[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?

 

[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.

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