FL
    Posts
    13
    Real Name
    Patti

    online school

    has anyone tried any online photography school??? I am a newbie and I am learning so much by reading on here but I thought I might try a online school.. say by Improve photography.com? I am listening to a lot of different podcast also to learn about the shutter speed and aperture mode and ISO..

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    2,509
    Real Name
    Allan Short

    Re: online school

    I would suggest to stay with what you are doing, once thing is I would take a proper set of classes on how to use Photoshop CS as you also get the student discount and you learn how to get started using it. Once that is finished lots of stuff on net on how to do individual items.

    Cheers:

    Allan

  3. #3
    purplepeople8r's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    St. Augustine FL
    Posts
    13
    Real Name
    Patti

    Re: online school

    thank you I do have Photoshop elements and I am learning on how to use that. I also downloaded GIMP and use that some to since I shoot in RAW and GIMP doesnt support RAW. I am just curious how alot of others learned their craft.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    2,509
    Real Name
    Allan Short

    Re: online school

    Patti: just wondering what version of Photoshop elements do you have, and have a look at the Adobe Photoshop Elements Techniques web site. It is well worth it, get the mag and you can download all the issues free and great tutorials also. I will enclose the link to their site.

    http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/

    Cheers:

    Allan

  5. #5
    purplepeople8r's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    St. Augustine FL
    Posts
    13
    Real Name
    Patti

    Re: online school

    wow thanks it is photoshop elelments 11 I didnt even know that was there. I had been watching some in Utube about adobe photoshop and someone had told me that there was one about one that was what could go wrong (kinda like a spoof about it) that they learned alot watching it.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    2,509
    Real Name
    Allan Short

    Re: online school

    I do not use GIMP, however Elements 11 very powerfull not as powerfull as lightroom and/or Photoshop CS. They have updated the raw converter in Elements 11, to be able to handle raw files from the newest cameras such as Nikon D600. I use CS6 however I still get the Elements magazine as some of the ways to do things are very similar with only slight differences between them very helpful I find.

    Cheers:

    Allan

  7. #7
    Shadowman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    36,717
    Real Name
    John

    Re: online school

    The one difference between what you get through Cambridge and an online school is Cambridge is a bit knowledge based, you look for a particular subject and can go directly to the tutorials or bring up the subject in a thread. With an online course, the curriculum is set beforehand and you follow through until the end. I am sure you can interject some off topic subject matter by contacting the instructor but it probably won't be shared with the rest of the class and you probably won't interact with them either.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    St. Petersburg, Russia
    Posts
    37
    Real Name
    Pavel

    Re: online school

    Quote Originally Posted by purplepeople8r View Post
    has anyone tried any online photography school???
    It is a waste of time and probably of money. Instead of going to online/offline schools I would invest into books. Books will teach you definitely better than any school since the field is quite specific. Good starting point is:

    - Cambridge in colour tutorials
    - Bruce Barnbaum: The art of photography, The art of black & white photography
    - NK Guy: Mastering Canon EOS flash photography
    - Photoshop CS6: missing manual

    All these are at my book shelf.

    Regards,
    Pavel

  9. #9
    Moderator Manfred M's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    21,925
    Real Name
    Manfred Mueller

    Re: online school

    There are many resources for learning photography. Any online course, tutorial or book lack one important part of the learning process; evaluation and feedback.

    Unless you happen to be a very analytical person and come from a solid background, this is not going to be easy. Posting images and getting them critiques on a site like CiC goes a long way, but unfortuantely not all sites are particularly good at this. I belong to other sites (that will remain nameless), and the critiques are usually either useless = saying somthing like "what a wonderful picture", does not help or a bit of a self adulation society where everyone who is part of the "in crowd" gets great reviews, but very little useful feedback.

    This is where a live group helps; either a formal photo course where your work is critiqued by under the guidance of a knowledgable photographer or through a camera club where this "service" is offered. Once you start understanding the photographic process well enough, then you can start critiquing your own work and that will help you improve as well.

  10. #10
    GiacomoD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Florence, Italy
    Posts
    168
    Real Name
    Giacomo

    Re: online school

    Quote Originally Posted by purplepeople8r View Post
    thank you I do have Photoshop elements and I am learning on how to use that. I also downloaded GIMP and use that some to since I shoot in RAW and GIMP doesnt support RAW. I am just curious how alot of others learned their craft.

    Hi Patti,
    I'm a GIMP user too. you can override this problem by installing UFRaw . It works both as standalone or as a Gimp plug in (meaning that from the GIMP menu you can open a RAW file and the UFRaw interface will automatically start).

    Another valid alternative is RawTherapee. It works only as standalone, but once you have done you raw processing, you can save it as TIF and then open in in GIMP for further processing. Actually I prefer this one rather than UFRaw, I find it more intuitive.

    Hope it helps
    Giacomo

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •