# Upgrading photography slills



## shri080 (Aug 10, 2012)

Hi Guys i am shrikanth from India. Its been a while i visited this forum. I think this is my first post here so please excuse me if this topic has been discussed before or if i have posted it under the wrong thread. 

I am professionally in to photography for the last 3 years and i am really enjoying it. I started my carrier as a professional photographer after assisting a learned photographer in Bangalore for year. Now i feel i am kind of stagnating in terms of creativity and i really want to upgrade my skills as a fashion photographer. i feel Its a little late to join some institute at this age but i still want to learn and upgrade my skills. I was looking in to couple of schools in NY and California but i am really not sure of where to join. There are no good schools for photography here in India so i will need to go abroad. 

Flickr: shri 's Photostream here you will find some of my recent works. i ideally want to do some course for a year. 3 years degree would not be possible as i am already 28 years old i have responsibilities. So it would be of great help if some one can look in to my work and guide my on how to go about finding the right institute for me. Thanks for any help in advance.

Cheers,
Shri


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## 50mm (Aug 21, 2012)

Nice Flickr photostream Shri.  
You did not ask for my advice............. But sometimes I just can't stop myself.  
(School costs+28 years old with responsibilities+limited post graduate opportunities)-(Creativity+skills upgrade)= ???
Flickr says "You already have what it takes".  Hang on to your money and responsibilities.  Your talent and hard work will speak for itself, in due time, louder than any institute diploma.  
Good Luck!


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## Overread (Aug 21, 2012)

I would say that creativity isn't something that can be "taut" as such at a school or institution. I also suspect that many regular degrees will be beneath you if you've already pushed into the working market and after having a short look at your flickr. The first year would certainly leave you wanting I suspect. 

Personally I think at this stage what you want to consider is a few avenues:

1) Read books and articles on composition - combine this with studying the works of others, brows around flickr and the net, local galleries and the like. In other words broaden your horizons  and look around. The theory will help you understand better how and why certain compositions and effects work - understanding your own and the works of others, whilst the study of others work will help you gain more potential for inspiration. 

2) Attend masterclass/tutorials by established inspirational photographers. Hunt around and find photographers whose work interests you who are running courses and the like. Some are even now doing online courses so you won't need to travel. This is all about getting some higher level ideas and networking with other established photographers.

3) Projects - I'm not going to try and guess what areas of photography you confidently know or not - but do some reading around and find out ideas for new methods or skills. Then design short term projects to focus upon these - learning new technical and compositional schools will help you broaden your skills, gain in confidence and also give you new ways to work  --- and with that will come new ideas. 



Creativity is something hard to teach and is more something taught, in my view, by first giving the person the skills to enable them to create their vision (or have as few limits upon their creativity - this includes both the camera technical and the compositional technical); then by having them exposed to a wide variety of media and inputs to get their mind working on creativity. From there the creativity has to come from the person themselves.


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## Derrel (Aug 21, 2012)

Go to your local library and get a few books on design and composition. Study PAINTING and the other fine arts, as they have been done through the centuries. Flickr and the web are wonderful for seeing the work of many people, but unfortunately, many are self-taught and do not have much training in composition or visual design. You are at a level where your technical skill in digital photography is amply high enough. Your skill at the craft part of photography is pretty good. The underlying aspects of photography are not discussed very much at all on the web. Artistry, composition, and the elements and principles of design are topics one will NOT see discussed much on Flickr. Learning and studying more about those few,critical aspects of photography will enable you to do anything you wish to do with your photography!


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