What is the best way to learn photography, by doing it or by taking a class?
I think both things must come into play to learn photography. As an art form, much of what we do when we take a photo is instinctual; we develop an “eye” for what makes a good photo, the more we take and the more we look at our finished photos. We learn from our mistakes (hopefully), and the more photos the take, we SHOULD get better at it! (no guarantees there!). I suppose if you have the natural talent, with time and practice you will get better at creating better photos. But if you are using a 35mm or a DSLR camera, you might need to take a class to really understand all that your camera can do and how to do it–how to get what you see in your head in the viewfinder. This is the situation I am in. I’ve used my camera for over a year, and I do pretty well with it, but I really don’t know how to use all the bells and whistles that the camera has–how to adjust the settings, WHEN to adjust the settings, what numbers to use for those settings, etc. I recently took a one day photo class
