New Customers FAQ’s

What’s the difference between ‘Membership’ and ‘This course only’?

This course only

Don’t want to commit to monthly payments? No problem. Buy this course only with a one-off payment giving you lifetime access to watch this course as many times as you want.

Becoming a Member

Our most popular option giving you access to all our high-quality online courses, our assignments and much more. Join our community and get feedback on your work. Buy monthly or yearly, cancel anytime. – Click here for more details.

What’s the cost in my own currency?

We supply online photography courses all over the world however we are a UK company therefore the membership cost is charged in British Pounds. On checkout it will show the cost in British Pounds and will be converted into your currency when purchased. Next to the price you will also see the approx. US dollar equivalent. To get an accurate cost in your own currency use a Currency Converter. NB. US dollars quoted are as close as possible and updated on a monthly basis.

What devices will play my course?

You can watch the course on any device that can play videos. This includes smartphones, tablets, PC’s and Mac’s.

What equipment do I need?

We have created a blog post with camera equipment we recommend for learning photography. Please click here to view this.

For our courses, you will need a camera that has manual settings. This is generally a DSLR or mirrorless camera, but some bridge cameras are also fine. An easy way to tell is to look at the top of the camera and see if it has a dial with the letter M (for manual) on it. If yours has this, it will be fine for the course.

I will also say this, it’s not the camera that takes a good shot, it’s you. Knowledge is power!

What software will I need?

You will need Photoshop and Lightroom for our courses. Adobe doesn’t sell Photoshop as a standalone program anymore. Instead, they provide various types of plans which include it. The best one to buy is the ‘Photography Plan (20GB)’ which includes Photoshop CC, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom CC for a monthly fee. For more details on this plan click here.

Do I need any photography experience to take this course?

No, our courses are designed for beginners, keen enthusiast and people looking to make photography their career. It’s structured to enable you to learn one step at a time, in manageable bite size chunks which build your photography knowledge so you to become a very competent photographer.

Can I watch lessons more than once?

Yes - Watch them once or one hundred times, it’s up to you!

Can I download the course?

The worksheets, RAW files, Lightroom Presets, lighting set-ups, images and Photoshop Actions can all be downloaded. The videos can’t be downloaded. These are stream only which allows you to watch them as many times as you wish.

 

How long will it take me to complete the course?

The courses can be completed in your own time at your own pace. There is no fixed time limit as it depends on how much time you can put into it. On average someone with a full-time job will take 1 to 2 months to complete one of the courses.

How do the courses work?

The courses are made up of a series of video lessons with accompanying worksheet and assessment material. Each lesson explains, in depth, a certain part of photography and puts this knowledge into practice in a practical task. This knowledge is then applied by you in set tasks making it perfect for people who like to get hands on and learn better, whilst putting things into practice. It’s structured to enable you to learn in manageable bite size chunks one step at a time. The structure of learning comes from over 20 years of tried and tested photography teaching techniques that are proven to get results.

Can I contact you if I need to?

Yes, if you have any questions, you can contact us here.

Is the course kept up to date?

Yes, technology in the photography world can change pretty fast and the good news is, with TSOP you don’t have to do anything to get these updates. As resources and videos are updated they just appear in your course, simple!

Is this course relevant to my country?

Yes, the craft of photography is the same across the world. So, whether you’re in the UK, Australia, India, America or anywhere, this course will work for you.

Does this course come with a qualification certificate?

Our courses come with a completion certificate provided by us and will prove that you’ve completed our course.

Will I gain a Qualification or Diploma?

You will receive a certificate from The School of Photography, but this won’t be a specific qualification or diploma. It may surprise you to find out that there are no online photography courses that can give you an accredited qualification. Be very wary of any company offering you a ‘Diploma’ or ‘Qualification’ as they will likely be worthless in the real world. Only a University, College or School which is overseen by a government body can offer an ‘accredited’ qualification or diploma. We don’t market ourselves like this as we feel it’s wrong to mislead our customers. Remember this - Your success in photography is built on the back of your portfolio. If you take great photos that people want to look at, they will buy your services, the qualifications you have becomes irrelevant next to a brilliant portfolio!

Does the course come with image feedback?

The courses are structured into lessons with accompanying tasks for you to complete. Detailed demonstrations and examples of the results you are to produce are also given. We also set monthly assignments that come with a mid-assignment critique of students’ work and an end of assignment review of students’ work where again we give feedback on students’ work.

You can upload the results of the tasks and assignments to our private members group where you can ask for feedback from other members, and we will feedback where we can. We also hold a live Q&A every month where students can ask questions and get answers on their photography needs.

 

How does the Money Back Guarantee work?

Please see our terms below:

60 Day Money Back Guarantee - For obvious reasons, the Money back Guarantee is void if you complete over 50% of any course then request a refund. Similarly, if you download course resources such as our guides, eBooks, textures, presets, Raw files etc, then ask for a refund, it will not be given. I am sure you’d agree watching up to 50% of any course is enough to realise whether you like it or not.

The money back guarantee is also on the basis that you have completed the tasks outlined in the course and have not learnt anything from them. To prove you have completed the tasks we may ask you for digital files and explanations on how they were created. The pictures must contain all its metadata, and this must not have been tampered with in anyway. If we find you have made mistakes when completing the tasks, we may ask you to complete the tasks again accurately before offering any refund.


Current Customers FAQ’s

How do I access my courses?

When you sign up you will go straight into your student area and emailed a link to this for future reference. There is also a Sign in button at the top of every webpage on our site. You can also click here. We recommend you bookmark this address for ease of access.

I can’t log in – help!

9 times out of 10, log in issues are caused by using a wrong password or a different email address.

1 > To sign into your account, click here then enter the ‘exact’ email and password you used when signing up to the course. To check you are using the right email, search your different email accounts for your welcome email.

2 > If you have forgotten your password, then click the ‘Forgot password?’ link and follow the instructions. If you see Error: ‘reset token failed’, this usually happens when clicking Forgot my password many times and attempting to use an old link. It can also happen if you click on a link that is over 6 hours old. We recommend clicking Forgot my password one more time and use the most recent email only.

3 > If you still can’t log in it’s probably due to making a typo in your email on sign up. If you feel this is case, please contact us here.

When will my membership renew?

All this information can be found in your ‘Account’ area of your Student Dashboard. Log in > Click on your name in the top right of your screen > Click My Account > Billing.

How do I cancel my membership?
Cancelling your membership is easy, simply click here > sign in if you need to > Under Subscriptions, click Cancel. This information is also in your ‘welcome email’, your ‘members Info document’ and ‘members welcome video’.

I can’t get access to the Facebook Group – let me in!

We have a great community of learners in there which is why we are quite strict on the entry process. Let me explain. 

When you request to join to join you are asked the following questions which must be answered.

  1. Please provide the email address used when making the purchase. NB. The name we have on file must match your Facebook name. Then scroll down to the next question.

  2. Please provide the code located on page 6 of your 'Your Membership Info' document.

  3. I confirm I have read and understood the posting details in the Members Info Document.

Our admin staff won’t let you in without these questions answered.

If your Facebook name doesn’t match what we have on file, we, or you, can change your name in your account area of your student dashboard.

It might seem a bit long-winded but it ensures we have a friendly supportive group of learners that value this area of their membership.

 

Where are the exclusive member discounts?

Your member discounts can be found in your Members Info area within your student dashboard.

 

I can’t find Members welcome video or member info document.

Links to these would have been sent to your email on sign up. To get the full benefit from our courses it is very important you watch your Members Welcome Video. To access this please log in > click ‘My Dashboard’ at the top of the page > Under ‘My Courses’ click ‘Your Membership Info’

 

If you have any other questions please contact us here.