Photography school

<p>HI, I'm trying to decide between the Hallmark Institute of Photography in the States and the Speos Institute in Paris. Could anyone provide me with the pros and cons of each? Thanks</p>

<p>I am a self taught photographer. Im not going to tell you not to go to school, but I will say make sure you will be learning more than just how to take a picture. You can learn all that with some research online and a few trips to the book store. I have 2 photographers that now work for me that went to school for it. Make sure you learn the skills to be a successful business person, or at least get great connections to opportunities that are not there for people like me.</p>

<p>Take a look at <a href="http://www.artcenter.edu/accd/index.jsp">Art Center College of Design</a> in Pasadena, CA. Rated by Newsweek as the top design school in the US. It is supported by donations from companies like the major auto companies, major advertising agencies, and the film industry. It is likely you never heard of it because they never openly advertise. Their reputation keeps the enrollment full.<br /> The program is a high energy, intense program, taught by top dollar professionals working in their fields in Los Angeles. You will be surrounded by creativity in auto design, space design, graphic design, product design, film, photography and more.<br /> There are 2 large shooting stages for studio work, one is large enough to shoot automobiles. They have props and studio lighting equipment, enough to equip 15-20 students using the shooting stages at one time, each on their own setups, not group shots. They have dark rooms and and e-6 line to process film, as well as complete professional level digital printing facilities. Each week expect to spend 40 hour at school and 40 hours out of school doing assignments and in the classroom. If you don't want to work hard, don't bother looking into the program. If you want to save yourself a decade of grief trying to lean on your own, and make contacts you can use in your career, this is the place. Your portfolio, upon graduation, will open doors for you.<br /> It is a private school, it is expensive, but you will be equipped for anything when you leave.</p>

<p>Hi Clare,<br>

Hallmark is a good school, however at the cost for 10 months, you could probably cover the half the cost of either Brooks or Art Center. There are 6 or 8 CC's that teach photography as a profession fro Fl to Ca. I'll dig out some of the names if you are interested.<br>

Lynn</p>

 

<p>I was fortunate and was able to learn at one of the top three photo schools in the world at that time. (US Navy). My daughter's former boyfriend went to a local university majoring in photography at it's highly regarded art school and I have to tell you the lack of information he recieved was abysmal! No discussion of depth of field, optics, equivalent exposures, using a hand held light meter etc. Most of these schools only deal with the artsy fartsy crap and teach little or no technical subjects. So a photographer graduates and can pose a beautiful portrait but if a lighting challenge or some other technical aspect comes up they are lost. Now with the advent of digital the technical information has become even less prevalent as the camera does 90% of the work for you! The reference to Brooks is a good one, not sure about Hallmark,Do your research! make sure they aren't more interested in teaching painting than photography.<br>

IMHO learn film first then the transition to digital will be much easier and much more intuitive.</p>