Nikon School

has anyone taken the Nikon School thats advertised on the nikon

website? it's $99.00 for the day. any thoughts? anyone going?

I went to the Nikon School in Cincinnati, about 4 years ago. The instructors were very entertaining and knew their stuff. The slide shows were great, and I picked up a few tips. You will be inspired. Also, the lunch is good, and you'll be around a bunch of Nikon fans. I would recommend it without hesitation. Enjoy.

I would also recommend those seminars or schools wholeheartedly. I took a 2- dayer years ago on nature photography, and Art Wolfe was one of the guest teachers. A very worthwhile time.

They give it to you hot and heavy, well worth the money. And during the breaks, you

can fondle the equipment.

I attended the introductory class in Berkeley, CA a year ago. The class was wonderful, and little was said about Nikon. They were sensitive that pushing the hardware was unnecessary. With the book and the lunch, the class was not free, but it was darned cheap. The instruction was clear, targeted to the audience (which was very large), and loaded with innocous, practicle little tips to better photography. I have almost talked myself into going again.

 

MHE

You'll get $99 worth alright - they throw a lot of stuff at you. I went about 4 years ago and it was an eye-opener for me.

 

Also just went to Digital 201, the advanced DSLR class. It's very good too even at $149 with no book. That class is kind of a "tie it all together" workflow type of class and answered a lot of questions for me.

Steve,

 

I'm going to the digital 201 class in January, can you give me any idea of what to

expect? Is there any book, or other handouts with the 201 class? I really liked the

basic class, and may go again in another year or so.

thanks for the input folks, i just sent Nikon my $99, i'll attend the Orlando school in February...let ya's know how it goes.....

regards

Doug

The Nikon School Handbook was updated in 2000 (or 2001), and is worth the $25 price that B&H charges for it when they have it in stock.

 

The lunch that you get (choice of 3 sandwiches (like Turkey, Tuna and probably ham or roast beef, with cheese and lettuce and tomato)), cake, coffee, choice of cans of soda, potato chips, cole slaw or macaroni salad, is worth, in a place like NY City, probably at least $13 since you get to sit down when you eat.

 

So, the class is actually only like $60, if you look at it that they feed you and give you a handbook (also another little pamplet).

 

And, yes, you can play with the equipment before class and on the breaks.

 

All in all, I'd say that they give you your money's worth.

 

Depending on your level of skill, that may or may not be something that you need. But it's a fun day.

 

I always thought about it (since the 1970's), did it in 2000 or 2001, and can't say that I have any regrets.

I took the basic course in Rochester, NY a couple of years ago at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). My version of the handbook is copyrighted at 2000, version 6. The handbook is small enough to fit into your camera bag, and contains a LOT of useful information. One important point - don't bring any gear! It's a classroom. There's nothing to take pictures of! I could see the guys who did bring their gear having to take photographs of the inside of the cafeteria, or the school grounds during the break just to get off steam. You just knew that they would later throw those photographs away.<p>As for content, it was interesting, but you could gather a lot of it from reading books on your own.<p>During the breaks, most people were all over the new digital gear. I was actually most fascinated by a new camera that was being completely ignored by the others, the FM3a. I spent all my break time looking at that beauty, wondering how it would survive with all this overwhelming interest in digital. Yet, it has managed to, so far.<p>Go, and get it out of your system.

The food depends on where they hold the school. When I went to the basic class it

was held at a Radisson hotel, and the food was very good. It would probably set you

back over $20.00 most places. Naturally, Nikon get's banquet pricing, but it was

much better than I anticipated.

 

The info comes so fast that it's hard to take notes and still watch the presentation.

Hi Carl -

I have thought about going again to the basic class because Sam Garcia's work really impressed me. That way I get to see what he's been up to because he doesn't have any books or do workshops from what I can find.

 

At 201 (which is always on a Sunday), it's typical seminar schedule - 8 to 5 with a morning and afternoon break as well as lunch. No handouts but they plug bluepixel.net which they say will be an on-line follow up to the class. The site isn't live yet but you can register for an email when it's going. They cover basic Photoshop, how to make prints, workflow and give an overview on other programs like ACDSee, etc. They also did a live demonstration of shooting a two-lite (sb80's) portrait to show about color temp, blown highlights and how to deal with it. Like the basic class, not too much Nikon-pushing other than what the latest stuff will do. Wait for the explaination of what the new 10.5 lens will do...

 

One of the best things was that the two presenters shoot very differently. Bill Durrence (maybe he was at the basic school you went to) shoots RAW and Reed Hoffman, a PJ, shoots JPEG. They both will talk about pros and cons of each.

 

You'll enjoy it.

Steve,

 

Leave it to me to get the wrong class designation. :o(

 

I'm taking the digital 101 class, and that's what I meant to ask about. Currently, for

digital, I'm using my CP 990, I would love to be at a point where the 201 class fits me,

but that may be more than I need just now. Talk about luck, this years version of the

Nikon School, Phoenix edition, is being held within 5 minutes of my home. Maybe I

should take 101 and 201, but I don't know that I'm yet ready for 201. Anything you

can offer about the 101 class I will appreciate. :o)

I didn't go to 101, but basically what they said about it was that it was geared for Coolpix type cameras and they did their demos with Photoshop Elements. I'm sure there's alot of good information there too, you can do things with a Coolpix that you can't do with a DSLR after all!

My wife is the Photoshop person here, although I recently bought a book ( from

Peachpit Press: Photoshop Elements, a visual quickstart guide, by Craig Hoeshen &

Christopher Dahl) on Photoshop Elements 2.0, and I'm probably gonna add Elements

to our Photoshop collection. We attended a seminar that delved into some of

the features of Elements, and I was impressed with it as an alternative to full version

Photoshop. It fits like a glove with iPhoto, except for my particular computer that

seems to have a corrupted version of iPhoto. The only way to really fix it is to wipe

the hard disk and start fresh, but that's not a task that I'm looking forward to, so I

procrastinate. :o(

 

Betty, my wife, does freehand graphics using the mouse on high speed in Photoshop.

Most of her stuff is whimsical, and she did ALL of the graphics for a cookbook that we

wrote, including the covers, right in Photoshop. She's currently publishing a book of

poetry and short stories for a client, and the graphics are either her Photoshop

creations or some of my photos reworked in Photoshop to fit particular sections of

the book.

 

Geez, if buying more photo equipment wasn't bad enough on it's own, now we have

the G5's to pull at our purse strings. I guess there just isn't anyplace to quit spending

money, LOL.

 

Nikon school is one of the places that I consider more than worth the time and

money.

I want to attend one of these schools and am curious whether any of you think there is any reason I should attend 101 before attending 201. I am still using only film but have decided to make the leap in the near future to a Nikon D100. My impression is that 201 would be the best course for me to learn about how to use it effectively. But I also have to admit that, despite my interest, I am barely more than a novice photographer. Any comments?