Most of us probably have full time jobs that don't allow us to spend as much time learning about our beloved photography as we'd like. And, wouldn't you much rather spend your money on a fast new lens instead of textbooks? I know I would! Fortunately, there are ways you can save your money and still take on an Ivy League photography course. Here's a list of some of my favorite classes that I invite you to enjoy, too:
Digital Photography – Stanford University
The official course description accurately describes this one as:
“An introduction to the scientific, artistic, and computing aspects of digital photography – how digital cameras work, how to take good pictures using them, and how to manipulate these pictures afterwards. Topics include lenses and optics, light and sensors, optical effects in nature, perspective and depth of field….”
For this specific course, you won't be working with an instructor nor will you have social access to other participants of the course. Stanford has, however, posted the entire coursework, including the required materials, texts, images, etc. You are free to work through the course at your own pace, skip sections you are not interested in, and take it upon yourself to complete the weekly assignments, which are one of the highlights of the course!
Copyright – HarvardX
Exposing Digital Photography – Harvard Extension
Sensing Place – Photography as Inquiry – MIT
“This course explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, exploring landscapes, and expressing ideas…Students keep a journal of writings and images throughout the semester and develop a portfolio of photographs that explore the qualities of a particular place, sequenced as a web of narratives.”
You can follow the course materials and notes here and you can watch the entire lecture series from this courses classroom version on MIT's YouTube Page.
Beauty, Form & Function: An Exploration of Symmetry – Nanyang Technical University
While completing the courses this way won't earn you actual college credits, these resources are still profoundly beneficial to those of us who just like to learn new things to expand our understanding and improve our skills. Most allow you to work at your own pace which makes it a little easier to fit into an already busy schedule. Many of these courses and others like them can also be found as podcasts in the iTunes U library, so you can learn on the go, too!
9 Comments
Thank you for listing these exciting sources. I’ll definitely have a look at some.
As a retiree with an extremely limited budget and mobility challenges with my first and only DSLR I especially appreciate access to these free, self-paced courses which will help make this stage of my life fulfilling by giving me a chance to grow artistically.
Thank you so much for providing these resources, I hope to take several of the courses and improve on my photography skills. This is the first DSLR camera I have owned and it is not the top of the line but is a good one. I really like the course description for Sensing Place – Photography as Inquiry – MIT. I think I will tackle this one first. Again a big thank you very much.
Thank you for bringing these Free courses to light for me. I appreciate all the knowledge I can get, but can’t afford the prices of most classes. 🙂
Free course from Stanford sounds great.
Your awesome! !
THANKYOU so much for sharing!!!! My budget doesn’t have room for anything like this, but oh how it’ll bring some light to the subject for me!!!
Thank you so much for these wonderful resources. I would never have found them without your help!
Photography is a lifelong exploration and growth.