Are Photography Classes Worth it?
A number of years ago, I was living by myself in Toronto looking for something fun to do after work. I stumbled on a photography school that offered in-class and field lessons once a week. The class, aptly named Photography 101, was meant to provide a basic understanding of how a camera works, how you can tweak its settings to capture different kinds of pictures, and how you can compose incredible shots.
Sure, the class was a lot of fun, as it provided me with a creative outlet during a time when I was living solo. And I did truly learn a lot about photography during the classes. But are photography classes worth it?
Not necessarily.
Traditional, in-person classes, no matter the subject you’re trying to learn, are competing more and more with free online educational content, which can be found easily on YouTube. Photography is no exception. The amount of photography, and videography, educational content on the internet is incredible.
There’s so much solid content, that I do truly think these days that you can pick up a camera with zero experience, hop onto YouTube, and, with a bit of time and practice, become an incredible photographer, without spending the money on the classes.
Now, I do think photography classes are worth it if you like in-person learning, or if you just simply want to get out of the house and do something. Plus, there is the added bonus of having an instructor there to ask questions and fully walk you through the concepts.
But online learning I think triumphs here just a little bit, because you can really hone in on specific topics in the world of photography, and very quickly learn what you want to learn. For instance, if there’s something specific you need to understand, like colour grading in Adobe Lightroom, you can quickly hop onto YouTube and find videos from great creators explaining how to do exactly that, whereas, if you took a Lightroom photography class in-person, you’d need to wait until the class started before you could gain an understanding of colour grading in Lightroom (if the course even covered that at all)!
So, are photography classes worth it? I think they are if you don’t mind spending a bit of money, and are looking to get out of the house. But, if you’re looking to learn something very specific quickly, or you don’t mind sitting behind your laptop watching video after video of educational photography content, YouTube, blogs (like this one) and the internet can be very great free resources to help you grow your photography skillset. And, if you get to a point where you feel like your photography skills have stopped growing and you could benefit from an actual photography class, then you can always hop into one and see if it helps push your skills to another level.
Bottom line, the key is to keep learning and improving your skillset, whether you attend in-person photography classes or watch endless YouTube videos.
If you’re interested in self-teaching yourself photography through online education, we’re going to be posting an article on some of the key things you should be learning at the start of your photography journey to make searching for applicable YouTube videos and blog articles a bit easier! Follow us on Instagram to stay notified of when that article drops.
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High quality photography for your brand, services and / or products is essential in today’s digital world. If you don’t have time to learn photography, and would prefer to hire a Toronto Area Commercial Photographer, give us a shout. We provide product photography, lifestyle photography, event photography, portrait photography, and more.
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