OU Photography Course.

[Wowbagger]

I've signed up for this, starting in October.

https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/tg089

I've messed around with cameras of one sort or another pretty well all my life, the first decent one I bought being a Rollei B35, almost exactly 50 years ago. Since then, I've had a number of film and digital cameras and taken some pretty good photos, but it's all been landscape, wildlife and family snaps type of things. I've had some good results, but I don't consider myself a photographer, and I don't talk the right language to understand what other people are talking about, so I thought I'd have a go at this as a way for using up some of the time left before the grim reaper calls for his dues.

I wondered if anyone else had done this, or any other, photography course, and what they think.

The cameras I intend to use are my iPhone 12 Pro and a Panasonic Lumix G7. I do have a rather old Nikon D70 with a few good lenses, but I haven't used it for yonks.

[fruitcake]

No experience of the course but the description suggests it is for total beginners (with an intermediate level of course available separately). They're likely to cover the technical aspects of manual exposure control; i.e. they'll cover shutter speed (and its effect on motion blur) and aperture (with its effect on depth of field). I expect they'll cover sensitivity, white balance, the rule of thirds (for composition), exposure histograms, maybe on-camera vs off-camera flash. The DSLR is likely to the more useful of the cameras you mention, since it is the one that directly allows control of this stuff. That Nikon of yours is a perfectly capable camera.

They want students to have image editing software so they may also cover dodge and burn, the art of cropping and perhaps the application of (synthetic) vignette. I wouldn't expect any more than that in 100 hours if it's to be covered in suitable depth with student engagement and responses.

An OU distance learning course with practical assignments would be an excellent way of learning these things, and couple of hundred quid for the course seems good value. 

[Polar Bear]

Great find Wow.  Such a course interests me greatly.

Reading through the link I get to the disability section.  They seem to overlook being visually impaired.  I might just fire a query back in this regard.

[bikepacker]

Wednesbury College in the West Midlands for many years ran a photographic course for the visually impaired and may still do so. The course tutor was Veronica Marshall who was an exceptional portrait and wedding photographer as well as being an excellent teacher.

[Wowbagger]

Great find Wow.  Such a course interests me greatly.

Reading through the link I get to the disability section.  They seem to overlook being visually impaired.  I might just fire a query back in this regard.

There's a visually impared photographer operating in the Southend area, one Ian Treherne. He stoked a tandem for me once.

A few years back he had an exhibition of his work in the local art gallery. I was very impressed.

https://iantreherne.co.uk/

[Wowbagger]

And, in a Small World moment, it transpires that JenM OTP has also enrolled on this course! How utterly splendid!

[barakta]

If any visually impaired student was to be turned down, please hit me up. I know the law chapter and verse and indeed can direct people to relevant resources.

I have worked with a few visually impaired "visual subjects" students, including some who have made their vision part of their artistic vision.

[Wowbagger]

I went to a talk on wildlife photography this evening. Neil Phillips was the guy in question and this is his website. http://www.uk-wildlife.co.uk/

[rogerzilla]

I did the A-level at evening class 25 years ago.  The stuff I actually learned was about the history.  This was when digital was only just starting to take over.  I largely lost interest after that happened; being able to shoot 100 images, free, and pick the best one, or fix major errors in Photoshop, weren't options with film.  It took a lot more skill.

[Wowbagger]

I've never really got out of the film mindset. I hardly ever edit photos, other than perhaps to crop them for a specific bit. Thats something that I shall have to learn.

[fruitcake]

being able to shoot 100 images, free, and pick the best one, or fix major errors in Photoshop, weren't options with film.  It took a lot more skill.

The catch is, shooting a hundred images is rarely possible for the most interesting subjects - those that move around. It's still a challenge to frame and capture a few good photographs.

Photoshop is good for turning bad photographs into mediocre photographs, and it requires hours of screen time. You can try and turn a bad photograph into a good photograph using Photoshop but it will probably look increasingly fake the more you push it.

Most good* photographs are good because of the lighting not the camera.

*a friend once gave me a useful definition: a good photograph is one you choose to look at for more than ten seconds.

[Wowbagger]

I've just submitted my End of Module assessment - 10 photos and a .pdf file in which I answered 3 questions.

My images are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RijnhZwgaowWLoks6

[mike]

some lovely photos in there, Wow, especially the boat & moon and the tree stump.  Would you recommend the course?

[JenM]

Coincidently I also signed up for the course. The course has been for the most part pretty good. It is structured into 9 weeks with online written material, assignments and some videos.

For a reasonably experienced photographer some of it was a bit basic, but a very useful reminder as to some of the theory and technical aspects. It didn't really cover editing in post in any detail. For me, the best bit was the weekly assignments, which made me go out and photograph something specific (although you could also use existing photos). Also to experiment with things I have never tried before.

Each week you were encouraged to post your images online to enable constructive criticism from other members of the course. Sometimes this has been quite useful. Assessment is based on a portfolio of 10 images, plus a written statement. It has been fascinating to see what people consider their 'best images'.

Whilst a camera has been used by many on the course, some have used it to improve their phone photography.

What has let the course down is some of the videos, especially on editing. They have advised that they plan to address this.

[BrianI]

Does the course require Specific editing software, along the likes of Lightroom, Photoshop etc? I don't use those (or have them), but I tend to use darktable & GIMP

[JenM]

No specific editing software is required. I think Wowbagger has been using Darktable.

[Wowbagger]

some lovely photos in there, Wow, especially the boat & moon and the tree stump.  Would you recommend the course?

Thanks.

Yes, I enjoyed it. I think Jen did too, and she took some terrific photos.

The course doesn't recommend specific editing software, although I think the vast majority of delegates seemed to be using Lightroom. I'm a skinflint and object to shelling out £lots for something I'd never used before. As I mentioned on the course, I've taken thousands of photos over 50 years with decent film/digital cameras. But I've always treated my digital photos as I would have done a set of prints that have just come back from Bonusprint. I'd cropped the odd image, but otherwise, editing was completely new to me. I did mess around with Darktable, but couldn't really get the hang of it. My computer has a copy of Pixelmator on it - a legacy from when Dez lived here, I think - but I'd never used that either. Some of the moderators talked about Affinity as an editing package that you bought, rather than hired by the month. I think it's <£70.

There is a follow-up 10 week course which costs £500 and leads to credits if you want to put them towards a degree. I might do that at some point, but the next start date is 25th March, and I'm not in a position to commit to that at this stage. I have signed up to a day's photography at Flatford Mill on 11th April. That's £92 and is run by the Field Studies Council. They've also got a summer school in Devon in July, which looks particularly tempting. I have also joined a photography forum - talkphotography.co.uk. That link takes you directly to some of the photos that their members posted in 2023. Thre are some superb pictures on there.

[Ham]

Some very talented photographers on talkphotography, and some pretty mediocre ones, too (I aspire to mediocrity ). As can easily be the case with single interest fora, I found myself reading stuff and thinking "actually, I wouldn't stay in the same room as <these folk> IRL, why here?" so I took a holiday

[Wowbagger]

I just had my result: 78%, the pass mark being 40%. Quite happy with that.

There has been no specific feedback yet, but IIRC they said that would follow a week or two after the result.

[TimC]

Gimp will do most of what Affinity Photo or Photoshop will do, and will use many of the plugins made for those programs. It's free. Affinity Photo can be had in sales for about £40 for the standalone program - or £100 for the whole suite including Designer and Publisher. It's £67/£160 normally. And extremely good as well, and the unlimited licence allows its use on Windows, MacOS and iPad.

I have all three (Gimp, PS24 and Affinity Suite), and I use Gimp as much as I use Affinity. I rarely use PS.

[mike]

Some very talented photographers on talkphotography, and some pretty mediocre ones, too (I aspire to mediocrity ). As can easily be the case with single interest fora, I found myself reading stuff and thinking "actually, I wouldn't stay in the same room as <these folk> IRL, why here?" so I took a holiday

Same, I found it quite toxic - openly mocking of newer members, cliquey, extremely sexist. In contrast, https://focus-on-photography-forum.net feels much more like here!

[Jaded]

Some very talented photographers on talkphotography, and some pretty mediocre ones, too (I aspire to mediocrity ). As can easily be the case with single interest fora, I found myself reading stuff and thinking "actually, I wouldn't stay in the same room as <these folk> IRL, why here?" so I took a holiday

The mediocre ones post a lot of stuff. The toxic culture really grates. I left.

[Ham]

@Mike & jaded, I'm glad I'm not the only one.