All images copyright - Richard Southall
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Mint Casino - Southampton
All images copyright - Richard Southall
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
Photography education - another brick in the wall
'Education, education, education' is the battle cry I am constantly confronted with these days, whether it is the local councillor canvassing for votes or by the dean of art at a college I am visiting. To be honest, this word now only makes me angry and belligerent. Fours years ago, I started my journey into the world of education (which I sometimes now think of as the journey into the 'heart of darkness) with much hope and optimism. In my early career, I had been taught by Dave Lloyd and John Hodgett (who I am very lucky to count as a friend today) and they installed a set of skills and knowledge in me which I still value today.
In hindsight, I naively thought education and in particular photography education still encouraged and espoused the same views and principles which it had for me 25 years ago. And in some small way, I hope to add my own experiences and wisdom to the knowledge base of the new breed of aspiring photographers. What initially shocked me was the anger and dispirited nature of the students I initially encountered. Their passion for photography had all but drained away within the 6 months since joining their respective courses.
I soon was confronted with the reality of the situation which seems to be consistent across most student's experiences. During my photographic education, I can barely remember a day when weren't expected to use our cameras or respond to a short 1 hour brief where we would be expected to shoot, process and produce a contact for a crit. These days, students seem to be bogged down in endless and repetitive workbooks and journals, where they must repeatedly justify their views and actions. In some cases, I was encountering students who hadn't taken a picture for over six weeks but had been confined to workroom to slavishly produce a workbook that would represent 80% of their final mark.
This was highlighted to me early this week, when a former student rang me to complain about a situation at her current university. She was in furious state after discovering a fellow peer had been awarded a distinction for failing to hand in any practical work (images) but had instead written a 2000 word essay justifying her idea and what she would have done if they had had time to complete the assignment.
Frankly, I didn't know how to respond, I know I should have been incredulous or angry, but my short time in academia has taught me that all things are possible. The lack of practical workshops and hands-on-camera experience has particularly concerned me, especially given that we live in a digital age. I could understand the reduction in workshops if we were still reliant on film and paper (most courses' materials and resources are woefully low) but there seems to be now a greater emphasis on the ideas young students develop rather than how they implement them correctly. There seems to be no understanding of light, camera control or composition in the majority of the images I have seen from students recently.
Two years ago, I was confronted by a HND student (at the end of his first year) after a digital manipulation class, who was quite nervous and agitated. I asked him what the matter was and he stated he had over heard other students talking about an effect called 'depth of field' and wondered where he could buy the Photoshop filter from. At this point I realised something must be done but how and what?
In the days when I was at college, there was only 12 photographic courses in the UK but today, there at least 270 photography degree courses, let alone HND and ND courses. Also then, our group sizes were between 20-24 pupils per year, our contact time with tutors per week was between 20 -24 hours with unlimited use of the studios and darkrooms. Today, an average year group at a University is between 30 -60 students, contact time (based on a rough study I held early this year) was between 6-12 hours in the first year before going down to as low 1 hour in the 3rd year. Access to resources for most students was extremely limited with some students having to book studio space up to 6 weeks in advance.
You must also realise the pressures the lecturers are under to comply, for their courses to survive. In most cases, funding for a course will be withdrawn automatically if a benchmark figure of 58% pass rate is not achieved. Many more unscrupulous colleges claim to arts course pass rates of 100%. How do they achieve this? What happens if you have inept/substandard set of students in a year group (it happens periodically)? This is bit I leave to your imagination but all I can say is that lecturers are put in an intolerable position where many are forced to choose between their ethics or their career.
However, this must be contrasted against a common compliant that most professionals and ex-students have voiced to me. That is the quality of the course content that the majority of the students encounter. In particular there is little emphasis on the business element of the majority of courses so students have little or no idea how to market themselves when they leave college, let alone prepare a realistic business plan. Another area which is rarely covered is the basics of lighting and other essentials (pack shots/ fill-in lighting etc.) so that they have at least the key skills to survive in a competitive environment.
This situation may seem depressing now, but with the additional rise in tuition fees coming in the next academic year and also the quiet reduction in contact hours (some courses have reduced this by half this year), the prospective student could be facing a pretty raw deal- hourly tuition in the 1st year costing £75 per hour, rising to by the 3rd year, £300 per hour.
So as a profession, what do we do to help prospective new entrants bearing in mind that just under 5000 photography graduates enter the job market every year. Do we seek to reduce the amount of courses available so as to better match supply to demand or do we try to educate prospective students as to the realistic outcomes of their expensive education and that in reality (even though they are now in £45,000 of debt) this will only be hobby for them with the occasional paying job.
In the end, we do owe these students the truth even if education is failing to tell them the realistic outcome of their investment and I for one cannot sit idly by.
Richard Southall
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
In hindsight, I naively thought education and in particular photography education still encouraged and espoused the same views and principles which it had for me 25 years ago. And in some small way, I hope to add my own experiences and wisdom to the knowledge base of the new breed of aspiring photographers. What initially shocked me was the anger and dispirited nature of the students I initially encountered. Their passion for photography had all but drained away within the 6 months since joining their respective courses.
I soon was confronted with the reality of the situation which seems to be consistent across most student's experiences. During my photographic education, I can barely remember a day when weren't expected to use our cameras or respond to a short 1 hour brief where we would be expected to shoot, process and produce a contact for a crit. These days, students seem to be bogged down in endless and repetitive workbooks and journals, where they must repeatedly justify their views and actions. In some cases, I was encountering students who hadn't taken a picture for over six weeks but had been confined to workroom to slavishly produce a workbook that would represent 80% of their final mark.
This was highlighted to me early this week, when a former student rang me to complain about a situation at her current university. She was in furious state after discovering a fellow peer had been awarded a distinction for failing to hand in any practical work (images) but had instead written a 2000 word essay justifying her idea and what she would have done if they had had time to complete the assignment.
Frankly, I didn't know how to respond, I know I should have been incredulous or angry, but my short time in academia has taught me that all things are possible. The lack of practical workshops and hands-on-camera experience has particularly concerned me, especially given that we live in a digital age. I could understand the reduction in workshops if we were still reliant on film and paper (most courses' materials and resources are woefully low) but there seems to be now a greater emphasis on the ideas young students develop rather than how they implement them correctly. There seems to be no understanding of light, camera control or composition in the majority of the images I have seen from students recently.
Two years ago, I was confronted by a HND student (at the end of his first year) after a digital manipulation class, who was quite nervous and agitated. I asked him what the matter was and he stated he had over heard other students talking about an effect called 'depth of field' and wondered where he could buy the Photoshop filter from. At this point I realised something must be done but how and what?
In the days when I was at college, there was only 12 photographic courses in the UK but today, there at least 270 photography degree courses, let alone HND and ND courses. Also then, our group sizes were between 20-24 pupils per year, our contact time with tutors per week was between 20 -24 hours with unlimited use of the studios and darkrooms. Today, an average year group at a University is between 30 -60 students, contact time (based on a rough study I held early this year) was between 6-12 hours in the first year before going down to as low 1 hour in the 3rd year. Access to resources for most students was extremely limited with some students having to book studio space up to 6 weeks in advance.
You must also realise the pressures the lecturers are under to comply, for their courses to survive. In most cases, funding for a course will be withdrawn automatically if a benchmark figure of 58% pass rate is not achieved. Many more unscrupulous colleges claim to arts course pass rates of 100%. How do they achieve this? What happens if you have inept/substandard set of students in a year group (it happens periodically)? This is bit I leave to your imagination but all I can say is that lecturers are put in an intolerable position where many are forced to choose between their ethics or their career.
However, this must be contrasted against a common compliant that most professionals and ex-students have voiced to me. That is the quality of the course content that the majority of the students encounter. In particular there is little emphasis on the business element of the majority of courses so students have little or no idea how to market themselves when they leave college, let alone prepare a realistic business plan. Another area which is rarely covered is the basics of lighting and other essentials (pack shots/ fill-in lighting etc.) so that they have at least the key skills to survive in a competitive environment.
This situation may seem depressing now, but with the additional rise in tuition fees coming in the next academic year and also the quiet reduction in contact hours (some courses have reduced this by half this year), the prospective student could be facing a pretty raw deal- hourly tuition in the 1st year costing £75 per hour, rising to by the 3rd year, £300 per hour.
So as a profession, what do we do to help prospective new entrants bearing in mind that just under 5000 photography graduates enter the job market every year. Do we seek to reduce the amount of courses available so as to better match supply to demand or do we try to educate prospective students as to the realistic outcomes of their expensive education and that in reality (even though they are now in £45,000 of debt) this will only be hobby for them with the occasional paying job.
In the end, we do owe these students the truth even if education is failing to tell them the realistic outcome of their investment and I for one cannot sit idly by.
Richard Southall
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
Monday 16 May 2011
Calumet Seminars - Introduction to Portraiture
Last Saturday, was the last of the introduction to portraiture seminars which I ran at Calumet, Birmingham. The last 4 weeks has been a lot of fun with this current course cohort. During the 4 week course, I covered the basics of studio lighting with an emphasis on high key and low key lighting setups. We also as a group, covered the basics of digital workflow at the point of image capture with the appropriate selection of colour spaces and use of macbeth/grey cards.
Many thanks to the support from Peter and the rest of his staff with the courses and I am looking forward to the next batch which I am due to deliver there soon.
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
www.emphasisphotography.co.uk
Images - copyright Richard Southall
Monday 9 May 2011
LightMeter Pro - a light meter for £0.59?
This is the first time I have actually reviewed anything on our blog but this software I spotted on the App Store for my iPhone sparked my interest. I have always been a fan of hand held meters and have used them throughout my career, starting with Westons before trying Sekonics and finally settling on Minoltas. During the last couple of years of teaching, students have often bemoaned the price of a semi-decent meter and I was intrigued to see if this apparent bargain could bridge this gap.
The app appears only to work on iPhones 3GS and the current 4G. After a simple download process the app was ready to use. The meter has 3 basic settings, daylight, shade and artificial lighting (not flash) and utilises the iphone's camera as the light sensor (can only make reflected not incident meter readings). I first calibrated the app using my Macbeth (grey) card in daylight conditions (overcast lighting) before starting to take sample meter readings.
To compare the accurancy of the app, I used an Minolta Autometer 4 with a spot attachment. I selected a range of mid tone subjects to take readings from, both under daylight and incandescent lighting. Under daylight (shade setting) the meter proved to be most accurate with a 1/3 to 1/4 of difference in the meter readings but under the main daylight setting, the diffences were almost 2 stops under exposed. The readings taken using incandescent lighting were better with the meter giving readings of 1-1.3 stops over exposed depending on the colour temperature of the light source.
I would say that it is not a replacement for a purposed built meter by any degree, especially without being able to take incident readings, but as a back up for a student or keep amateur who has either forgotten his meter or the batteries have gone flat, then this might just dig them out of a tight spot.
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
Emphasis team does the Walkathon
Yesterday my wife, Elaine, and I undertook the BRMB charity Walkathon to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital. The route is 26 miles around the Outer Circle (no. 11) bus route and our intention was to walk the entire route. The atmosphere was fantastic and the other 10,000 participants really entered into the spirit of the day.
Unfortunately, we only made it to the 22 mile point before having to call it quits (strained foot muscles and aching back) but we were delighted to have raised funds for such an important cause. We are in the process of collating how much we raised but hope to report back soon with a final figure.
One thing that did strike us throughout the walk was the amount of abandoned and empty shops we passed. Something between 40/50% of retail units and factories in some areas were empty and this we found quite a sobering thought.
Many thanks to all those that sponsored us and if anyone would still like to make a donation, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Richard
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
Friday 6 May 2011
A Night at New Scotland Yard
I have just spent the evening at New Scotland Yard (no they didn't lock me up!) with the Metropolitan Police Photographic Society. I was asked down by their society's secretary to give a talk on my experiences on architectural photography and its practical application. I would like to thank their members, in particular Chief Inspector Steve Osborn, for their warm welcome and their enthusiasm and interest throughout my talk. It was good to also hear their views and experinces of street photography today. It's seems we have alot of common shared experiences especailly with over zealous security guards!
I wish them well and look forward to seeing them again. And the visit to the pub afterwards was greatly appreciated!
Richard Southall
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall
I wish them well and look forward to seeing them again. And the visit to the pub afterwards was greatly appreciated!
Richard Southall
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall
New Photography Seminars/Courses
We are please to annouce our latest set of photography seminars/courses in association with Calumet.
July
2nd - Shooting Interiors, a Masterclass
9th - Urban Landscape Photography
13th - So How Do I Make a Profit From Photography
16th - Architectural Photography, An introduction
23rd - Introduction to Photography pt1
30th - Introduction to Photography pt2
August
3rd - So who's going to hire me? - Marketing for Photographers
7th - Digital Workflow for Photography - The Basics
13th - QTVR, A master class in 360 degree imaging
20th - Studio portraiture - An Introduction
25th - Night Photography
September
3rd - QTVR (360 degree photography) a Master Class
Sessions can be booked for individuals or groups. Sessions durations depending on subject vary from 3 hours to 2 days depending on subject and level.
We still a couple of spaces available on our studio photography course for this coming Saturday and the following Saturday. The architectural course (May) is now fully booked but we a couple of spaces for the advanced night photography course (end of May).
Sessions are held either on location or at Calumet's Birmingham Branch (Hagley Road - Birmingham). For booking information, costs and course details please contact either myself or Peter (Calumet) - 0121 326 7636 or reserve a space at: http://www.calumetseminars.co.uk/
Maximum number of delegates per session - 10
Richard - 07973 202137
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
July
2nd - Shooting Interiors, a Masterclass
9th - Urban Landscape Photography
13th - So How Do I Make a Profit From Photography
16th - Architectural Photography, An introduction
23rd - Introduction to Photography pt1
30th - Introduction to Photography pt2
August
3rd - So who's going to hire me? - Marketing for Photographers
7th - Digital Workflow for Photography - The Basics
13th - QTVR, A master class in 360 degree imaging
20th - Studio portraiture - An Introduction
25th - Night Photography
September
3rd - QTVR (360 degree photography) a Master Class
Sessions can be booked for individuals or groups. Sessions durations depending on subject vary from 3 hours to 2 days depending on subject and level.
We still a couple of spaces available on our studio photography course for this coming Saturday and the following Saturday. The architectural course (May) is now fully booked but we a couple of spaces for the advanced night photography course (end of May).
Sessions are held either on location or at Calumet's Birmingham Branch (Hagley Road - Birmingham). For booking information, costs and course details please contact either myself or Peter (Calumet) - 0121 326 7636 or reserve a space at: http://www.calumetseminars.co.uk/
Maximum number of delegates per session - 10
Richard - 07973 202137
www.emphasis.biz
www.richardsouthall.co.uk
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