*nhoriginal

I spent this past weekend attending a 2-day intensive session on digital photography. This was their last session for the year, and I just barely made it with my registration. I learned a lot during the sessions, and the fact that it was geared primarily toward Nikon cameras made it especially useful. They presented a lot of helpful information about things like shooting in auto versus program modes, how to read a histogram, using white balance effectively in different conditions, and how to set up multiple flashes for portrait photography (the latter was a live demonstration).

My only criticism was that while they spent a fair amount of time showing ways to edit images, the emphasis was definitely on Nikon's own Capture NX software. I've downloaded a trial copy to play with, but it's not cheap to buy ($179), and I wish they'd spent more time explaining general principles - like using layers - instead of trying to hype up the specific functions of their own software.

Nonetheless, it was definitely a great learning experience. If you can swing the cost of the event ($278 for both days), it's probably worth checking out next year- especially if you are new to DSLRs.