Zero to Hero

All about the course

I’ve designed Zero to Hero to be a 1 day introductory course in photography suitable for complete beginners. We’ll focus (sorry, bad pun...) on the technical basics, as well as exploring methods of nurturing your creativity, and employing your new found technical skill to bring your ideas to life. I’ve tried to steer clear of technical geeky details, or getting too wrapped up in art theory, instead keeping things relevant to how you can bridge the gap between the ideas in your head and the images you capture with your camera. No experience is required, just enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. You’ll need a pen and paper, and it’ll help if you bring your camera along too. You do not need an expensive or fancy camera to take this course, but one with the ability to shoot in manual exposure mode would be a big bonus. I’d recommend taking notes of anything that interests you, but the entire course content is provided as a series of PDFs on completion. I’ve structured the day like this: Intro, quick overview and obvious H&S stuff Introduction to exposure. I think this is the single most important technical skill to master, as so much of the rest of photography is based on it. Break What interests you, and how do you make other people interested? The basics of visual language and communicating your ideas Lunch Getting your images sharp - focusing and depth of field Break Managing your influences - using the work of other creatives to find and develop your own voice Break Workflow, RAWs & Jpegs, White Balance, and other geeky stuff that isn’t very exciting but we need to cover it! Break “A Creative Methodology” - using a logbook to bring together and work through your ideas and developing your own vision. Wrapping everything up with a case study as we take a shoot apart in detail. The breaks are kept as short as possible - there’s a lot I want to cram into the day! At lunch you can take advantage of discounted food and drink in the Old Fire Station cafe downstairs, or you’re welcome to bring your own. The Venue is upstairs at Tonbridge Old Fire Station. There are nearby car parks, along with several bus routes, and Tonbridge station is less than 10 minutes walk away.