Workshop Experience : Photography Studies College Week #2
The PSC course continues with introduction of the exposure triangle and an assignment to get used to hand held shooting.
Being Week 2 its all still warming up with the course. We spent this week going over the mechanical and technical aspects of our cameras, bit of familiarisation for those that needed it, and a bit of a refresher for those that were across their cameras already.
Its funny how we all split in to the Canon types, the Nikon types, and the Others. By the looks of our class alone, Canon seems to be holding its own in camera share !* (* not a statistically valid sample size). Being in the "Others" with one other student, I had some good time to go through our different cameras and discuss what we liked about them.
We then got introduced to the Exposure triangle - the relationship between ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture in order to get a "correct exposure".
When I first started photography and started to get my head around this triangle and the interplay between these three key parameters, it did do my head in for quiet some time. And practise didn't seem to crack it for me at the start at all.
Until I found the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.
Just a fantastic reference book - it reads so easily even though it is quiet involved in parts, and it really does cement in the key principles of shooting in manual and manipulating ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture in order to get the effect that you imagine. (it goes in to quite a few other areas of capturing light as well and I highly recommend the purchase and read).
After reading this book I have rarely taken any camera I now use off manual, and its now up to my imagination to capture a good photo just as much as it is the settings of a camera.
We also got our first assignment. A simple one, a useful one and one that isn't necessarily as easy as it sounds.
Set the camera to ISO400, shutter speed to 1/4, stabilisation off if you have it anywhere in camera or on the lens, and go and get a pin sharp hand held frame.
Off we go !
Workshop Experience : Photography Studies College Week #1
Having recently enrolled in a 20 week photography workshop, I thought I would document some of my experiences and share the journey as it goes along.
As I have some spare time at the moment I have enrolled in a part time Creative Camera and Capture workshop at the Photography Studies College PSC Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA.
The workshop is made up of 20 3 hour sessions on a weeknight plus a weekend location activity. There were no prerequisites (except the fee of around $2500 AUD or so) and its made up of 3 units from their actual Advanced Diploma in Photography course that they offer.
I thought I would use these pages to share some of the experiences as we go along and hopefully get some conversations going on the content and learnings and how it can help us all achieve our own goals in photography.
Guitar Man @LesWillPhoto 2015 Leica M6 TTL, Tri-X 400TX film, f11, 1/500, scan via Vuescan
Session 1
PSC is a very well respected institution in Melbourne and Australia so I start this course with a pretty high sense of excitement and expectation. First day is always a bit slow and clunky. We all met each other - about 18 of us - and our lecturer who is Scott McNaughton, photographer for Fairfax. Described himself as a mixture of technical photographer and creative photographer - so should cater for every type in the class ! Really solid guy that came across well from the get go. Outlined what we will go through over the next 20 weeks, and gave us an insight in to the fact that we are all starting from different points, and the course is all about lifting each of us from wherever we see ourselves at the moment. Sounds good. Also warned us that during the workshop our shots will get worse before they get better of course!
After sharing some of his own work and discussing his work (probably a bit more then he expected!) Scott took us through a quick history of photography, Covering work from Capa, H CB and the early Magnum people, he then moved on to the early photo journalism work of Annie Leibovitz. It was then whirlwind review of the work from James Nachtwey, Joe McNally, Elliot Erwitt and Greg Marinovich and the Bang Bang Club. Clearly a lot of content from a lot of photographers and all well worth exploring and reading up on. McNally's work is fantastic in my view, and the early Magnum greats are all inspirational given their focus on the creative capture of moments as opposed to the technology - as it wasn't around much then of course! Really enjoyed the albeit quick timeline run through from the first known photo (daguerreotype) to modern day photographs.
I like the fact that the workshop is all about lifting and bettering each of us from our own starting point, and as with any workshop, its more about what we want to get out of it as opposed to anything else. All good so far.
The PSC journey has started! Until next time.