NYIP, Unit 6

I finished the NYIP Unit 6 last weekend, but we've had terrible storms and lots of rain in this area so my Internet has been down.  I've really missed it because I'm on the Internet a lot, playing games, searching for recipes, reading news (including the weather), and researching whatever takes my interest.  Currently that's photography.

Anyway, that's why I haven't had an update in a week and this is what Unit 6 was about:

Advertising and Still Life - the booklet had a copyright of 1982.  Most of the pictures were in black and white.  Black and white photographs can be dramatic and make a statement, but it's not usual to see advertisements in black and white in 2011.  The last page of the text included a list of practice projects which I don't remember seeing in more current lessons.  Of all things to omit when updating the booklets, I don't think this should have been one of them.

Architectural Photography - copyright 1979.  I know updating the text costs money, but, really, 1979?  The pictures were in black and white and the subjects weren't that interesting or inspiring.  And I found the text uninteresting as well even though the use of case studies was a nice angle. 

The other lessons in Unit 6 were optional:

View Camera - this was a 40 page pdf file from 2009 that I had to download from the NYIP website.  I'm not sure why a booklet wasn't available.  I did download it, but decided to read it later if I decide to use a view camera.  I did thumb through the booklets and they cover everything from the crew, the script, the budget, shooting, and editing. 

Glamour and Nude Photography - this booklet was revised in 2010 and was an optional lesson as some people might find the nudes objectionable.  Apparently, my idea of "glamour" photography is different than many other people's.  As I am wont to say on occasion, "Sometimes there's a fine line between sexy and slutty."  There were some good tips for photographing nude models in this text.  Like don't invite your friends over to watch. 

Video Handbook 1 & 2 - copyright 2009.  My camera can record video so I will probably read these sometime, but right now I want to concentrate on learning to shoot better than average photographs.

There was also a booklet on Updates from 2009 which included brief information on the Digital Revolution pertaining to the topics covered in Unit 6.

There was only 1 audio CD for this unit.  The discussion on glamour and nude photography bordered on funny as I got the impression the instructors were trying not to giggle through some of it.  I didn't find these conversations as interesting as those for the other units.  They concluded by saying that you could continue to ask questions and get help from NYIP even after you complete the course.

The business topic covered in Unit 6 was opening your own studio which included a little bit about a lot of pertinent topics.

The last 3 DVDs (for Units 4, 5, and 6) were all on wedding portraits, but the techniques would apply to any type of portrait work.  They were excerpts from a seminar given by the late Monte Zuckerman, a well known portrait photographer.  I found the information on lighting invaluable, but I didn't like his poses.  I found them stiff and occasionally even silly, or as another reviewer put it "cheesy".   I was disappointed that 3 of the 6 DVDs in this course were on the same subject.

Get 5 Still Life Lighting Tips of Beginners from the Digital Photography School that has an article on just about any photography topic you can think of.  There's more depth and accompanying photo examples in the article on Still Life Photography at ePHOTOzine

An article by Phillip Greenspun at photo.net on How to Photograph Architect (Exterior) was much more informative and helpful to me than the NYIP booklet.  By the way, Mr. Greenspun has a FREE online text book called Making Photographs.

Photography.com says in their article on glamour photography, "Glamour shots are suggestive and erotic but not explicitly pornographic. True glamour shots produce an air of romance and sexiness without crossing the boundaries of good taste."

I got a 90% on the final exam (which only covered the 2 non-optional lessons) which means I have an average of 93% for the course.