Nikon School

[cameronpatrol]

Hi all
Has anyone done any of the Nikon school courses???
I stumbled upon them looking for something a while back.
They have some in melbourne, beginner, advanced and another one.
250 bucks seems pretty good.
Im thinking of maybe doing the advanced course.
I rekon it would be good to be around some photographers, to get ideas sort of thing.

If anyone has done the course is it any good?? did you learn much?

thanks
cheers cam

[cameronpatrol]

Sorry I forgot to add the link, long day yesterday
* please read the site rules, Rule 3 - until you have 30 days membership and 50 posts you cannot link/promote commercial sites etc*

[Granville]

Cam, I don't know whether or not $250 is any good, and I'm not the best photographer around. I have learnt what I know about my D3100 from reading these forums, going to Michaels Camera school free lunchtime seminars in the city, Googling subjects I don't find on here, joining in on Photography Walks on Meetupetc.

I have found that there are broadly two areas I have needed to learn. One is all about photography, which is the ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed triangle, Depth of Field, Composition, use of light, and heaps more. The next thing to learn is how to do all that with my camera. What settings do I have to use. Where are the controls (like back button focussing which I only recently found out about here). Where in your camera do you take advantage of all those things you learn compared to a Canon owner or another type of Nikon even.

If I was going to spend $250 on a course, it would be because I was either in a hurry to learn it all for some reason, or I had already been through al the experience learning that this and other sites have available already, and there were topics I couldn't easily find out about other than in that course.

Just my two bobs worth.

[cameronpatrol]

Thanks for your thoughts.
I'll give the course a miss.
your right about learing online with google and the hero of the day youtube haha

I pretty much just googled and found some great site when i first got my camera
I learnt tons of info, I pretty much used manual mode from the start.
Someone on another forum told me to just run auto and work on composition etc, which i did on a trip to townsville a couple of weeks back.
to tell you the truth I hated it, I did run apeture priority for a little bit, but I still missed using manual mode.
Ive mucked up a few good shots from using manual mode but thats life, Id rather learn the ins and outs of anything its just the way I work i think, rather be in the deep end in a way to start.

Ive found a real good channel on you tube but he has a site also that you might be interested in looking at.
*removed - read the site rules - in particular rules 3-7*
I found it first while I was looking a tips etc but finely decide to watch one of the rapid fire critiques.
Theres a good number of them to watch, and since watching a good chunk of them ive learnt a ton more.

A quick run down on the vids
Sorry if you already know about this bloke lol but someone else might be interested also.
You send in 10 of you best or favorite shots in a set to his site, and then he pics one for the sets
And he critiqus them for you, tells you the good and bads and how to make them better etc ,its exelent
*removed -do not discuss any details of current competition entries on Ausphotography. It breaches our competitions rules and we could well disqualify the entry you are talking about and ban you for revealing details about who entered what photo*

thanks again for the tips
cheers cam

[Granville]

Sorry if you already know about this bloke lol but someone else might be interested also.
You send in 10 of you best or favorite shots in a set to his site, and then he pics one for the sets
And he critiqus them for you, tells you the good and bads and how to make them better etc ,its exelent

Actually, that happens quite a lot on this site in the Constructive Critique forum.

[Brigitte]

I class myself as a beginner both at photography and at processing. My learning is done on line, there are some excellent sites available and I have found bits of wisdom on most. I keep a record of the really useful sites where I think people know what they are writing about. I don’t just bookmark them but record them in Word where I then add a brief comment about what the site offers. I also keep a list of professional photographer’s sites so that I can look at their photos and get inspired. Many of these people also have blogs which have useful tips. This method of leaning suits me as I can learn new skills, go and practise them, read some more, go and practise and so on. Here is the latest site that I have found very use full.
http://www.slrphotographyguide.com/c...y-manual.shtml
Just the other day I looked back on some of my photos from a few years ago, gosh they were bad! I figure I must be learning something doing it this way.
Have fun, I am!

[JDFSandH]

I'm going to do one of the Nikon school ones soon. The photographer we had for our wedding is one of the teachers there (we found out afterwards) and I figure that I considering how much I love his photos, it might be worthwhile going along and getting his professional insight on some stuff.

[cameronpatrol]

I class myself as a beginner both at photography and at processing. My learning is done on line, there are some excellent sites available and I have found bits of wisdom on most. I keep a record of the really useful sites where I think people know what they are writing about. I don’t just bookmark them but record them in Word where I then add a brief comment about what the site offers. I also keep a list of professional photographer’s sites so that I can look at their photos and get inspired. Many of these people also have blogs which have useful tips. This method of leaning suits me as I can learn new skills, go and practise them, read some more, go and practise and so on. Here is the latest site that I have found very use full.
http://www.slrphotographyguide.com/c...y-manual.shtml
Just the other day I looked back on some of my photos from a few years ago, gosh they were bad! I figure I must be learning something doing it this way.
Have fun, I am!

Hey thanks for the reply
A bit like myself I like to goolge around any questions or anything i want to find out then hit the tube and get more info.
I thinking reading it first is good for detail and then top it off with a video to get a good visual on how things are meant to be.
I have some good links bookmarked but i cant post them yet.
Im not sure if im alowed to pm them???
one particular site i found in the first day of owning a DSLR. its got a lot of good info.
cheers cam

- - - Updated - - -

I'm going to do one of the Nikon school ones soon. The photographer we had for our wedding is one of the teachers there (we found out afterwards) and I figure that I considering how much I love his photos, it might be worthwhile going along and getting his professional insight on some stuff.

Keen to see how you go with the course.
good luck with it.
Are you able to start a thread once youve done the course for interest sake??
cheers cam

[JDFSandH]

It may not be for a while, but absolutely I will.

[cameronpatrol]

It may not be for a while, but absolutely I will.

Good stuff

[cameronpatrol]

I did an intermediate one in Brisbane last year.

I figured you don't know what you don't know.

And I also wanted to see what they were like before doing some of the specialist ones.

I had fun, broke a bad iso habit and got a new outlook on the rule of thirds.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

So do you think it is worth doing the course from a pretty new person point of view?
Theres tons to learn online, but having someone speak to you in person and to do things in real life I think could be a good thing.
Would you rekonment to someone to do the course?
Or is it a "yeah OK course" sort of thing.
cheers cam

[cameronpatrol]

Hi Cam,

I think it would be worthwhile because you have the chance to interact with an expert in real life with your own gear.

It's up to you to decide if it is good value for yourself.

There may be better and or cheaper options.

Richard

Thanks mate
Think I will try to put some coin aside to do it, sounds like its a good thing
thanks again
cheers cam

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Cam,

I think it would be worthwhile because you have the chance to interact with an expert in real life with your own gear.

It's up to you to decide if it is good value for yourself.

There may be better and or cheaper options.

Richard

Thanks mate
Think I will try to put some coin aside to do it, sounds like its a good thing
thanks again
cheers cam

[Mark L]

It's a long shot, but in an attempt to get together with other photogs, maybe suggest a country meet of AP members. ....... http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...lay.php?95-VIC
Nothing lost if no one's interested.

You Victorians need to get together more.
(and thank God you're not involved in State of Origin Rugby League. Bloody Queenslander's are enough to bear with. )

[cameronpatrol]

It's a long shot, but in an attempt to get together with other photogs, maybe suggest a country meet of AP members. ....... http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...lay.php?95-VIC
Nothing lost if no one's interested.

You Victorians need to get together more.
(and thank God you're not involved in State of Origin Rugby League. Bloody Queenslander's are enough to bear with. )

sounds good
I will keep an eye out in the meetups
cheers cam