Am I flooding the market by teaching photography?

[mortalexander]

I teach Intro to Photography and Intro to Photoshop at a local community college as hobbyist kind of classes. It seems like every student that takes my class has already started a photography “business” (if you can call it that), is in the process of creating one, or does shortly after the class. I teach: “this-is-how-you-take-a-picture-” kind of Intro to Photography class. Am I doing a dis-service to the professional community? I feel horrible when I see my student’s pictures on Facebook and they are just god-awful and of course…full cd with copyright release for only $25.00 that they are plugging to everyone! I’m considering not teaching at all anymore because all I’ve seen out of it is a huge FLOOD in the local market… not sure how a more experienced professional would handle this and wondered if you’d give it any thought. Thanks.

[fstopper89]

I am hoping your teachings are not being reflected upon in their lack of skills. I guess that would be the first question. (I have not seen any of your work). Most people just don’t realize that there are basic skills necessary to do decent hobby work, and then there are a whole slew of advanced photography skills plus business skill/etiquette/legal stuff required to actually run a business. You should cover an entire day on how a photography business is very different than photography as a hobby, and maybe put a little fear into them. Show them bad photography and explain why it is bad. Explain that it usually requires a few years at least of experience and training and more expensive equipment to make the jump into doing it as a profession.

[cameraclicker]

If you are seeing their after-your-class photos on Facebook and the are “just god-awful”, that suggests you are not reaching them, or not providing what they need.

How long is the class?  Many intro classes seem to be a few hours and are just to demonstrate what is possible, not to actually make someone proficient at any skill.  The hope is that having whetted the appetite the participants will come back for longer, more in-depth classes.  In a class titled “Intro to Photography”, I would expect some material on what a lens is; how light passes through a lens and meets photo sensitive material to become a picture; differences between film and digital sensors, and the kinds of digital sensors, perhaps with benefits and weaknesses of each design; general differences between short medium and long lenses and why you might choose on over another for a variety of photos; differences in cameras between P&S, rangefinder, SLR/dSLR, medium format and large format; methods of display, prints vs slides vs digital.  I think I would also want to see photography broken into categories like macro; still life; landscape; and, portraiture.  A discussion of the differences between hobby and professional photography would be beneficial.  You could address copyright, model releases, trademarks, insurance, agents, and models.

What is the goal of the college?  What is your goal for the class?  Is there a beginner’s class for them to advance to shortly after the into class is finished?  They need time to register for the next class but if too much time elapses they will go off on their own.

From what you posted, it sounds like we are speaking less of photography and more of portraiture.  I doubt anyone will offer a full CD of landscapes with copyright release for $25.00!  If most of the people coming to the class already have a camera, Facebook page and “photography business”, perhaps there is a need for a class that deals with the business of photography and concentrates on portraiture and posing.

If the college has no specific goals regarding attendance at future classes, you could pull some of the “just god-awful” photos off of Facebook and get a few from National Geographic, 500px, or one of the free stock sites, and take the time to do some ruthlessly honest critiques.  If access is available during class and the students are brave enough, you could even critique the current class’ photos.  There is an episode of the Grid here, that has portrait critiques by Joe McNally, who demonstrates how critique should be done:  http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/2012/06/15/the-grid-episode-57-blind-critiques-with-joe-mcnally/

Joel Grimes also did a The Grid episode of blind critiques here:  http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/2012/12/13/the-grid-episode-79-blind-critiques/

They have done a number of blind critiques, one episode had comparisons of what was sent in, with what the found on 500px.    I think this is the episode:  http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/2012/04/05/the-grid-episode-47-reverse-critiques/

 

[mortalexander]

The class is 6 weeks long. We do NOT go over portraiture or lighting. It is very basic and I always stress that my goal is to get them to start shooting manual by the end of the 6 weeks but that it will still take years of practice to be very proficient at it. Here is what we spend our classes on:

1st week: Composition and exposure basics. I have them shoot on Auto and only focus on working on their composition and rules of 3rds

2nd week: Shutter priority, taking action shots and being aware of light coming through the shutter at different speeds

3rd week: Aperture priority, work on understanding depth of field, getting sharp pictures all around and also obtaining shallow depth of field shots, being aware of light coming through the lense at different openings

4th week: ISO and white balance, work on understanding noise/grain, shooting in low light and also telling the camera what light you are shooting in. Students have a choice of shooting in aperture priority or shutter priority.

5th week: Manual settings, reading the camera’s light meter, going over exposure

6th week: manual settings again, reading a histogram, more exposure

Every class involves hands-on shooting and while I’m there I can answer questions and help students understand why pictures aren’t coming out right.

The thing is, it’s a basic intro class yet I’ll have students at some point tell me they are shooting a wedding and want tips on how to do so. This is by no means advertised as a portraiture/wedding/commercial/professional class. Every week my students have homework assignments to go out and shoot and then we look at the pictures at the next class. There are some great talent in every class but they assume taking a basic class automatically makes them proficient to shoot portraits for some strange reason.

[mortalexander]

I’m not entirely sure what the college goals are, as long at the students seem happy and we keep getting to come back I think that makes the college happy. These are not part of any course where you would earn a degree but we do have them fill out “feedback” and submit that to those in charge. I have come across several talented photographers and I do encourage them. When I hear someone ask about wedding help I politely tell them that I cannot answer their questions without asking them some very advanced questions first which they can never answer (like are they using continuous or available light or ocf and they understand then that they are way over their head) and am always quick to explain that you only have one chance at a wedding!

This class does lead into a part 2 Intro class but we don’t do any portraiture/lighting in there either. It’s really a more in depth look at the setting we went over in the first class like in week 4 we go over white balance but in the week 4 part 2 class we go over custom white balance and so on.

What I need help with is, how do I get across to them in the first class that they should not be starting a business and charging until they are much better?

 

[rookie35m]

As a professional service provider and a staunch fiscal conservative, here is my take: Capitalism cures everything. Those students have every right to open a photography business. With no experience they will undercharge and produce DSLR snapshots versus true images. The market will take care of the rest. Once they get through the family and friends sessions, they will be left to picking up leads from referrals (from more people with no budget for a true photographer). Anyone that does this for real knows what things cost and how much you have to charge to make this a full time endeavor. They will either go out of business or stay in the mediocre pool. Either way, it doesn’t affect me. In fact, we need people in all aspects and values of photography. Their customer will never be mine and my customers will probably never be theirs.

In short.. people worry to much what someone else is doing. This site was amusing for five minutes but its really filled with more mediocres that seem to be upset that their low end pool of customers is actually affected by an amateur or newbie. That’s not a knock on the prolific posters but you’re work is mehhh.. $150/$200 per session stuff. Work on your own business and the newbies and hacks work themselves out.

 

OP, you are offering a service. Who the hell cares what anyone does after they complete your course? You can lead a horse to water….

[cameraclicker]

Rookie35m does have a point, Capitalism will be a cure.  The only problem I have with that attitude is that if someone is paying to attend school, even if it is a non-credit class, they are attempting to avoid the school of hard knocks.  And, Capitalism is definitely the school of hard knocks!

Pick a few pieces of work from recent students and a few pieces done by good photographers.  In the first hour, put up the photos and do a quick critique of each addressing the skills necessary to get the photo.  Point out that the photographer only gets one pass at a wedding and that if no one else is shooting the event, the bride and her mother will be extremely upset with the photographer if photos are missed or lacking the expected quality.

 

[Brownie]

Shooting 35mm film would be a lovely way to see which photographers actually have a rough technical understanding and a desire to stick with it. One reason why I love my university for teaching the basic photography class in the darkroom. That would basically sum up your class in half the time with the technicals and maybe ways of considering composition and design elements down the road

[Loke]

I’m gonna ditto cameraclicker and rookie35m.  🙂

[Author]

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