Portrait photography courses

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Our Portrait Photography Courses will teach you how to take outstanding images and show you the excitement and fun of having your own business. Spread over a 3 or 6 month period, our Portrait Photography Course gives you the time to assimilate all the knowledge required to help you run your own successful business.

Turn your passion into a career

We can change your life and make photography your career. Over the last 18 months we have supported over 20 students to open studios, some within 4 months of completing their course.

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The UK's most experienced photography teaching team

Barrett & Coe are established as one of the leading Portrait groups in the UK. Our tuition team includes David MacDonald, former Kodak Photographer of the Year. All are leaders in their fields with proven stunningly successful career achievements.

Fellow tutor Elaine Sheppard imparts vast sales knowledge in how to achieve high average order sales from her experience of running a successful portrait studio that achieved sales of £17,000 per week. Included in your course fee is the opportunity to observe Barrett & Coe portrait sittings and sales viewings. All are leaders in their fields with proven stunningly successful career achievements.

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Portrait photography Course benefits

Held mostly in Ware, Hertfordshire (close to London Stansted) our Portrait Course has the most in-depth syllabus for photographic training in the UK. Included is access to family portrait bookings (for one year) for students who achieve Grade 2 and above.

Our course content is driven by David MacDonald, (past Kodak Photographer of the Year) who runs one of the UK's most successful portrait studios. Students also have the opportunity to observe Barrett & Coe portrait sittings and sales viewings.

We have in place contracts or arrangements with national brands: Emma's Diary, National Childbirth Trust (NCT), Parent Teacher Association UK (PTA-UK), Activity Superstore; including, Argos, Birthdays, Boots, Clintons, Debenhams, Marks and Spencer (online) Menkind and WHSmith.

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Keep up to date with what's happening at Barrett & Coe during your course by reading our blog or follow us on facebook.

For more information or to book your place call 01603 629 739

Portrait photography course information

Total course fee - £1,850 + vat

We ask for a £350 + vat non-refundable deposit to secure your place, with the remaining balance of £1,400 + vat due two weeks before the start of the course.

We offer a payment plan as follows:

• Pay a non-refundable deposit of £350 + vat to secure your place

• 8% is added to the outstanding balance of £1,400 + vat which is then payable in four installments due before each of the first four seminars

• This facility is only available for the Option 1 course

The course is spread over 7 seminars, you have two options, the content is the same for both options, the only difference is the days of the week they are run.

Option 1 - one Sunday a month over six months, the the final two seminars take place on a Saturday and a Sunday

Option 2 - one Friday and a Saturday each month for four months, the the final seminar is on a Friday.

By enrolling on a course there are potential opportunities to sit in with, or accompany, leading photographers on their assignments. We also offer unlimited access to our extensive reading and video library and support via telephone, fax and email.

Additional costs
Throughout your portrait photography course, great emphasis is placed upon giving each trainee the skills necessary to recoup course fees at the earliest opportunity. Several of our course trainees have achieved this well before the end of the course. Any processing and printing costs, though minimal, are an additional cost. We ask students to use our designated laboratories for processing, so that we may be assured of consistent, high-quality prints.

We include the following on our Portrait Photography Courses:

	Camera and camera craft: Advice on best buys
	Lighting with flash: Bowen’s, Elinchroms etc
	Flash on camera
	Contemporary, reportage and spontaneous photography
	How to maximise your profits and earnings potential
	People manipulation: How to organize and structure a photo shoot in the most time efficient way
	Ambient and natural light: How to recognise the quality of light and how to use it
	Competitions: Everything you need to know to take award-winning photographs and achieve qualifications
	Products: Makeovers, babies, high key, pets, families, portfolio (fashion), corporate, graduations, schools, playgroups
	The opportunity to accompany a Barrett & Coe photographer on a portrait sitting and sales viewings
	Environmental portraiture – In the home or in the studio
	The complete professional: How to ensure your customers’ perception of you is of a highly skilled professional with expertise in every area of portrait photography
	Customer satisfaction: Invaluable tips on how to ensure this is achieved
	The Viewing: How to create the optimum sales from your photography
	Cutting Edge products: The latest albums, frames, montage, canvas and acrylics. How to source the products and how to sell them
	Marketing: The most comprehensive information on achieving successful bookings and sales using Detailed methods and systems (including promotional literature, price lists etc.) as used by Barrett & Coe Franchisees.
	Viral Marketing: making the best use of the internet, including marketing, blogs and social media to support your business
	Digital awareness: How to use digital technology to increase your profits without spending hours at your computer
	Basic Photoshop and the use of it in creating cutting edge products
	Album design
	Digital workflow and data storage
	Image editing and retouching
	The opportunity to receive family portrait bookings from our contracts with Activity Superstore, National Childbirth Trust (NCT), Parent Teacher Association UK (PTA-UK. Also, leads from Emma’s Diary.