Nick Carver Course

[Darryl Roberts]

Re: https://www.nickcarverphotography.com/teaching/online_courses/manual_metering_film_photography/

Have you taken this $200 course? If so, what's your review?

Do you know any comparable, i.e. with email support?

Thank you.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Re: https://www.nickcarverphotography.com/teaching/online_courses/manual_metering_film_photography/

Have you taken this $200 course? If so, what's your review?

Do you know any comparable, i.e. with email support?

Thank you.

I think it is over priced especially because you can learn it here for free or becoming a subscriber for $24US a year.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

I think it is over priced especially because you can learn it here for free or becoming a subscriber for $24US a year.

Thank you. I am a subscriber.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thank you. I am a subscriber.

So what would you like to learn for your first lesson? Take reflectance light meter readings of the subject without the sky in the background. That provides better results with some extra shadow detail.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Few thoughts.

The basics of metering aren't that complicated. They haven't changed since the invention of the light meter so finding a cheap, used book that explains them well is pretty easy.

There is no such thing as "The Precision Method"—same way "Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights" isn't a universal law. Part of metering is subjective. Depends on what you want to show and how you want to show it. Same reason why some people rate certain 100 ISO film at 80 and others at 125. You learn it by testing and figuring out what you like.

Finally, his course is geared for spot meter metering, including a whole chapter on the Reveni, so if you don't have one, that's more $$$ to spend, and if you already have a spot meter, chance are you've gone out with it quite a few times and already figured out what to do with it and how.

I'm not knocking the guy down. His course is clearly geared towards beginners—he essentially says so in the end. But at 200$, seems to me a bit much.

Curious to know, with all the info and ressources available—much of it cheap or for free—on this subject, why did this course pique your interest?

 

[Steven Lee]

Re: https://www.nickcarverphotography.com/teaching/online_courses/manual_metering_film_photography/

Have you taken this $200 course? If so, what's your review?
Do you know any comparable, i.e. with email support?

You can watch the first lesson on his YouTube channel to evaluate his delivery and teaching style. I happen to believe that Nick is a talented photographer and he pays a lot of attention to light and generally is meticulous about all things, something I value. His teaching style is superb IMO: informative and entertaining. $200 is just two dinners, totally worth it.

I think it is over priced especially because you can learn it here for free or becoming a subscriber for $24US a year.

Teaching is a skill. Simply knowing is not enough. I wouldn't take anyone's lesson unless I value their work and saw them teach. Carver is an excellent photographer and a great explainer. 99% of people here do not share their work so I wouldn't know if they're worthy to be learning from.

Otherwise there's risk of "learning" from someone's parroting things they read somewhere else on the Internet, which can easily be utter nonsense like your post above. How can you say that the class is overpriced and a better version is available elsewhere, if you have not taken the class? You don't know what's covered. Why are you even replying? You literally have nothing to say on the subject, except to demonstrate the level of "teaching" that's available for free.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

You can watch the first lesson on his YouTube channel to evaluate his delivery and teaching style. I happen to believe that Nick is a talented photographer and he pays a lot of attention to light and generally is meticulous about all things, something I value. His teaching style is superb IMO: informative and entertaining. $200 is just two dinners, totally worth it.



Teaching is a skill. Simply knowing is not enough. I wouldn't take anyone's lesson unless I value their work and saw them teach. Carver is an excellent photographer and a great explainer. 99% of people here do not share their work so I wouldn't know if they're worthy to be learning from.

Otherwise there's risk of "learning" from someone's parroting things they read somewhere else on the Internet, which can easily be utter nonsense like your post above. How can you say that the class is overpriced and a better version is available elsewhere, if you have not taken the class? You don't know what's covered. Why are you even replying? You literally have nothing to say on the subject, except to demonstrate the level of "teaching" that's available for free.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I didn't take his course so I can't comment on it directly. I do watch his general videos on photography. Nick is entertaining to watch and probably is easy to learn from.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

I didn't take his course so I can't comment on it directly. I do watch his general videos on photography. Nick is entertaining to watch and probably is easy to learn from.

Thank you.

 

[Darryl Roberts]

Few thoughts.

The basics of metering aren't that complicated. They haven't changed since the invention of the light meter so finding a cheap, used book that explains them well is pretty easy.

There is no such thing as "The Precision Method"—same way "Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights" isn't a universal law. Part of metering is subjective. Depends on what you want to show and how you want to show it. Same reason why some people rate certain 100 ISO film at 80 and others at 125. You learn it by testing and figuring out what you like.

Finally, his course is geared for spot meter metering, including a whole chapter on the Reveni, so if you don't have one, that's more $$$ to spend, and if you already have a spot meter, chance are you've gone out with it quite a few times and already figured out what to do with it and how.

I'm not knocking the guy down. His course is clearly geared towards beginners—he essentially says so in the end. But at 200$, seems to me a bit much.

Curious to know, with all the info and ressources available—much of it cheap or for free—on this subject, why did this course pique your interest?

Hi. Thank you.

I was piqued because the film is very expensive now and I want consistency. I have taken some very nice photos with my view camera, I will post some.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I want consistency

Got ya. If you do lots of color (which I don't), especially E6, consistency is indeed important as correct exposure is more crucial with these films and they aren't cheap. Consistency is what he's advertising, so if you have the 200$, it's your choice.

 

[bernard_L]

Hi. Thank you.

I was piqued because the film is very expensive now and I want consistency. I have taken some very nice photos with my view camera, I will post some.

What do you shoot? Negative (bw or color, same in present context) or reversal (slide) film? Only for reversal is exposure critical. For negative film you need enough exposure; 'nuf said.
I'm oversimplifying on purpose, because some discussions about exposure on film photo forums summon the reference to medieval theologians discussing how many angels can dance on a pinhead.

I agree about the importance of consistency, but at least as important for processing. Develop to a consistent contrast index that suits your printing preferences; make sure your bellows are dust-free; make sure you fixer is fresh; find an agitation scheme that works and stick to it... etc.

Don't quote me as advocating random inconsistent exposures. But what has to be known does not require 10 hours of course.
I don't have a spot meter, yet my exposures (MF and 35mm) are consistent enough that I can evaluate all shots on a contact sheet with a single common exposure.

Take notes for each exposure; not just speed and f-stop, but how you arrived at that exposure; e.g. (please note these are examples, and I'm not pushing any personal pet technique)
- average, excluding sky
- sunny 11
- incident from location of open shadows, then close on f-stop.
- reflected from the palm of your hand then open one stop (assuming you have a caucasian complexion).
- use common sense: what is important in the scene?
- when the negs are dry,or after printing, go back to your notes and learn from your mistakes.

There you are. Free as in free beer. Just 3 mins reading.

 

[MattKing]

$200 is relatively cheap, if you are the sort of person who finds it useful to learn things from those sorts of courses.
A lot of people who gravitate to websites like Photrio don't like that sort of learning as much as others might.
If you like learning through video courses, in order to get a meaningful "review" of this particular course you need to find other people who also like that mode of learning and have knowledge of this particular course and have skills and experience that allow them to give you a useful opinion of it.
IMHO, it is a lot harder to get this sort of meaningful feedback about a video based course than it is to get the same sort of meaningful feedback about something like a book, because it is much easier for people to share particular references in a book - think about the difference between discussions about the content on a particular page, vs the content at about 3:30 in the first "act" of the video.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

$200 is relatively cheap, if you are the sort of person who finds it useful to learn things from those sorts of courses.
A lot of people who gravitate to websites like Photrio don't like that sort of learning as much as others might.
If you like learning through video courses, in order to get a meaningful "review" of this particular course you need to find other people who also like that mode of learning and have knowledge of this particular course and have skills and experience that allow them to give you a useful opinion of it.
IMHO, it is a lot harder to get this sort of meaningful feedback about a video based course than it is to get the same sort of meaningful feedback about something like a book, because it is much easier for people to share particular references in a book - think about the difference between discussions about the content on a particular page, vs the content at about 3:30 in the first "act" of the video.

I find Youtube videos showing how to repair and install things in the house pretty helpful. Getting to see the physical acts and movementsof how they're done simplifies the learning process. Book pictures are static. Recently someone posted a little vieo cartoon that you can move how the Scheimpflug principle works in large format cameras with movements. It had a simple action series that far surpassed all the books I read on the subject. I wish I can find it now to show it here.

 

[MattKing]

I wish I can find it now to show it here.

This highlights one of the interesting differences between the two modes of learning.
Of course, that is relatively easy for me to say, because I have been ruthless about keeping under control my personal library of photographic equipment and techniques books and pdfs!

 

[Darryl Roberts]

I just decided to go with this book instead:

Film In A Digital Age

 

[fpd2]

I just decided to go with this book instead:

Film In A Digital Age

I've bought that book and it helped me organize my knowledge about metering. I wish there was more detailed information in particular metering scenarios. He mentions that the sky is almost always 2 EV brighter than the foreground, then the compensation table for slide film makes it 1.5EV brighter, but he uses GND filters to make it 0-0.5EV brighter with slide film. It's a bit confusing for me.

Overall, it's really good. Especially the film scanning part, I have yet to experiment with that.
Anyway, I started metering with my iPhone based on his blog posts and achieved great results, except for slide film. Haven't shot much since buying the book.

 

[pentaxuser]

Well these days $200 is only the price of about 11 rolls of 35mm Portra in the U.K. assuming you can find 11 rolls.. Imagine if anyone had said they'd found a course like this for 11 rolls of film only say 3-4 years ago on Photrio

I feel that words like delusional, phrases like "lost touch with reality" or "do your parents' know what you have just written?" might have been the mildest of the things said in reply.

pentaxuser

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Well these days $200 is only the price of about 11 rolls of 35mm Portra in the U.K. assuming you can find 11 rolls.. Imagine if anyone had said they'd found a course like this for 11 rolls of film only say 3-4 years ago on Photrio

I feel that words like delusional, phrases like "lost touch with reality" or "do your parents' know what you have just written?" might have been the mildest of the things said in reply.

pentaxuser

I just spent close to $200 on a 20-sheet box of 4x5 Velvia 50. Maybe I'll store it in my freezer until I can resell it for $400.

 

[Arthurwg]

I love Nick's videos and from the looks of his pictures those exposures are correct. In some of the videos he explains a bit about the exposures that he uses. Looks a bit more complicated than Sunny 16,