What is the best type of course to do for photography for home studio only?
Im looking into doing a course to open up a studio from home but dont know if i need to do a diploma or not?
Courses are not a requirement, but skill certainly is. How you acquire that skill is up to you, you can teach yourself, or attend classes. Or you can work for an established photographer.
Many of the photography schools are of a dubious nature. Brook’s Institute for instance, had to make a multi-million dollar payout to former students to compensate for inadequacies in their training. If you do opt to do a course be very careful about the credentials of the school involved.
Which ever route you choose to take, I strongly suggest that you spend some time working for an established photographer before commencing your own business.
*In July 2005, the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) accused Brooks Institute of Photography and its parent corporation Career Education Corporation of persuading prospective students to enroll by "willfully misleading" them, "falsifying and omitting critical information." Brooks was given only a conditional approval to operate for the next two years with a hearing scheduled for February 2006, and ordered to provide "equitable restitution" to students going back to 1999. However, Brooks appealed the decision and at the hearing the judge determining that BPPVE had not complied with the mandatory provisions of the Education Code, and that it had wrongly denied Brooks Institute an opportunity to contest the Bureau’s action prior to the time it was imposed. The California Department of Consumer Affairs (which oversees BPPVE) later reached the same conclusion. Although Brooks ultimately received unconditional renewal of its license, it settled with a class action lawsuit for $12,250,000.*
Don’t really need a diploma. You DO need a good portfolio to show people your talent/style, and good knowledge of marketing and running a business. That would be worth taking classes for if you already know how to photograph.
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If you already know how to take pics, and are good at it, I’d focus more on business classes. It will help you know how to start up a business, run it successfully, legal and tax aspects, etc.
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You really don’t need a diploma, but you certainly need all the skills one learns when getting a diploma to be a successful photographer, that and a lot of experience.
Studio lighting is something that is learned along the way as a student in various courses. Each of the classes I attended at my photo school, had at least one studio assignment per term. Each assignment taught us a specific lighting technique and by the end of our time at school, we could light just about anything in a studio, using both incandescent and studio flash systems.
You will of course have to buy studio equipment. Figure at least $140 for a good 750 watt incandescent lamp with an umbrella, another $115 for a 42 inch five in one reflector and about $120 for a background stand. Actual backgrounds can be quite expensive, so you may want to start out just using four yards of yardage from the $1 table at your local Wal-Mart.
Now for the business part. Contact SCORE and have them help you with your business and marketing plan as well as how to build a good profit and loss spreadsheet.
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Fashion and glamour photographer
Courses are not a requirement, but skill certainly is. How you acquire that skill is up to you, you can teach yourself, or attend classes. Or you can work for an established photographer.
Many of the photography schools are of a dubious nature. Brook’s Institute for instance, had to make a multi-million dollar payout to former students to compensate for inadequacies in their training. If you do opt to do a course be very careful about the credentials of the school involved.
Which ever route you choose to take, I strongly suggest that you spend some time working for an established photographer before commencing your own business.
*In July 2005, the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) accused Brooks Institute of Photography and its parent corporation Career Education Corporation of persuading prospective students to enroll by "willfully misleading" them, "falsifying and omitting critical information." Brooks was given only a conditional approval to operate for the next two years with a hearing scheduled for February 2006, and ordered to provide "equitable restitution" to students going back to 1999. However, Brooks appealed the decision and at the hearing the judge determining that BPPVE had not complied with the mandatory provisions of the Education Code, and that it had wrongly denied Brooks Institute an opportunity to contest the Bureau’s action prior to the time it was imposed. The California Department of Consumer Affairs (which oversees BPPVE) later reached the same conclusion. Although Brooks ultimately received unconditional renewal of its license, it settled with a class action lawsuit for $12,250,000.*
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