Like many other skills, photography can be learned on your own. But, doing so will take a lot of practice, and you will have to spend time understanding the concepts from the ground up. Or, you can learn from people who have already figured out many concepts and mastered the skill. This will save time and help you take the subject to the next level. Pixpa has compiled a list of the top photography courses available online. Here are a few from it:
Masters of Photography
There are professional photographers, and there are legends. The Masters of Photography online platform is currently providing three masterclasses from legendary photographers. The legendary photographers are Joel Meyerowitz, Steve McCurry, and Albert Watson.
Joel Meyerowitz is known for his art and street photography. He will share the lessons he has learned from his 50-year photography career. Some things you will learn are to:
- Develop your identity as a photographer
- Observe the world around in a better way
- Make your photographs unique
- Present at the right place and time
The class from Steve McCurry, who is a master in contemporary photography, will focus on teaching storytelling with a camera. You will learn to:
- Find the human element by capturing emotion and authenticity
- Use the light to make your pictures better
Albert Watson is an iconic photographer who has shot more than 200 covers for Vogue and Rolling Stone Magazine. His class will give you 54 lessons in fashion and portrait photography. Albert’s course will also teach you to:
- Find ways to look for inspiration
- Ways to approach different genres of photography
- Make a portrait with everyday bulbs
- Create a unique portrait, landscape, and still-life images.
Masters of Photography will give you a personalized certificate on completion of each of the class. The classes will be an inspiration for photographers of any level.
Photography Basic and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR Specialization
Michigan State University offers this course through the online courses platform Coursera. From it, you will learn about the camera and composition techniques in photography. This course will also teach you about the documentary and creative concepts. This is a bundled course which has five different individual courses, combined to give a comprehensive learning experience. The courses are:
- Camera, Exposure, and Photography
- Camera Control
- Principles of Photo Composition and Digital Image Post-Production
- Photography Techniques: Light, Content, and Sharing
- Photography Capstone Project
Fundamentals of Photography by John Greengo
This is another course which aims at the beginner photographers who need to learn the technical aspects of the camera. This course from Creative Live is taught by John Greengo, who has been shooting from 3 decades in the field of outdoor and travel photography. The fundamentals of photography course aim to teach the important camera functions in the manual mode like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. The course will continue to teach about selecting the right gear and how to take photographs using the natural light. John will also place importance on having a vision and goal in photography and how to grow in the career of photography. If you are looking for a course that will help you build a solid foundation in photography, this course is for you. There are more than a hundred lessons in this course. The duration of this course is around 24 hours and 40 minutes.
Annie Leibovitz Teaches Photography
Famous photographer Annie Leibovitz teaches this online course by Masterclass. Annie is a fashion and portrait photographer who was the chief photographer at Rolling Stones. The focus of this course is to teach storytelling through photography and not on gears. Annie teaches how to work with subjects, capture them in natural light, and to enhance the images in post-production. There are 15 video lessons in this course and a workbook having the lesson recaps. This online course can be viewed through any device through the Masterclass app.
Seeing Through Photographs
This course by MoMa on the Coursera platform is not on the technical aspects of photography. It aims to make people understand the photographs from a better perspective. This will be done with the help of various ideas, approaches, and technologies. You will learn how different contexts of photographic images influences its production, circulation, and reception. The course will guide you through the collection of photographs at the Museum of Modern Art, and the various perspectives on what a photograph is. The role of photography in our culture, different modes of artistic experiments are some other things that will also be covered in this online photography course.
The Elements of Effective Photographs
What makes a great photograph? This course is about just that: the elements which make a photo effective. The course guides you through the composition techniques and then teaches you how to take photographs with natural light in a room or outdoors. In this course, you will also learn about artificial lights and how to use it to create a natural light look. The sense of movement, peak actions, and decisive moments are some more topics covered in this course by Lynda. The course touches on the role of color in photography, which teaches about the Kelvin Scale, White balance, color theory, and such.
