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Free Online Digital Photography Courses for Beginners

Do you want to take your photography skills to the next level? It’s a great idea to commit spending some of our free time to go through an online photography course. In this post, we’ve rounded up some of the top free online photography courses. In additional to essential photography tools and gears, the online course will teach you from basic to advance photography techniques. Keep scrolling to go through our recommended free online digital photography courses for aspiring photographers.

Essentially, you can learn by doing. This is the best way to start taking great photos. But, this list helps most people with to learn some concepts and fundamentals of photography. How did we come with this list of free online photography courses? First thing first, we think beginners need the right resource to have a good start. We’re familiar with some of the recommended courses. We took a deeper research to make this list more comprehensive. So you can have most of the great courses in one place.

How can you learn digital photography online for free?

Landscape Photography Encompassed

Landscape and destination photography is a broad genre with a lot of methods and styles. Over the past year, Phase One has created a collection of great learning materials dedicated to the genre with the help of professional landscape photographers from around the world.

‘Landscape Photography Encompassed‘ includes:

A Journey in Composition with Tony Hewitt and Christian Fletcher
Long Exposure in Depth with Paul Reiffer
Aerial Photography with Joshua Jensen-Nagle
Frame Averaging with the IQ4
A FREE set of Capture One Styles
Access to the January 14 webinar with Peter Eastway (additional registration required)
Seeing Through Photographs (Coursera)

Seeing Through Photographs will give most aspiring photographers a whole new way of looking at your own and other peoples’ photography work. There are just so many aspects, details and points of view you can learn. The world of photography now seems even more amazing than ever before.

Course details:

Although taking, sharing, and viewing photographs has become second nature for many of us, our regular engagement with images does not necessarily make us visually literate. This course aims to address the gap between seeing and truly understanding photographs by introducing a diversity of ideas, approaches, and technologies that inform their making. In this course you will look closely at photographs from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art and hear a variety of perspectives on what a photograph is and the ways that photography has been used throughout its nearly 180 year history: as a means of artistic expression, as a tool for science and exploration; as an instrument of documentation; to tell stories and record histories; and as a mode of communication and critique in our ever increasingly visual culture.

100% online
Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
Flexible deadlines
Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
Approx. 15 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: French, Serbian,
Chinese (Simplified), Italian,
Russian, English, Spanish

Canon EOS 101: Photography and Videography Basics

Learn photography and videography basics in our Canon EOS 101 series where we delve into shooting modes, auto focus, file types and more. Whether you’re new to shooting photos or videos or just brushing up on skills, these tutorials for our Canon Live Learning students or entry level imagemakers range from setup to post production and offer tips on how to utilize the features of your EOS camera. Check out other additional resources on our site where we have tutorials on our products, articles with tips on how to use your camera’s features, downloadable QuickGuides and more.
Introductory Photography Course

The fastest way to get off ‘Auto’ mode and unlock the creative potential of your camera.
Learn Photographic Exposure Best Practices

How to use the Exposure Triangle to set a correct exposure in your DSLR camera
Aperture settings adjustments to create your desired Depth of Field
How to adjust shutter speed to introduce “motion blur” or freeze the movement
Setting the ISO for optimal image quality
Efficient use of the Histogram Tool to improve the exposure

Nikon School

Nikon’s mission has always been to empower creators. In these uncertain times, we can do that by helping creators stay inspired, engaged and growing. That’s why we’re providing all of our Nikon School Online courses free. Let’s come out of this even better.
#StayHomeWithLeica

A series of complimentary online programs produced by the Leica Akademie, Instagram Live interviews with renowned photographers, virtual meet-ups hosted by our Leica stores, and weekly Instagram photo challenges designed to nurture your passion for photography.
Fujifilm Stay Creative At Home

Explore inspiring photos, connect with other enthusiasts and learn more about photography.

Exposing Digital Photography

This Harvard University’s online course will help the artistic aspects, scientific foundations, and techniques of digital photography. Surprisingly, there is a wide range of topics, which include: quality of light, exposure control, depth of field, aesthetics, composition and patterns, perspective, color science, the human visual system, spatial and color perception, exposure, metering, digital sensors, optics, analogies to biological systems, color filter arrays, file formats, sensor linearity, color spaces and profiles, optical and computational image artifacts, and software tools and techniques for modification and enhancement.

Check it out: https://www.classcentral.com/course/independent-exposing-digital-photography-8091