Photographic Education For Dummies - the Idiots Guide To Successful Shooting

Well, you've finally recovered from reading the digital photography magazine from the newsagent. The last HDR picture of psychedelic auroras in Aberystwith Gorge has been seen and you've had a Bex and a nice lie down. It is time to decide whether you have learned anything. Well, you've learned not to open a British photography magazine in full sunlight without putting on the RayBans, haven't you...?

Now as for any actual help with your own photography, well that's another question. The DVD about how to open layers in Photoshop Elements 6 is good but it's 11 minutes you will never have back in your life. You can feel confident in doing it, and if you get the next 15 part-works from the newsagent you will be able to close them again. Knowledge is power.

Is there anything you can do locally to increase your skill? Yes there is. You can go to TAFE, a number of universities, or some studios around town to take courses in photography. The uni and TAFE are a fair commitment and are generally aimed at turning out junior professionals to replace the ageing ranks of senior professionals. It's not as grim and Darwinian as it sounds - the old professionals get a pretty good opportunity to exploit the young professionals along the way. " Come and shoot for me." is roughly equivalent in economic terms to cat food smeared on the trigger of a bear trap. The cub photographer smells it and....

Cynicism aside, there is the opportunity for private instruction. I once tutored a young chap in portrait shooting in the Little Studio and I'm happy to say no-one was maimed. I will not attempt it again as I have a shorter temper these days. Fortunately there are other people who are better instructors and other venues more central.  The Shoot Photography Workshop next door to Camera Electronic is a case in point.

It looks like they are going to run regular courses with regular teachers. I have one of their flyers before me detailing the next three months and it looks as though they are having lectures and workshops that address the shooting of food, fashion, and stars - the astronomical sort.

The fashion, food and astronomy are to be dealt with by people who really do know what is needed for technical and commercial success...because they are successful technicians.  They are not a simplistic DVD trying to teach you how to suck digital eggs.

The best way to find out the details is to contact Shannon at Shoot on:

shannon@shootworkshops.com.au

or on the website...shootworkshops.com.au

or just phone up to 9228 8232

Turn The Saturation Up To 11

Impelled by a sense of curiosity, I grabbed a half a dozen or so sample magazines that had been dumped on the lunch table at Camera Electronic and took them home. There were two free sample DVDs included with them so I got to play them as well.

It is a delicate matter for one writer to write about the writings of another writer. It can take on the flavour of undiscriminating fandom...or bitchy jealousy. I tried to look at the mags with an open eye.

It was an eye that watered. Not because of bad journalism or ugly photography - indeed most of the images printed in these magazines were really well done.The main problem was the overpowering intensity of the colour. The saturation, vibrancy, and detail were slid  way over to the right...and that was just in the advertisements. The actual editorial stuff was vibrating sideways off the page. It's hard to do that with a shot of a shingle beach in Yorkshire, but they managed to do it...

Okay. This is in contrast to the Australian Would-Be Professional Photographers Magazine Printed In Singapore. The AWBPPMPIS, as it is known in the trade, has an editorial policy - indeed it has an automatic program - that desaturates every image shown. This is to give an extra sense of drama, professionalism, and retro hip, and to save on the more expensive printing inks. These can be kept in reserve for the advertisements. It's a necessary economy these days. Fortunately web-based publication can still give full rein to the entire sRGB spectrum and the advertisers count on you having the screen set to laser-intensity anyway.

I did enjoy the DVDs - they were bright, simple, and gave a useful bit of information in each section. The fact that the information was aimed at the dumb end of the market is neither here nor there - that is my neighbourhood. Besides, even if you found that they were telling you something that you should have known but didn't, the fact that you could view it unbeknownst to your professional rivals means that you never need to admit to ignorance. Like voting in a federal election - as you are all alone there in the cardboard booth no-one need to know that that you endorse the local wacko party candidate.

Are they as good as the dear old publications of the analog era? Are they, as British magazines, as good as their American or Australia rivals? Yes and no. If they seem heavy on trick photography and computer manipulation, take comfort that you can emulate what they do with the images without the need for plumbing or organic solvent developers. You might fall prey to the occasional blue screen but you won't break out in eczema while doing it.

But they are a signpost to another thought about photographic knowledge - and we'll explore that in the next post.

Expert Dummy

We've all seen those books in the stands - the yellow and black ones refer to us as dummies and the orange and blue ones are aimed at idiots. In some cases they say they are for complete idiots - a degree of excellence that seems a little disturbing to aim for.

I must take a second to say that these books are adopting such a disdainful attitude with the view of correcting our faults. They may sneer at us but they try to teach us - by the end of the book we are probably going to be familiar with the basics of hydraulic engineering or Sanskrit or whatever was printed on the cover. We can even get dummy and idiot books that deal with photography...

I've bought 'em, and can pronounce myself competent in a seven year old computer program. Competent, but not expert. By the time I get to expert the computer will have died and the program lost in history. I might as well study how to punch index cards for UNIVAC.

The popularity of the books is not surprising - we are all unsure about so many things these days and long to have the " official " " expert " " explain " " the " "" correct "" way " to do anything. If your eyes feel a little funny it is because of all the quotation marks. Close them for a minute and it will all be better.

This works pretty well when the subject is 15th century flax weaving as most of the bugs have been ironed out of the looms since then. There aren't a lot of developments in reed-filled marshes and what worked last century will work now. Such is not the case with electronic and optical technology. As I write this and you read it someone else is writing yet another set of computer instructions and the Fruit Company is set to release their next $ 1300 invoice loose on the world. I suspect the Dummy and Idiot press is never going to be able to keep up with the pace of the business and that idiots and dummies will be left stranded by the roadside.

Constant daily combing of the internet, supplemented by weekly seminars and meetings, trade fairs, university courses, and insider bulletins delivered through Facebook connections seems to be the way to go. Of course one must not neglect the artistic connections through galleries, movements, collectives, and societies. Professional organisations deserve careful attention, if only for an insight into the lives of other artists. This should probably occupy no more than 16 hours of the day, leaving an easy 8 more for work, study, home life, sleep, and natural functions. Prospective students should remember the phrase " I owe it to myself "  but make positive plans about what to do when yourself comes round to collect the bill.

Is there an alternative? Yep. Shoot Photography Workshops runs a number of fairly up-to-date events throughout the year. They are conducted by fairly well-known photographers and are fairly successful. The are pitched at a fair price.

There's not a heavy level of selling - goodness you probably do more of that to yourselves when you surf the net and agonise over camera specifications. There is sometimes a surprising level of art and contentment. You should ring up, get a schedule for the next few events, and give on a try.

So why be a dummy?

To check out all the courses Shoot Workshops has to offer please click on this link.