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Seminars, Courses, Training Workshops for the Q ?


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Can anyone recommend classes on shooting with the Q? I would like to spend time with some experts to improve my knowledge of the camera and it's features. I would have guessed that with all the love of this camera that someone would put together a class or set of seminars where shooting with it would be explored. I have been using mine for a couple of years but still discover new things about it (mainly by reading this forum.) 

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Most of what you need is in the Leica manual. After two years it is not uncommon to discover or rediscover fine controls seldom used in day to day shooting. That applies to any digital camera. Are you missing some insight into the features which you are sure are there?

 

If you are also using other kit, it is quite easy to confuse specific features, even imagine features exist which do not or never have existed.

 

If you just want inspiration, join one of the Leica workshops.

 

Any other issues, ask here.

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Can anyone recommend classes on shooting with the Q? I would like to spend time with some experts to improve my knowledge of the camera and it's features. I would have guessed that with all the love of this camera that someone would put together a class or set of seminars where shooting with it would be explored. I have been using mine for a couple of years but still discover new things about it (mainly by reading this forum.)

You'll learn a lot following the Q forum and asking insightful questions. The forum folks are very knowledgeable and eager to help others.

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Thank you everyone for your comments. Yes, I have read the manual and consult it often, as well as Thorsten O's article. This does mostly answer technical how-to questions. But, an experienced telented photographer saying how to chose what to do with the Q and his learned preferences and tips goes beyond all the detail in the manuals. I could imagine a workshop dealing with digital photography using the Q could be very instructive and inspirational. Maybe the Leica workshop would be a start as was mentioned. I don't know about them. I've seen some very good photography on the web done with the Q due to the talent of the user. I think he or she could produce a very useful class. So what am I looking for? - a combination of what Q features the person uses and likes as well as his photographic skill is what would be ideal. Imagine, for example, if Cartier-bresson had grown to love the Q, pretty likely IMO!, and produced a workshop showing us his street photography skills and tips with using the Q. That is the slant I have on this.

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Thorsten doesn't just write articles. He runs small group 3/4 day courses in just about every country throughout the year. The aim of his courses is to give you the opportunity to learn to use leica equipment optimally in the field. £800- 1000 per day is about the norm. On top of that you have your own travel and accommodation costs.

Search for his website.

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Can anyone recommend classes on shooting with the Q? I would like to spend time with some experts to improve my knowledge of the camera and it's features. I would have guessed that with all the love of this camera that someone would put together a class or set of seminars where shooting with it would be explored. I have been using mine for a couple of years but still discover new things about it (mainly by reading this forum.) 

 

This kind of question has been already asked several times in the past ...

 

If you come to London I will put a bespoke 1 day course together for a minimal cost of say £1000?

 

...and apart from replies fairly similar to the ones given in this thread, has also drawn this kind of crack from Earley - which although is fairly facetious is also fairly relevant because there is really no need to start throwing money at learning to use a particular camera - and maybe not even at learning the basics of photography.

 

Pretty well everyone on this forum has (I expect) become a photographer by going out, taking pictures and trying to understand their results.  Supplementing this by reading is very helpful because you can then set yourself themes or tasks - such playing with depth of field, adjusting only ISO, or aperture or shutter speed.  Or spending a day doing only very close-up shots.  Quite a fun thing to do is to set your distance, say, at 2 metres on manual focus, and then shooting from the hip - no view finder just try to fire off about 100 shots on the street and see how many are in focus.  In other words try to develope your judgment of distances.  Try different distances.

 

With a digital camera it is much easier than with film because you don't have to worry about the cost and you can see your results very quickly.

 

As you refine your sense of distance, try opening up the aperture so that your judgment becomes more critical (read up on depth of field).

 

There's really not much else to do - just take pictures - lots of them.  Understand why you don't like certain ones of them.  That is most important.

Don't get too hung up on the ones you like, an analyisis of keepers is less helpful.  You  may end up always shooting the same way and your pictures will become clichéd.

 

Look at photographs on the internet.  The Magnum site http://pro.magnumphotos.com/ is a great place to go.  But when you look at them, try to understand what the photographer was doing.

Is the subject blurred?  Why?

Is the background blurred? Why?

Is there a moving subject which is not blurred?

Is there a distortion of lines?

Play a game.  How did the photographer achieve all of these things?  Try to predict the camera setup - lens, shutter speed, aperture etc - then check up the exif details provided with the image and see if you were right.  You will get better at it as you practice and you will develop an instinct which you will start to apply to your own images.

 

 

Look at composition.  Are there lines in the picture?  Do they enter from a particular corner?  Left to right? Do they leave the picture or do they terminate wthin the picture itself?  Does the action tend to be travelling from the left of the image towards the right of it?  Are there framing objects within the picture such as trees, buidlings, etc?  One side?  or both sides?

 

The lens on your camera is slightly challenging.  It is not very wide - but it is certaiinly at the wide end of "normal".  This can produce very bland images and it is worth reading up about the use of wideangle lenses just to give yourself a head-start o what you are doing.  Ken Rockwell seems generally to be hated accross the internet but here is very useful piece by him about wideangle lenses - http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm .  There is loads of other stuff on the Web as well.

 

If you approach it all methodically, you will develop good technical skills.

Whether you will find you have talent is a completely separate issue.

 

Others who read this thread may have hesitated to pose the question why someone might want to purchase as apparently their first camera, one which costs £3000.  (Although, welcome to the club :) )

Edited by marcg
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Thank you everyone for your comments. Yes, I have read the manual and consult it often, as well as Thorsten O's article. This does mostly answer technical how-to questions. But, an experienced telented photographer saying how to chose what to do with the Q and his learned preferences and tips goes beyond all the detail in the manuals. I could imagine a workshop dealing with digital photography using the Q could be very instructive and inspirational. Maybe the Leica workshop would be a start as was mentioned. I don't know about them. I've seen some very good photography on the web done with the Q due to the talent of the user. I think he or she could produce a very useful class. So what am I looking for? - a combination of what Q features the person uses and likes as well as his photographic skill is what would be ideal. Imagine, for example, if Cartier-bresson had grown to love the Q, pretty likely IMO!, and produced a workshop showing us his street photography skills and tips with using the Q. That is the slant I have on this.

What you are seeking is essentially not Q-specific. Some excellent ideas above. Try to get away from the idea that there is a magic formula. If CB had one, it was his skill to dance in the streets like a ballerina, until he got what he wanted. Not everyone is prepared to act like that.

 

Put in lots of practice and develop your own style and forget about the tool in your hand. Learn from your results. The latter is often overlooked.

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