Snyderman's Online Photography Course - Any Good??

[dlwalke]

Hi,

I just came across this website http://www.theunderwaterphotographer.com/ and thought it looked like something I might want to sign up for. I'm a completely amateur photographer with a C5060, new to underwater photography, but mostly take pretty decent pictures above water. Anyhow, the course, particularly the digital photrgraphy course, looked liked it might be useful for me. Does anyone have any experience with these courses?

Thanks for any input,
Dave

 

[diver janet]

Hi Dave,
Before you invest big dollars in an on-line course, you might consider one of the regional dive shows in your area. The Chicago area just had Our World Underwater and there were in-depth seminars offered by several wonderful digital underwater photographers, all included in the price of the dive show. You can get some really great beginning tips that way and start out your underwater photography career and then move forward once you get a little experience under your belt.

There are also some very good books just recently published for underwater digital photographers, one by Michael Aw and Larry & Denise Tackett just produced one also. It starts with the basics and goes on from there. The Tackett's book was $29.95 and would give you a wealth of information to start with! I'm sure there are many more out there....

 

[fpoole]

Yeah Dave,
I just saw the same thing by Marty..
Looked interesting, I posted a link on my site so I'll be curious to see what the response is...
As Janet says, there are a lot of good books out there, but not sure the class is expensive... don't remember seeing a price... $49??? but that could be something else...
I'll be following this thread to see what response pops up...

interesting....

I was asked by some guy who had a web site on how to construct a class and he'd do this and that... I gave him what I thought might be helpful and never heard back... so I'm wondering if this is the same operation.. but with Marty being the instructor, I'm guessing not... as Marty appears to be sterling in character...

We'll see I guess...

 

[alcina]

FWIW - I'd forget the M. Aw book. Unless you've never seen a digital camera before I just don't think it's worthwhile - there are books out there with far better photos/examples. Don't know about the other one.

A great book to have is Jim Church's Essential Guide to Composition. Though written during the film era, the principles are the same no matter your medium. This is a truly "essential" book as far as I am concerned and know many other photogs whose copies are dog-eared, too!

Don't know about this course - seems to me that I have been able to move my photography forward by leaps and bounds by 1) getting out there and doing it: both on land and underwater and 2) talking to others here and on boards like digitaldiver.net

I look forward to hearing more about this course if some one has done it.

 

[Dee]

Are you looking for general U/W photo or camera specific knowledge?

I agree with alcina...in fact a lot of books assume you've never seen a camera and spend a lot of time explaining what one is and does. Unless it's camera specific, you may be covering alot that doesn't pertain to your camera. Church's composition book is a must for any photographer. The composition can make or break a photo. I've seen photos from pros that were technically perfect but boring yet some from beginners with great composition are interesting and keep my attention.

I haven't taken a course from Snyderman but I've taken several classes from others. To be honest, I didn't learn anything that I haven't seen covered on this board or on Digital Diver and sometimes not as much. The only advantage was we had immediate water time to put it into practice. And practice was the key. The best way to learn is just get out, or down, there and try it. If something doesn't work, delete it and try the next setting.

A couple of webistes that have some excellent information is....
Pete Schultz info at Splashdown Divers - some great info on Oly cameras and their use.

Dave Reid's Photo Instruction - an older site written for film but has excellent instruction on composition, exposures and critiquing your own work for improvement. I love Dave's ability to explain the technical gobbedy-gook into plain english.

Olympus tutorials - not U/W specific but some excellent info on super macro

Jay Treat's U/W photography - good basic info