A Review of the New York Institute of Photography. Part 2.

In part 2 of this review I will focus on the assignments for the Complete Course in Professional Photography with the New York Institute of Photography (NYIP). In addition, I will go through the equipment that is recommended for the course plus communicating with the school. If you were wondering why I chose to do a course with the NYIP and what the course consists of then check out part 1 of this review.

To be able to get the most out of the course and complete the assignments NYIP recommend that you have an SLR camera, or at the very least a point and shoot with full manual controls that allow you to select aperture and shutter speed. Even if your point and shoot does allow you to do this you will most likely have problems achieving a shallow depth of field which is needed for one of the photos in the assignment for unit 1. NYIP do not favour any particular camera brand, the course is not about how great your particular camera is but more what you do with it that counts. The other piece of equipment that is recommended is a tripod. For those of you that are interested I am currently shooting with a Pentax K7 and assorted Pentax DA* lenses. I am also using a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod and a Manfrotto 498RC4 ball head; the combination is a little heavy but at least I know the camera is being kept steady.  Word of warning on buying a tripod.  This is not something you want to go dirt cheap on (I did for my first one and regretted it every time I used the thing) be prepared to spend between at least $300 to $500 and get something decent.

Now to the part you are possibly the most curious about, the photo assignments. With each unit of the course NYIP give you a photo assignment. The photographs you have to take are directly related to the material covered in the units and tend to become increasing challenging as you work your way through the course. For example in Unit 1 you have to submit photographs showing the following: the use of shutter speed to express a sense of motion, use selective focus to make a subject stand out, and lastly use great depth of field to create a feeling of distance. By the time you are doing unit 5 the assignments include photographing a newsworthy event (that would be suitable for a newspaper), photographing a sports event (again that would be suitable for publication), replicate the lighting and posing of a fashion photograph from a magazine (you have to submit you photo plus the one you have replicated) and finally create a photo essay of at least 10 photographs that tells a story.

Submission of the photographs to NYIP is via mail; no electronic submissions are allowed! At first I couldn’t quite figure out why they wanted printed photos, but then I realised that producing a great print really just completes the work you started in capturing the initial image. Plus the course includes a couple of lessons on printing and finishing touches, so it’s a chance to hone you skills in these areas. When NYIP receive your photos they are forwarded on to a working professional photographer for review. For example, the photographer who has reviewed my assignments has done work for National Geographic, Nike, NBA, Kitchen Aid plus many more. When the review of your work is complete you are then emailed a link to download the audio feed back from the reviewer. For me it generally took between 2 to 3 weeks to receive the feedback, which was fine it may have even been quicker; put it this way I wasn’t sitting around wondering what was happening.

Before I received my first review I thought they would just consist of “great job keep it up” and would be pretty general and quite short. Well let me tell you I was wrong about that! The reviews that I received generally ran in length from 20 to 30 minutes each and I was absolutely stunned by the amount of detail and information that I was provided with; if they don’t like something they will tell you, if they feel that you haven’t quite captured what the assignment was about they will ask you to re-shoot it. Conversely if they really like something they will tell you that too! My reviewer also provides me with lots of tips and ideas to try next time all of which have been invaluable.

At some point during the course you are going to have to communicate with the school and for me living in Australia I wasn’t going to do that by phone even though they do offer it. All of my correspondence with NYIP is via email and every time I have contacted them I have received a reply within 48 hours; even during the Christmas / New Year period, which I thought was pretty great. The responses I received were not just generic replies designed to get rid of me, all of my questions were completely addressed (again by professional photographers) and I never had to chase them up for a response.

If you can’t tell by now I am a big of a fan of the NYIP. I have been absolutely impressed with the Complete Course in Professional Photography, the content is thorough and the assignments are challenging, the reviewer I received has been great and if I had any questions or issues they were all resolved quickly and completely. Like anything in life you will get out of this what you put into it. If you just want to rush through the course and complete it as quickly as possible you can certainly do that. However if you take your time to think about the various topics, practice the techniques you are being taught, and complete the various exercises in the lessons then you have a great opportunity to learn a tremendous amount about photography and have a lot of fun along the way. I think this course is one of the best bargains going around and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

A Review of the New York Institute of Photography. Part 1.

As I said in an earlier post, to brush up on my photography skills I decided to enrol in the Complete Course in Professional Photography with the New York Institute of Photography (NYIP).  What follows are my thoughts on the NYIP and the course that I took; note I am not affiliated with the NYIP in any way.  To keep this post relatively short I have broken it into two parts.  Part 1 covers why I chose NYIP and the course content, and part 2 covers equipment, the assignments and review process plus communicating with the school.

If you spend enough time on photography forums someone will eventually post a question about what people generally think of the NYIP. Replies to that question will often be along the lines of “you don’t need to do a course to learn photography just buy some books or go to the library and continue to read our forum”.  That may or may not be true.  However, for me I would rather not be left to my own devices and much prefer to have a structured course to follow  as at least that way I know that I will not miss anything and all the important topics are likely to be covered.

There are several online photography schools so how did I come to choose NYIP?  Well what appealed to me about the NYIP, is that they are the worlds oldest and largest photography school so I figured that they must be doing something right!  Another big selling point for me is that the Complete Course in Professional Photography includes a large business component that provides valuable information on working in the photography industry be it as a freelance photographer through to opening your own studio.  Plus the price was great, for example I have seen some places charge over $700 – $800 just for a landscape photography course.  Whereas the NYIP offers an entire course in professional photography for roughly the same money; seemed like a bargain to me! What was also great was that you don’t have to put down your money all at once as they offer a pay by the month scheme.  The other advantage of NYIP is that your assignments (yes you get homework) are reviewed by working professional photographers.

A complete outline of the contents of the Complete Course in Professional Photography can be found here.  The course is broken into 6 units consisting of a total of 30 lessons and each unit comes with a series of audio CDs and an instructional DVD.  Suffice to say that the course covers from how your camera works and composition, through to lighting (natural, available and studio), portraiture, photojournalism, advertising and fashion photography and everything in between.

You work your way through the course by reading the prescribed lesson and then listening to the relevant track on the audio CDs.  The tone of the CDs is generally conversational in nature rather than as a strict lecture.  They are an easy listen and there is a gentle humour throughout, particularly from the Dean of NYIP Chuck DeLaney.  This works well as you benefit from hearing different approaches to the material covered; as they say there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat!  The CDs all feature various combinations of NYIP instructors discussing the material you have just read and how it is applied as a working photographer.

Some people have said that the lesson booklets are dated but I haven’t found that to be the case.  I think I did the course while it was undergoing a review as I received a mix of new booklets and booklets published some time ago.  I did not find this to be a problem as the concepts covered in the older booklets (for example child and pet photography, and studio lighting) are just as applicable today as when they were first published.  In general I have found the content of the individual lessons to be very well written.  Yes there are a couple of sections in various lessons that focus on shooting film, and there is also a lesson dedicated to developing black and white film; which I really enjoyed but I think that might be the chemist in me.  These film sections gave me a better understanding of a couple of key concepts such as exposure latitude (dynamic range) and the zone system.  Plus they motivated me to purchase a 35 mm film SLR; a Pentax ME Super.  Finally, to ensure that the materials you receive are “current” NYIP provide an update booklet for each unit (where appropriate) that covers the latest information relevant to that unit.

The DVDs that accompany each unit are a little bit hello 1985, but once again the material they contain is just as valid today as it was when they were first filmed.  Like the CDs they relate to the material in each of the units and you get to see the principles that you have read about and listened to being put into practice.  The DVDs for units 5 and 6 feature a master class with famed portrait photographer Monte Zucker and go through posing and lighting for portrait and wedding photography.  These two DVDs on their own are fantastic and go a long way to showing you how to produce professional quality portraits at home.

Keep an eye out for part 2 where I will go through equipment, the assignments and tests, and communicating with the school.

Logo Design

Once you have thought of and registered your business name (and hopefully your domain name too), it’s time to consider the visual look of your business.  Essentially this comes down to the design of your logo and the colours you use.

The name of your business and its logo both establish the visual look of your business and work to create the first impressions your clients will have of your company.  For a logo to be effective it should be

• simple.
• memorable.
• timeless.
• appropriate.
• versatile.

It’s worth spending some time giving serious thought to the colours used in your logo and there are many excellent resources on the web about how colour choice can communicate different meanings.  For example, Smashing Magazine has two great articles on colour theory that are well worth looking at (part I and part II).  In very simple terms warm colours such as red, orange and yellow are regarded as being energising and positive, while cool colours such as green, blue, and purple are viewed as being reserved and relaxing.  Much more information is available in the two-part article linked to above.

Unless you are a graphic designer experienced in logo design I believe it is better to hire a professional graphic design company to do the work for you.  Sure there are sites on the internet which allow you to design your own logo, heck you can even run a logo design competition if you really want to which will give you up to dozens of designs to choose from.

Personally, I think getting your logo right and being able to discuss concepts with the designer is much more important which is why I used Impact Logos in Brisbane, Australia to design the logo for my photography website.  For a couple of hundred dollars they designed three concepts and then from the one that I chose gave me unlimited revisions until I was happy with the design.  They then designed both my business cards and letterhead stationery.  Throughout the process their communication was amazing and they delivered the final products within a week.  Can’t beat that!

If you would like to have a look at how my logo turned out then head over to my website at www.aaronstottphotography.com.au.

Choosing a Name for Your Business

Having decided to into business, it quickly becomes apparent that you need to think of a name for your company.  What to name your business it very important and should be given quite a lot of thought.  Your business name is typically the first encounter the public will have with your company and it therefore needs to give a good impression.  There are some excellent resources on the web that are well worth reading about how to choose a business name (see Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, for example).

Some general tips on naming your business include:

• the name should be memorable,
• it should be original,
• be easy to pronounce and spell,
• ideally communicate what your business does.

In some ways the choice of name can be influenced by the way you choose to structure your business.  For myself operating a photography business as a sole trader I chose to call my business Aaron Stott Photography.

While this name sounds obvious it wasn’t the first one that I chose!  For several weeks I went through a brain storming process which frequently involved annoying my partner multiple times a day to ask for her opinion of different names; needless to say she soon got very sick of hearing about it.  I had names that ranged from Chroma Studios through to Strobeworks Photography, and many different variations in-between.

So why after all that did I choose to use my own name as the business name?

Well I realised that I am offering my services as a photographer to my prospective clients and that they need to know that they are going to be interacting with me directly to delivery the best outcome for them.  If I had of named my business one of the alternatives that I considered then clients would not know who they are going to be talking with let alone who would be working with them to create their photographs.

Having settled on a name you will then need to check to see if its available for use and that it has not been previously registered by someone else.  In Australia this can be done (from 28 May 2012) at the ASIC website, in the United States the Small Business Administration contains details on how to check for availability.  Unfortunately if your name has been already registered its back to the drawing board.

One last thing that will need to be checked is your names availability as a domain name, once again if someone else has registered a website with a name that you have thought of you will most likely have to start again.  Domain names can be checked at any domain name registrar, for example godaddy.com in the United States and crazydomains.com.au in Australia.

Starting Over

Right about now you may be thinking “here we go not another photography blog” but hopefully this one will be a little bit different from the other 111 million photography blogs that are out there (according to a quick and dirty non-scientific search in google).

But before we get into the good stuff, it might be worth giving a little bit of background about myself (don’t worry its going to be short).

After completing a PhD in analytical chemistry I worked in the science industry for approximately ten years, but then two weeks from Christmas last year I was told I no longer have a job.  In fact, no one at the laboratory I worked at has a job; including my partner who worked for the same company.  Our laboratory was closed down as head office had recently purchased another company that better suited the “strategic direction” going into 2012.  Suddenly finding ourselves both out of work our immediate thoughts turned to wondering about the usual things like how are we going to pay the mortgage, the car repayments, look after the baby etc, etc.  Fortunately the redundancy payouts gave us a bit of a buffer and some time to try and figure out what to do next, which leads me to photography.

I have been an amateur photographer for many years and decided that it was time to brush up on my skills so I enrolled in the Professional Photography course with the New York Institute of Photography  (which will be the subject of a future post).  With plenty of time on my hands (not really as I am looking after a toddler – stay at home parents deserve a medal, they really do!) I decided to open a small business focusing on portraiture (including babies and toddlers), commercial and corporate photography, and eventually weddings.

So that’s me in a nut shell.  Subsequent posts will be about setting up my business and eventually I will post some photography blogs!