Online Long distance diploma, which course is best?

mcgee189

Hi,

I want to do a long distance learning diploma or such in photography, i have looked at the diploma with the Photographic Institute (PI) in Dubli and CMIT. I was wondering does anybody have experience of either, or other courses?

Thank you

PCPhoto

an online course will tell you as much as youtube tutorials, reading articles online - regular visits to this photo forum and good old fashioned googling.

you might be better off saving your money and putting it towards gear.

you have to ask yourself what do you want to get from the photography course - is it meant to be a stepping stone towards a career or just to get a better understanding/knowledge of techniques.

most of the courses you will find online will not be accreditated/recognised by employers or education bodies - they will take your money and give you information which you can find yourself with a little time.

aislingj

http://courses4u.ie/Company/59/ACS+Distance+Education.html

ACS Distance Education also run a number of Photography courses, haven't taken part in any of them but they look fairly good.

mcgee189

Thanks for the advice. This training would be covered by my employer, we have a training budget of around the EUR500, so i cannot spend it myself on lens or camera. So just want to pick the best course option for this training budget. CMIT offers a fetac accreditted diploma, i was wondering does anyone have an experience to this, as opposed to the photography institutes diploma, which isnt Fetac. There are also ACS distance learning which look good.

I hope this would be a stepping stone to a career. I realise you get great help nowadays from Utube and such, but i was hoping a course would be a sturdy base to build a career apon.

Thanks

melekalikimaka

tbh its not really a stepping stone, i'm just finishing a degree, i'd think of it more of a course that tries to prepare you, at the end of the day, the course doesnt give you a portfolio for clients, nor does it give you great ideas for images, all it does is give you a platform to work them out yourself ...if you can, no amount of education can 'make' you a great photographer

PCPhoto

mcgee189 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. This training would be covered by my employer, we have a training budget of around the EUR500, so i cannot spend it myself on lens or camera. So just want to pick the best course option for this training budget. CMIT offers a fetac accreditted diploma, i was wondering does anyone have an experience to this, as opposed to the photography institutes diploma, which isnt Fetac. There are also ACS distance learning which look good.

I hope this would be a stepping stone to a career. I realise you get great help nowadays from Utube and such, but i was hoping a course would be a sturdy base to build a career apon.

Thanks

wait a minute - your boss is going to pay for you to do a photography course .... so you can do photography for him/her ? sounds like your boss is either a really nice person (paying for a course like that) ...or is trying to cut corners by paying for the course then asking you to do little jobs which would cost him hundreds to hire a professional.

contrary to what people believe taking photos professionally isn't as easy as buy an expensive camera and press the button (which is the normal advice I tell people who want to get into photography)

does your boss understand that after a few weeks of a course you will probably be a little wiser but will still lack photography knowledge and experience (and possibly gear)... most professionals build their gear over years, I have lenses from 16mm to 600mm and have been buying over the last 10 years ... and I'm still not done)

you will also not learn a lot of industry standard post processing techniques - there are little things which various professionals in different sectors do which makes their image jump out .... sports photographers, food photographers, jewellery photographers, news photographers, PR Photographers, Architecture photographers - interior and exterior , Fashion photographers etc all have different ways of shooting and different techniques in post processing.

if you were to sit down and learn all these it could take you months - just to read and practice the techniques on a computer.

as for the course ...if you have to choose between an accreditated course and a non accreditated course .... my advice is go with what is recognised, if you aim to build on the course and do some photography afterwards its best to have some kind of qualification thats recognised.

Of course this all depends on your knowledge and understanding in the first place, if you "have an eye" for photography.

mcgee189

Hi PC,

Thanks for that. I am on a fas scheme, and we have a training allowance to further ourselves, so thats the story really. I have been taken photos for the last few years, have a Nikon D80 and a 18-200mm sigma lens. I am doing a online photoshop course CS$ and want to find the best value for money online course. I think the Fetac is a good option, just wanted to get a bit of feedback.

Cheers again!

PCPhoto

most photographers learn from experience - so get to some of the boards meet ups, get out there, join a camera club and click click click ... keep taking and analysing your own work.

keep asking how can you improve this image....eventually you get to a point where you think.... "feck that its good enough"

mcgee189

Yeah, thats the best way i think. I have been takn landscape for years, now i'm trying different things, i must say i learnt a load from the internet. But i want to avail of the training allowance as it is free. I hope to do a two year course in September, in Cork as well.

Thanks for all your advice!