Photography Classes

I had a great idea. I'm trying to get into a photography class in the fall for school, and it made me search online for free photography classes. Then, when I turned up empty handed, I had an idea. We've got a lot of very talented photographers here. What would the chances be, that we could hold some sort of photography classes here on PoTN? Assign individuals to head it, and have people sign up to learn from those people. I'd be so excited to do something like that. I'm sure it's somewhat difficult being that this is just a forum, but I'm positive that some of the minds behind this site could make it happen.

I just find it very hard right now to do any sort of photography when no one is giving me ideas, or assignments that make me think harder about it. I've been left in the dark about what to shoot.

I would really love to hear some feedback on the idea. Personally I think a lot of people would absolutely love to have a chance like this.

You could think of the POTN competitions as your "assignments".

You could, but you don't really get the helpful input that you're looking for on your photo's because it is,after all, a competition.

Nice idea, but have you any idea of how incredibly time consuming it would be for the 'instructor'? For those of us working regular jobs, finding additional time to create assignments is a challenge. (As a regular school teacher how much time they spend on creating a portfolio assignments when they first start teaching a new grade!)

I think it is a wonderful Idea! Yes it would be somewhat time consuming for both. Maybe it could include some kind of incentive for the instructor? (just a thought)

Free lifetime membership on POTN ?!?!

Do a photo scavenger hunt and have people c/c your photos?! I did that in my Intro class in college.
Any suggestions on what to photograph can come from members.

I'd be willing to pay someone if it came down to it. Why not? If a reputable photographer was really into this, I wouldn't mind tossing a few bucks his way for teaching me.

Yeah something like that. A Subscribed Thread. Where the participates had to pay a nominal fee to participate and the instructor reaped a portion as POTN would need a portion to cover Bandwidth and Usage of course. just my $.02.

I would be willing to pay for something like this! Great Idea!

Sounds cool. I would pay for something like this.

Find a tutorial in the "Sticky"s & work through it. Then post the pic for comments/critique?

Thats great and all, but I know for a fact, that not all of my pictures get critiqued. It'd be nice if you could rely on someone to be honest with you and nitpick any and all things about it. At the same time, say they saw you centered something wrong, they could mention the rule of thirds, which I actually didn't know until just a few months ago when my girlfriend brought it up to me(she took a class once upon a time).

I just think it'd be great. Someone could see your weak points that you don't notice yourself, and help you work on em.

Whatever you do, someone will love it, someone will hate it, & the rest might not even notice!

PhotosGuy wrote:
Whatever you do, someone will love it, someone will hate it, & the rest might not even notice!

The technical aspects of photography are so easy to teach and critique, very objective and defined.

But then you also get into the 'break the rule' departure which may be technically not 'per the book' but which are very valid from an articstic perspective. For example, I have shot tungsten balanced film at dawn because I wanted bluer color balance...that isn't technically correct, but it is artistic interpretation of the scene!

And lastly, composition is so subjective...what works for one fails to work for someone else. As I pointed out to someone who invited me to critique a body of work of his, I hate Impressionism and Picasso..so who am I to critique his photography?!?!?!

Who appoints any of us to be photographic 'god' and declare what works and what doesn't from any artistic standpoint? In painting, very different styles were popular over the centuries, but any single style comes and goes, so it is with photography...differen​t strokes for different folks. that is why I seldom every criticize someone's photo from any aspect other than technique or techical because that is a bit better defined.