How Did You Learn?

Detention Time by S.Mackenzie (aka disco~stu)

Today I want to explore how you all learnt to use your camera and take good photographs. Photography in lots of ways is as much a science as it is an art form. Using a camera correctly and consistently to get great photos requires an understanding of photography that you’re not born with so how have you learnt it?

I’ve found that I’ve used a combination of resources to find out what I’ve needed to know. Mostly I’ve gathered information from reading (books and internet) and also by repeated trial and error and experimentation. I want to know from the options below which 3 methods you’ve found most effective? maybe elaborate on your answers in the comments and include any I’ve missed out.

If anyone has attended any photography courses please let us know how you found this experience. As this is something I’ve considered but so far not tried. Feel free to include links to good resources you’ve used.

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Tags: books, courses, education, internet, learning, photography, poll, question, resources, top 3

Posted by Stuart Sunday, February 15th, 2009 General

8 Comments to How Did You Learn?

I did a NCFE photography evening class at SCAT in Taunton I ended up teaching rather than learning. It was good for learning the basics but nothing more (and I already knew more than the basics so not great for me!)

I got the basic understanding of aperture etc from books and then just took inspiration from places like flickr and worked out for myself how stuff was done through experimentation. One thing I noticed on my course was that people seem really reluctant to play with the settings on their camera. They never strayed from Auto mode or at the most aperture priority. I think the key to learning is stick it on manual and play with the settings to see what happens!

Beth ~ starpixie on February 15th, 2009

Basically trial and error. I have two books about photography which I’ve glanced through and they gave me a vague idea of what apeture and shutter speed is but I still don’t totally understand, I just keep taking photos until they look right.

I’d say only about 20% of the photos I take end up on Flickr and only about 50% of those I feel very happy with. I picked up a camera 4 years ago when I was 13 and haven’t been able to put it down.

Adam on February 15th, 2009

Both of my grandfathers were serious hobbyists (one had a darkroom in the basement), so I grew up with access to a lot of cameras. I took one formal (B&W film) photography class in college 10 years ago, and found it very helpful to understand everything from a technical perspective. I never took any other classes, and everything else I’ve learned by doing and talking to other photographers. I’m a fairly intuitive self-teacher, but I do think the one class at the beginning was helpful.

Katie on February 15th, 2009

I took one semester course, but prior to that it was all trial and error. The class did help though, I learned what the functions actually did and were named instead of going “oh, this makes it darker, lighter, etc”.

Jesse on February 16th, 2009

I took some photography classes in college. I learned nothing about taking pictures and the only thing it was good for was the feww darkroom time. That being said my instructor was a tool!

b*wag on February 16th, 2009

AHHH! I completely overlooked “trial and error”. Even more useful in the digital age. But also used in the darkroom with test strips and countless hand-washed prints!

ash on February 18th, 2009

I found reading books, and photo magazines quite useful too. Everyone learns differently though. I also took a basic 12-session B&W darkroom course that covered composition in about 2 classes. but nothing beats practice after you’ve got the basics (e.g. aperture & shutter speed) down!