Nowadays, with compact and powerful smartphones and Instagram, everybody could be said to be a photographer, albeit an amateur one. Chances are, you also own a professional camera. But to be a good photographer, you need to understand the parameters and concepts that make good visual art. Of course, you can discover a lot by searching the web or asking your friends. But it makes much more sense to go through a focused, step-by-step learning process offered by the various online courses.
Photo & video are also topics that encompass many aspects, techniques, and implementations. To make things easier for you, we have selected the best online courses that offer training in different uses of these media for various levels of technical and professional involvement. Read on to find the ones that suit your needs the best - whether you're looking for professional video editing courses or training on taking effective selfies.
Become a Better Photographer
So, you have a decent photo camera but don't know how to use it to its full potential. Then here's your new user manual. This course is a collection of short video tutorials packed with specific tips and tricks related to the use of professional cameras. It covers technical aspects like setting up your ISO and aperture settings and practical ones like composition and lighting. Each video tutorial is dedicated to a specific issue, and these issues are grouped into thematic sections. Most people found this course informative and helpful and quite entertaining to follow. The content of this course is extensive enough for it to be an excellent option for intermediate amateur photographers and beginners. Overall, a perfect chance to become a proficient and confident user of your camera. This course is available at Udemy for €34.99.
https://www.udemy.com/course/great-photography-tips-photo-tutorials/Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR
As acknowledged in this article's introduction, you don't need professional equipment to be a photographer these days. This course specialization will show you just how much you can achieve with what you currently have: whether an iPhone or a DSLR camera, it's all about the know-how. If you prefer a step-by-step teaching approach and have great aspirations, go for this option. Do expect to spend some time on it - the specialization consists of 5 entire courses that span over six months, narrowing down from theory to practice. As you progress in this specialization, you will make an informed choice on the hardware and software you will utilize and develop your portfolio.
This specialization covers all the essential aspects of photography: using the proper settings, choosing the optimal lighting, post-processing solutions, and much more. An excellent start for the determined ones! You can enroll for free, but do expect to pay a fee for marked material and the certificate of completion.
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/photography-basics14 Day Video Production Challenge: Plan, Film & Edit Videos
The next course is on video production, designed to cover all aspects of this production process in a short time of 14 days. To give you an understanding of the density of this course, it covers the shooting process, sound, cinematography, editing, YouTube setups and many more topics! So if you want to start making your own video content quickly, this course will not disappoint you. Each day, you will dedicate yourself to learning a new skill and practice everything you know by creating a video from scratch. Towards the end, you will be taught to use Adobe Premiere and Final Cut for editing and post-processing, so you'll essentially get the opportunity to grasp the production process from beginning to end in just two weeks. The course has been praised for its completeness and conciseness, so it probably does if you feel like it suits your aspirations! Lifetime access to this course can be purchased on Udemy for €84.99.
https://www.udemy.com/course/14-day-video-production-challenge-plan-film-edit-videos/Professional Selfies and Video Selfies for Instagram
If your interest in photography and video is mainly related to social media platforms such as Instagram, you should consider this contextual course. This course will teach you effective poses, light compositions, edits, retouches, and ways to boost your self-confidence to become the protagonist you aspire to be on your own Instagram page. Over 4 hours of video lessons are included and 11 exercises to practice your new skills. The course will cost you €59.90 on Domestika (but keep an eye out for monthly discounts) and will be a valuable course for starting influencers or those lacking confidence to create perfect selfies every time. Also, consider that the video materials are Spanish (with English subtitles available).
https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/2410-professional-selfies-and-video-selfies-for-instagramPresenting on Camera: The Art of Communication
This is another specific course that teaches to communicate clearly and naturally on camera. A course that would be useful to most people nowadays, since we now regularly have to attend all sorts of online meetings, some of them very crucial - like job interviews. You will learn ways to boost your self-confidence and overcome the awkwardness sometimes associated with being filmed. But needless to say, it will be most helpful to those involved in their video production. You will learn to consider crucial factors that define the quality of your video material, such as location, lighting, and framing. You will also practice your actions on camera: eye contact, posture, and non-verbal communication modes. As the course project, you will record a video business card about yourself, implementing the materials taught in the lessons into your content. Access to this course will cost you €59.90 on Domestika.
https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/2784-presenting-on-camera-the-art-of-communicationIntroduction to Adobe Premiere Pro
Shooting videos is only part of the production process. Often, the editing stage is the most time and work-intensive. But mastering this process will enable you to improve the quality of raw video material outstandingly. This course provides comprehensive training on the industry-standard software - Adobe Premiere Pro. Each of the six parts of the course is dedicated to a specific set of tools within Premiere. You will learn to work with colors, keyframes, multi-camera synchronization, audio, and many other tools. Like other Adobe software, Premiere is incredibly powerful but can be tricky to learn.
Following such a course will make things clear for you. Before starting this course, make sure you have access to Adobe Premiere (it can be quite expensive). Also, Spanish-speaking students will find this course a bit easier to follow since the primary language of this course is Spanish (with English subtitles, of course). The base price of the course on Domestika is €59.90.
https://www.domestika.org/en/courses/537-introduction-to-adobe-premiere-proStudio Lighting 101
If you're looking for an introduction to studio lighting, here's the specialized course. The course is run by a professional fashion photographer who will teach you intelligent solutions to studio photography. In her classes, she shares the use of light to convey various moods and accents, the difference between using one, two, or three light sources, and practical resolutions to troubleshoot lighting issues. The course is also packed with dozens of essential studio lighting setups and other valuable information. Completing this course will naturally lead you to shoot your first studio portrait with your light setup. Go for this course if you want to familiarise yourself with studio photography and get ready to make your first moves in this niche domain. This course can be accessed with the CreativeLive subscription (which gives access to the other courses on this platform) for $149/year.
https://www.creativelive.com/class/studio-photography-101-lindsay-adlerThe Art of Wildlife Photography
Finally, a course on wildlife photography from the legendary photographer Tom Mangelsen. This one is for the most adventurous. In this course, Tom shares the most important insights of his profession that he has collected over 40 years of practice. You will not only discover the necessary techniques to capture undisturbed wildlife on camera but also the best places to do so, the technical and personal requirements for a wildlife photographer, and ways to get your works published. And, of course, the photographic tips and tricks to make photos of nature look majestic. If you're daring to try yourself at this unique profession, this course would be a great start. It was almost universally praised by students as a hugely informative and incredibly interesting course to take on. The $149/year CreativeLive subscription will give you full access to this course with all of its materials.
https://www.creativelive.com/class/art-wildlife-photography-tom-mangelsen