My experience says to take it in a hands-on classroom environment. I took an Intro to Digital class a while back, and I took it at a Community College. As Node mentioned, the interaction of other photographers, and their different styles and ideas was very benificial. We would work on an assignment (five different pics of lines for example), project our work and critique it as a class. Our instructor also taught an online class at the same time and showed us much of their work as well. From the beginning of the semester to the end you could really see an evolution of skill and creativity with our class. The online classwork didn't seem to grow nearly as much.
Just as cpanaioti said, I learned as much from the classroom discussion as I did from anything else.
Before I took the class, I was taking snapshots with my CoolPics 8400. By the end of the class, I was framing 20x30 prints and had started saving for an SLR setup, and still have had wheels turning since for a way to make a living with a camera. You can learn reciprocity and exposure from many websites or books, but not the experience from sitting in the class. My vote is for the classroom. |
