Has anyone undertaking a photography course they would recommend?

I’m just starting out really and would like to improve the quality of my pictures. I would have a particular interest in architectural pictures

Not really architecture but strobist lighting 101 if you like flash

Thanks but I’ve no idea what that means.

I’ve just bought the understanding exposure book and he has a link to his school and some free videos. The school is at :

http://www.ppsop.com/

Amazon Local sometimes has classes cheap.

Youtube has loads of stuff.

+1 Understanding Exposure.

Strobist Lighting 101 is an online course/guide to using flash in your pictures…

I would say that Cambridge in Colour is a really good site with plenty of tips too.

Also, Fro Knows Photo is full of good little videos and a helpful forum.

[video]http://vimeo.com/98411940[/video]

BlindMelon don’t bother with a proper course I’ll post some good links when I get back from work in this thread.

Thank-you everyone.

Do a challenge too, like Photo a Day on Flickr or something? There is a group that quite a lot of people on here are members of.
I did it last year and it was a lot of effort doing it every day, it really made you think about opportunities for photo’s and how you could try to keep things interesting…..

Here you go:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/onephotoeveryday/

Cambridge in Colour has some handy but quite technical tutorials. Especially those few that delve deep in to the fundamentals of colourspace and the like.

Youtube tutorials vary an awful lot, and can be a bit marmite, and often are more about what you can do in lightroom etc. to turn a photo into something artistic rather than realistic.

What does “improve quality of pictures” mean? Better eye for artistic composure? Different camera settings? Better tweaking in lightroom/photoshop to get more punchy colours?

eg: I quite enjoyed the Gavin Hoey 15min photo challenges on Youtube (if you can handle the Adorama ads in later ones), but really found that French guy (Serge someone), ruined photos far beyond acceptable. Both imho are more photoshop tutorials than photography, even though Gavin gets out and about with a camera.

I’d avoid paying for an online course tbh. Far better to hook up with a local photographer and pay for a few face to face, hands on sessions. There are loads of pros offering training for beginners. If you’re in / near Leeds I can point you at one of the best when it comes to architecture and he’s far from pricey.

I am doing a 2 day course in London next week as I am off on holiday shortly as I need a ‘fast track’ so I am not the ‘all-the-gear-and-no-idea’ guy at the resort, but rather the ‘all-the-gear-and-some-idea’ guy…

Right I’m back 😀
Best photographic online courses BY FAR can be found here they have deals on when a course is live usually $99.00 for 3 full days of top, TOP advice.

https://www.creativelive.com/photography

Other good web site for info is

http://fstoppers.com

Two fo the best books for the subject your intrested in is

The Essential Guide to Lighting Interiors with Small Flash by Scott Hargis

And
Architectural Photography inside out by Jim Lowe

And if your in the Northwest of the UK drop me aline and a’ll be more than happy to give soem basic lessons on photography. FOC 🙂

Join the Flickr “nikon dslr forum” take an active part and get people to critique your photos. It works wonders

Many other forums exisits

We don’t insist on Nikon cameras…

Creative live do have good courses, expensive though, but sign up for their notifiocations and catch them live for free.
Join active flickr groups in your interests, and study the work of good photographers. Here are a few architerctural ones…
http://www.marcgerritsen.com/
http://www.jeffreyjacobsphoto.com/
http://christopherbarrett.net/
http://www.jameshaefner.com/
http://www.trentbell.com
http://www.jimroofcreative.net/
http://www.timgriffith.com
That’s a heck of a lot of studying to do….

Twenty years ago when I was at college I went to the library and took out The Negative by Ansell Adams, without doubt it taught me more than any other book, tool, lecturer, etc etc ever did, dont be put off by the title in the digital age, it will teach you how to compose, expose and visualise, you will know how the zone system works, how to peg highlights, retain shadow detail and all the mysteries that escape so many, I still use its principals every day I work.

Architectural photography, strokes for folks I guess.

Thanks everyone, plenty to keep me busy there. And badllama thanks for the offer but I’m in NI.