If you’ve read my blog recently then you’ll know that I’ve been using my new camera, the Nikon D3200, for a couple of months now. You will also have noticed that often I’m not that wonderful at taking pictures… It’s not that I don’t have good ideas, I definitely do, and in my head I know exactly how I want the shot to look, but in practice it often doesn’t come off the way I envisage… I realised, despite taking a photography course in college many moons ago, that I knew absolutely nothing about photography. I remember at college, where I was certainly far more pre-occupied with other things to actually listen in a class room, not understanding anything about apertures and shutter speeds and thinking it all a foreign language; I just stopped listening after a while and enjoyed the ride of snapping and being in the dark room which was fun and interesting. My teacher probably wasn’t very good either or I guess I’d have been able to take SOMETHING in? But nope, not a jot was left inside this brain of mine and photography has remained a pot luck mystery!

So, when I got this new DSLR camera, a major departure from the old SLR college ones, I vowed to make myself learn how to use it. But it’s hard when all you have is the manual which is extensive and long and daunting looking. It’s much easier to have it explained to you in person by someone who knows. On-line tutorials like Nikon Digi Tutor are fab because they’re visual and for me, far more beneficial than reading the manual, but you still can’t ask a real person questions and that’s what I really needed. So, I decided to sign up for a course.

Nikon have just opened a new Nikon Training School in Central London and they offer all sorts of classes for all sorts of people. Wedding photography, portrait photography, introductions into photography to name but a few and it was the introduction that I was really in most need of. I joined on for a days course of An Introduction to Digital SLR Photography which I took on Friday of last week and I’m so pleased that I did!

Firstly, I have to admit something and I’m sure it will make most people think I’m silly… On the top of my camera there is a dial which you can turn to choose the mode you want to shoot in. One button says ‘Auto’ so I presumed that was the ‘automatic’ bit and anything else was manual. I have been shooting for the past few weeks using the other options, ones like the picture of the woman in a hat for portraits, thinking that I was, in fact, now taking manual photographs! I thought I was being a bit flukey and my pictures weren’t too bad. I had no idea that these modes are still automatic and that it is the M, A, S and P buttons which truly let you be creative and take the pictures all by yourself – silly me! So, the very first lesson of the day was that I knew EVEN less than I thought I did…

The training school is very easy to find and is situated on Margaret Street in central London, a short walk from Oxford Circus and in the heart of the hustle and bustle of London life. It is a new building for them and my course was only the second they had run from here but of course they have other schools and while the building might be new the class was not and everything was as slick and oiled as I’m sure you would expect from somewhere that has been running for years. The class size can go up to 12 and although we were due to be at full capacity someone had cancelled so eleven of us sat in very comfortable chairs with desks attached and began to read our packs which provided note books, pens and details of the day. We had been asked to charge our cameras but Mark, our instructor, said he had chargers at the ready should anyone need. In a really relaxed and light environment we introduced ourselves. It wasn’t daunting, Mark felt like one of us rather than ‘the teacher’ and it quickly became an amiable atmosphere where we felt comfortable to ask questions and interact with each other. After Mark went through the basics (or necessities for me) of what ALL the buttons ‘mean’ and a little bit of theory we went outside just to start trying to use the cameras with a little guidance from Mark. The buttons I had never dared press were about to be touched for the first time and the dial was starting to point towards the M, A, S and P…

Although there were 11 of us and we all had similar, if not the same, cameras, Mark had asked us all what we wanted from the course. Some of us wanted to photograph our children and grand children, me for the purpose of my blog and others just for personal use. Others were there with already a fair knowledge and just wanting to brush up more. Bernard, a class member likes to take pictures of people on the move whereas another attendee, Bill, wanted to take food photography. We all had different needs and Mark was keen to bespoke parts of the course for each of us, he wanted us to feel comfortable to ask him things individually while outside or on breaks (we had three during the day including lunch).

Initially my photographs weren’t that inspiring but they weren’t meant to be. We were encouraged just to take our cameras out and see what they could do before too much had been taught. I was soon finding out that chooisng auto is fine but if you really want to get something out of the camera and be creative then you need to experiment with the light – that’s what photography is all about.

The class went over many topics, there’s an awful lot to learn in just one day and Mark touched on everything I had thought about asking and more. Explaining what the aperture and shutter speeds as well as the ISO is was like unlocking a foreign language for me and with the diagrams on the class board it suddenly all became clear. Now all I had to do was put the knowledge into practice. I think this may take some time. Photography and getting everything right takes a bit of time but tricks and tips were given to make it a little less daunting. The M button is for completely manual but choosing A or S for example will make the camera Aperture or Shutter Speed priority, you take care of that part alone and the camera will do the rest – a good compromise for when getting to grips and a time saver for an ‘in the moment’ shot. Explaining how to use light and that the shutter speed and apertures control and it really makes sense to me now as does so much more learnt from the course!

The next outside project was to photograph moving vehicles which Mark showed us how to do so that they looked like they were still even though they were moving and then, moving the camera with the shot so that the vehicle actually looked like it was moving. Very interesting. Using the menu to choose single point tracking or different and I could now do that; at the beginning of the day I wouldn’t have even had a clue what it was! All very valuable information that once you know about you can work with but when it’s completely alien just goes right over your head!

I enjoyed the course so much and have come away really feeling like I have been taught something and that I have knowledge to work with now. I particularly enjoyed looking at pictures where the shutter speed was left open for a long time creating some fabulous night time moving shots. I would really like to try something like this with a tripod or even just a wall. One of the pictures showed a night time scene of a road with light trails in the sky which looked blue despite the time of day and where the cars had sped along the road all you saw was light – very cool! It has inspired me to be more creative! Yes I mainly like taking pictures of people and objects for my blog but I really like the artistic side to this too! Mark showed me how to take a tunnel shot by zooming in mid shot and also helped me loads with blurring out the back ground and having faces in focus – using the focus points and knowing how is really helpful for this! This technique will be fab for both the items I’m reviewing and the people pictures on my blog.

He also got us to take pictures in different styles. I knew my camera could do black and white amongst other things but didn’t know how to get there! I’d accidentally worked out how to change a photograph already but not how to shoot in different modes. I also found it very interesting learning about taking RAW pictures as opposed to JPEG which can’t be played around with so much.

Another feature of my camera is that it can take movies. Again, I knew this but didn’t know how to do it and although not part of the particular course I was on, there’s another course specifically for that, mark was keep to show me how. It also became clear that this isn’t a camera which CAN do video as well, a bit like a side line but actually a blooming decent video camera in it’s own right! Hollywood uses cameras just like mine to video movies as it’s small and can fit in tiny places – brilliant! My camera kept revealing new things that I just may never have discovered otherwise!

One day isn’t enough to learn everything but this is a pretty good introduction and worth every penny if you ask me! I am really motivated now and with a little bit of knowledge I am working things out on my own – or giving it a jolly good shot anyway. When I literally knew nothing other than point and shoot that just wasn’t possible! Not only does the course help you learn about the functions of the camera and how to use them but it teaches tricks and tips for going on to practice taking really great pictures. I now know using a window as a light box is a superb idea for a photographer like me and it makes portraits look great. I’ve a way to go but I’m loving learning and this was a great kick start.

It’s a great course with interesting people at Nikon on hand. They’re friendly and helpful and I got way more than I had hoped from the day. The lunch is pretty awesome too and very adequately catered for – trust me to bring food into it!

I’ve been practicing my portraits for now and I did these completely manually, what do you think?

I just wish I could do a course every so often to both freshen up and learn a little bit more – at just over a hundred quid it’s really not beyond the realms of possibility. There’s also a CD that came in the box with the camera with all the photo shopping stuff on it. I hadn’t even looked but now I’ll be getting that out too! Watch this space for more photo posts!

I was not paid to write this post but I was invited on the course for free for the purpose of review.