Self taught or classes?

Hello!! I am a newbie to the site (posted a few times here and there) but I have really been wondering where all of you learned photography! Some of my favorite photographers on the site have said that they are self-taught and I was wondering how you did it? Did you read lots of books, get help from other photographers, or just play with your camera? I am debating on taking online classes for photography so I would LOVE some input from everyone! Thanks!

I learned a boat load about photography before I ever took a class. Before I graduated from OSU, I took three classes:

Basic Digital: I could have taught the technical aspects of that class
Photoshop: I learned a little bit, but a sculture, not a photographer, taught it and thus, didn't know much about photography photo editing.
BW Film: learned to develop, print, and matte film - very fun class and got my excited about film. I hope to have my own darkroom while I still can buy chemicals.

Ultimately, I would learned the technical aspects on books or online, but in a class you'll learn more about the art and be in contact with others. So, it's a mixed bag.

potn is the best online class there is

bobbytannehill wrote in post #10083175
Hello!! I am a newbie to the site (posted a few times here and there) but I have really been wondering where all of you learned photography! Some of my favorite photographers on the site have said that they are self-taught and I was wondering how you did it? Did you read lots of books, get help from other photographers, or just play with your camera? I am debating on taking online classes for photography so I would LOVE some input from everyone! Thanks!

Take a class, or at least find a mentor to shoot with. Not that the information will be better than what you will find here, but there is something to the immediacy of human interaction and feedback that will help you initially.

Both actually. I got started off with my SX110is and it really got me into the hobby. I learned a lot on that camera because of all the manual settings I could play with. Because of how much I loved playing with that I decided to take a photography class at my community college. After that class with my trust Pentax SF-10 film camera, I got even more involved and deeper into the hobby. I had a new found love for the darkroom and how film negatives were processed. After that I worked with my SX110is for the summer while saving up for a bigger better body. Finally after working all summer I had the money to get my 30D and haven't looked back since! Now I am just self taught and teach/help out others from time to time.

I think you need to find a good balance of classes and self teaching because to me there are lots of things they don't teach you in classes!

-Collin

Have an art degree, did not take one photoghraphy class.

you can teach yourself how a camera works but it's much more difficult to learn fundamental art concepts which contribute to an outstanding picture. painting, sculpture, etc all help you much more in my opinion than a class that teaches you how aperture effects depth of field.

Can't say that I'm self taught, but I haven't taken classes either. I've worked with other photographers - but mostly I was an art director and we were shooting commercial stuff.

Best thing to do would be to look at other's work and study it, read - if you can take a class, go for it - but most importantly, shoot. Shoot a lot. Shoot different ways. Shoot with different cameras, different lenses.

That is a very interesting topic, I was wondering the same

S2K.OGRAPHY wrote in post #10084286
potn is the best online class there is

QFT.

Anytime I've had any questions or concerns over how to shoot a certain shot, POTN has been there. Kudos to this site

I am a mix of both. I took photo clases in high school. Some of them were with college credit. Then was a photo major at the university. However most of the skills I use now, while based on what I learned before, are mostly self taught.

Classes will shorten the time it takes to learn things. But every thing in photo can be self taught. Wether you take classes or not really depends on how active you really are with your photography. And how fast you want/need to improve.

The professors I had, taught by way of problem solving. So the assignments were not "Tree" or Shadow". They where more more open, but with restrictions, one lens, certian film, limited time-- as in concept to submition in 24 hours. (This sounds easy but the subject is 1.5 hours away, other classes, eating, film processing, printing.... it makes it very close.) So I learned in 3 years what might take 10 years in the real world.

Sadly, I took 3 years of high school photography and learned basically nothing. I was the absolute laziest student I could possibly be. For some reason, though, I stuck with it when I graduated. Ended up buying a camera and learned everything I know off POTN (whether it be users posts or provided links).

After 30 years, I'm still teaching myself and learning new stuff all the time.

bobbytannehill wrote in post #10083175
Hello!! I am a newbie to the site (posted a few times here and there) but I have really been wondering where all of you learned photography! Some of my favorite photographers on the site have said that they are self-taught and I was wondering how you did it? Did you read lots of books, get help from other photographers, or just play with your camera? I am debating on taking online classes for photography so I would LOVE some input from everyone! Thanks!

I am basically self-taught, though I did have a little help in the beginning from folks who ran the US Army hobby photo labs that I did my processing in. I also read a lot of photo magazines to glean information. This was in the mid 1960s, and we did not even have wild dreams of an internet forum in those days.

As Phil mentioned above and as I have in my signature block below, the learning process never quits.

I enjoy teaching folks who are interested in learning. That's why I helped write the tutorial on perspective control that is in the "stickies" of this forum.

philwillmedia wrote in post #10085155
After 30 years, I'm still teaching myself and learning new stuff all the time.

Ditto ^^^^^

Self-taught takes longer, but is, IMO, the best way to avoid that nasty possibility of some arse-of-a-teacher "telling" you what "art" is.

And I also agree with a previous poster that POTN is a safer place to obtain the knowledge you need to improve technically, and thereafter, YOU can decide how to develop your eye.

Regards,
Simon

Self-taught. The thought of having to take photos for a class assignment never appealed to me (that said, if I ever step foot in a darkroom, some guidance might be welcome).

Anyway, studying and dissecting photos I liked (amateur to the "masters") and reading up on history and various interviews helped, along with the usual basic guide material and various photo magazines. Perhaps ironically, POTN introduced me to manual focus only lenses, which then degenerated into using film.

And of course, just going out and taking lots of photos. As noted above, it is a never-ending process, but that's in part what keeps it enticing.