Photography is a lifelong learning endeavor. No matter how good you are at it, there's always something new to learn.

Yes, even if you're already an expert! Whether you are a hobby or a professional photographer, there's no doubt that excellent skills and deep knowledge will benefit the quality of the work you produce. It's not just about the camera you use.

Ultimately, you will need to use the camera and gear correctly and maximize their potential. Photography courses, tutorials, and seminars can help you maintain your skills and take them to the next level.

New or updated digital technology is being released regularly as photographers try and keep up. There are always new skills you can develop. That's why we've put together a list of (mostly) free online photography classes and resources to help you take your skills to the next level. We hope you find it helpful!

Unless otherwise noted, the class is free, for beginners, and online.

General Resources

Getting Started with Adobe Lightroom: This is a quick start guide to getting started with Adobe Lightroom. These are free 70+ page PDF eBooks designed to help you get started with Lightroom and understand the basics - while avoiding the most frequent problems.

Tuts Plus Photography Tutorials: Hundreds of helpful articles and tutorials on a wide range of photography topics.

Digital Photography School: This is a top-rated free resource with a wide range of useful information, articles, and tips.

Creative Live Photography: A large library of pre-recorded and live courses.

Note: These are not free.

Tips and Tutorials for Beginners: A collated source of valuable tips and tutorials for photography beginners.

Binge-Worthy B&H: 10 of Our Best Videos on Tips and Tutorials: Ten of B & H's best photography tutorial videos are available online for free.

Courses

Introduction to Photography and Related Media: A series of video lectures from an MIT undergraduate course. The semester-long class covers the basics of analog/digital SLRs, film exposure and development, darkroom techniques, digital imaging, and studio lighting.

7 Secrets to Drastically Improve Your Landscape Photography: A one-hour video tutorial with valuable tips for improving your landscape photography. Not so much a course as a tutorial, but beginning landscape photographers should find this handy.

Karl Taylor's FREE Photography Course: This is one of Udemy's most popular courses. The class uses videos and PDFs.

Strobist: This is probably one of the most popular resources for beginning to intermediate photographers interested in learning more about light and flashes.

Note: Beginner to Intermediate

Cambridge in Colour: Tons of classes and tutorials on this Cambridge, UK site. Join the community of other photographers who are happy to answer questions.

Create a Gorgeous Photography Site with SmugMug in 90 mins: This course isn't so much about your photography skills as it is about showing off those skills on a SmugMug website.

Using a Photographic Light Meter: Another Udemy class, this is for you if you're just starting with a hand-held light meter and struggling with exposure settings.

Beginner Nikon Digital SLR Photography: Learn the technical basics of your camera, including how to use all the buttons and dials on your camera to control things like exposure, shutter speed, and aperture.

Note: $11+ paid course

Pixels After Dark: Shooting the Night: This is a video lecture by three-time Olympic photographer Jeff Cable on shooting images at night.

Note: Intermediate

Lightroom CC For Beginners: In this six-session Lightroom CC free beginners course, you can learn all the Lightroom CC features, from layout, importing, editing, and exporting.

History of Photography Podcasts: An exciting archive of 15 weekly podcasts by Jeff Curto from his course at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Anthony Morganti's Video Series on Lightroom 5: This is a 40-part Lightroom 5 video series. It starts with the basics and progresses to more advanced topics.

Note: Beginner to Intermediate | $99 course

Phlearn: Learn about Photoshop through short detailed videos. You'll learn things like removing blemishes, watermarking images, and other useful post-processing skills. Five new are released every week.

Note: Intermediate | $99 course

We hope you find these resources helpful! By no means is this an exhaustive list of what's available both for free and paid. Still, it's a good start, particularly for beginning photographers. Remember that the most important things you can do in photography are understood it, practice it, and enjoy it!

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