Online photography course recommendations

cecald · December 18, 2008

Hi all,

I would like to hear if anybody has had good experiences and could recommend an internet-based photography course. I travel a ton (for work), and have signed up for local courses, only to miss 3/4s of them due to last minute work trips. I'm especially interested in street/travel photography, landscapes, improving composition and using photoshop. Thanks for any advice you can give,

-Charles

wats005 · December 18, 2008

i don't know any but I would be very interested too as i am in the same situation.

twhite14 · December 19, 2008

The Canon Digital Learning Center is pretty good for a novice:
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=HomePageAct

For Photoshop, Kelby Training:
http://www.kelbytraining.com/

I am not a huge fan of on-line learning though. I really am a fan of of Scott Kelby's books (Digital Photography 1-2 and soon 3).

Travis · December 19, 2008

I agree with Kelby Training. David Sizer, Rick Sammon, and Joe McNalley have some great course offerings.

baldmountain · December 19, 2008

I'm approaching this differently. Rather than an online course, which I'm too cheap to pay for anyways, I'm hitting Amazon and buying lots of books. Probably the one I'm happiest with at the moment is "Light Science and Magic". I also raided the library for books of images by various Photographers. Since you are traveling a lot a book will be more convenient and give you something to do on the plane. Of course you'll want to pull out your camera and lighting gear to try stuff out and the airlines frown on that.

This forum is also a good online course. Jump into the various challenges and contests and treat them as assignments for class. Plus there are a load of scary good photographers on the forum who will critique and teach you if you are willing to ask.

cecald · December 19, 2008

The kelby training looks like a great fit for me right now, so I will give that a try.

You're absolutely right about needing to participate in the forum challenges, but I wanted something more structured to build specific skills. The dgrin forums have been an amazing wealth of info for me in the past 12 months, and surely will continue to be the same.

Thanks!

-Charles

kdspencer · December 19, 2008

Hi Charles,

Check out www.betterphoto.com. I've found their courses to be pretty good, and the teachers give fast feedback and answer questions on a daily basis. You also are able to interact with other students and critique each other's photos as your (and their) assignments are uploaded each week. You can sign up for a 4 week course, or an 8 week course... I think 4 weekers are $188 and 8 weeks are $288 or something like that. Like I said, I've found them to be a great alternative to taking a classroom course, and you can do things at your own speed as long as you have the weekly lesson posted on time.

Last I checked, they had a course on street photography, I just took one on landscape, they have a bunch on composition, and they have a photoshop section of courses as well.

Hope that helps!

Art Scott · December 19, 2008

might also check out http://www.lynda.com ..........also

hiroProtagonist · December 19, 2008

I've heard some pretty good things about Brian Peterson's Picture Perfect School of Photography http://www.ppsop.com
Brian is the author of "Understanding Exposure", and one of the courses that is offered is based on that book. Other courses offered include landscapes and street photography. I've been thinking of taking one myself, but like baldmountian I'm not convinced that books and forums are not just as good of an option. I did recently join Kelby Training and have been a member of Lynda.com for a while now. Both are good sources but are primarily focused on photoshop rather then photography.

ChatKat · December 19, 2008

An alternative to online
I have taken numerous classes at the Santa Fe Workshops (www.Santafeworkshops) . They are a weeklong and are incredible. Actually, I even met some dgrinners in a few of my workshops taken. They are a week of intense learning combined with a great vacation learning what you love. The classes are all taught by working professionals. The area has some of the most beautiful light I have ever seen - magical. If you have a week to take a vacation, some of the classes are life changing.

sbrandphotogal · December 20, 2008

cecald wrote:

Hi all,

I would like to hear if anybody has had good experiences and could recommend an internet-based photography course. I travel a ton (for work), and have signed up for local courses, only to miss 3/4s of them due to last minute work trips. I'm especially interested in street/travel photography, landscapes, improving composition and using photoshop. Thanks for any advice you can give,

-Charles

I've taken 2 courses with betterphoto.com. I thought both were worth taking and each turned out to be worth the price. Both gave me some stuff I already knew (impossible not to do that) and yet challenged me with plenty I needed to work on. Critiques ranged from the rah-rah type to the truly helpful and critical and while I believe you can indicate just how much criticism you want, I'm sure much depends on the personality of the instructor.
Hope this helps
stephanie

cecald · December 24, 2008

Thanks!
Thanks everyone for the responses! This thread is extremely helpful and I'll be sure to check out all of these options.

-Charles

jaycee · November 18, 2011

Have you considered this course? – www.inst.org/photography-courses/become.htm

I’m working through it and it covers travel photography, landscapes, portraits and stuff like that...

David_S85 · November 20, 2011

jaycee wrote: »

I’m working through it and it covers travel photography, landscapes, portraits and stuff like that...

You are responding to a thread that is three years old.

Online photography course recommendations

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