We’ve all been there, snapping photos to immortalize our most cherished memories. Be it with our phones or a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera, photography is the art of capturing fleeting moments with complex equipment, in the hopes of creating an unforgettable shot worth sharing with our loved ones.
Whether you want to improve your photography skill to impress your family and friends or are considering a career as a photographer, this Best Courses Guide (BCG) has a selection of the best Photography courses from over 1,900 Photography courses in our catalog, including popular options from Udemy, Skillshare, and YouTube. Most of the courses are beginner-friendly.
Click on the shortcuts for more details:
Our Top Picks
| Course Highlight |
Workload |
| Best Overall: The Photography Masterclass (Chris Parker) | 28 hours |
| Best Phone & DSLR Photography Course (Udemy) | 72 hours |
| Best Landscape Photography Course (Skillshare) | 2 hours |
| Best Cityscape Photography Course (Domestika) | 2-3 hours |
| Best Short DSLR Photography Course (Skillshare) | 2-4 hours |
| Best YouTube Tutorials | 7-50 hours |
BCG Stats
- Combined, these courses have accrued over 580K enrollments
- The Photography subject is followed by over 22.6K learners on Class Central.
Best Overall: THE Photography Masterclass (Chris Parker)
Taught by Chris Parker, a professional photographer with over 30 years of experience, THE Photography Masterclass is a comprehensive learning journey for beginners. This course walks you through the 4 key components of photography: equipment, light, composition, and editing. Once you’ve mastered these basics, you’ll see your photos improve drastically.
What you’ll learn:
- How to use exposure to get the perfect lighting using ISO, aperture, & shutter speed
- The creative process for choosing specific camera settings in manual mode
- Take better photos using composition
- The basics of photo editing in Photoshop, Lightroom, and GIMP.
Bonus: Don’t forget to check out Chris Parker’s four-hours long free course on YouTube covering the fundamentals of photography: camera settings and modes, lenses, light, composition, and editing.
| Provider | Udemy |
| Instructor | Chris Parker |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 28 hours |
| Enrollments | 45.7K |
| Rating | 4.6/5.0 (2.0K) |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Phone & DSLR Photography Course (Udemy)
Whether you use a smartphone, mirrorless, or a DSLR, after taking Photography Masterclass: A Complete Guide to Photography, you’ll be able to take amazing photos and also sell them. Even if you have no experience, you’ll still be able to create images that stand out. Taught by three photography experts, this course is Udemy’s bestseller in this category.
What you’ll learn:
- How the camera truly works
- Take better photos in manual settings
- Photograph in different scenarios: family portraits, landscapes, aerial, product, wildlife, and more
- Compose images with basic rules
- Light your subjects with flash and natural light
- Edit your photos like a pro
- Take better photos with your smartphone.
| Provider | Udemy |
| Instructors | Phil Ebiner, William Carnahan, Sam Shimizu-Jones, Video School |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 72 hours |
| Enrollments | 399.2K |
| Rating | 4.7/5.0 (77.0K) |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Landscape Photography Course (Skillshare)
If you love taking photos outside, Landscape Photography: Capture the Beauty of Planet Earth will teach you essential information on landscape photography.
What you’ll learn:
- How to find beautiful locations
- The best gear
- How to compose landscape photos
- Choose the best camera settings
- Techniques for sunrise, sunset, and blue hour
- How to edit landscape photos.
| Provider | Skillshare |
| Instructors | Sean Dalton |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 2 hours |
| Enrollments | 3.2K |
| Rating | 4.6/5.0 (52) |
| Certificate | Not available |
Best Cityscape Photography Course (Domestika)
Explore composition, perspective, color, and light to capture urban scenes deeply infused with your own point of view with Andrew Moore in Cityscape Photography: Shape and Perspective. Cityscapes can tell stories about their buildings’ past, present, and future. Moore is an award-winning photographer who specializes in bringing these architectural narratives to light through his camera lens.
What you’ll learn:
- Architectural form as metaphor
- Composition, light, color, and shape
- Narrative and the third thing
- Equipment
- Knowing your subject and shooting the location
- Selecting, editing, and printing the final photograph
- Creating a body of work.
| Provider | Domestika |
| Instructor | Andrew Moore |
| Level | Beginner |
| Workload | 2-3 hours |
| Enrollments | 757 |
| Rating | 100% positive |
| Certificate | Paid |
Best Short DSLR Photography Course (Skillshare)
I kept these two photography courses by Justin Bridges together because they are short and go hand in hand. Taking them will help you understand the whole picture of DSLR photography.
Fundamentals of DSLR Photography: Understand your DSLR, balance the exposure triangle, prepare to shoot, get studio demonstration, learn about shutter speed, aperture, ISO, get editing tips and tricks, and take suggestions on buying cameras and lenses.
DSLR Photography II: Understanding Lenses, Focal Length & Shooting: Explore lens anatomy, understand focal length and field of view, learn about portrait photography, object photography, street photography, landscape photography, get editing tips and tricks, and take tips for buying lenses.
Bridges is a fashion and portrait photographer based in New York City. He began his pursuit of photography as a college student studying finance and economics.
| Provider | Skillshare |
| Instructor | Justin Bridges |
| Level | Mixed |
| Workload | 2-4 hours |
| Enrollments | 140.2K |
| Rating | 4.6/5.0 (4.8K) |
| Certificate | Not available |
Best YouTube Tutorials
Exploring Photography with Mark Wallace (Adorama)
In this extensive series, professional photographer Mark Wallace will show you the best tips and tricks for shooting portrait photography, editing your photos, and fun tutorials to improve your creativity and technique, so you can take your photography skills to the next level.
Photography Tutorials (Tony & Chelsea Northrup)
This series is made for experienced photographers. Even though you’ll also learn the basics, you’ll quickly move into more advanced topics, learning about different kinds of photography, getting pro tips, and even hearing from professionals such as Ira Block from National Geographic.
Master Your Craft (Adorama)
This series is for photographers not only looking to improve their photography skills, but also willing to go deep to learn about posing and even use editing software like Adobe Lightroom to make their photos the best.
Wedding Photography Tutorials (Adorama)
If wedding photography is your thing, then you definitely won’t want to miss out on this course. Featuring multiple instructors, including professional photographers and industry experts, you’ll learn everything you need to know to take better wedding photos.
Wedding Photography Behind the Scenes (John Branch)
Get ready for a journey as John Branch takes you through a real wedding and how he photographs it professionally. Through his lenses, you’ll experience every moment of the wedding, from the beginning of the day through each and every event, and see how you too can take professional wedding photos.
What Every Photographer Should Know About Lenses (Envato Tuts)
You’ll explore all kinds of lenses, their pros and cons, where to use them, and watch them in action as Dave Bode takes photos with each one. Learn about focal length and field-of-view, aperture, lens quality, stabilization, coatings, and focusing motors. Lenses include standard zoom, wide angle zoom, medium telephoto zoom, telephoto, super zoom, prime, fish eye, and macro. Learn how to choose the right lens for different types of photography.
Why You Should Trust Us
Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 100 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 250,000 online courses and 250,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.
Ever since Archisha was a child, her father (a civil engineer) encouraged her to learn photography. She learned from him as he took photos during Durga Puja, vacations, family weddings, and even at home. She’s used several DSLRs and lenses since then.
“I have always been inspired by National Geographic. Their style is raw, stands out from the rest, and every picture tells a story. Someday, I’d love to see them work, if not work with them.” she says.
Besides that, Archisha is a Guided Project Instructor and Beta Tester at Coursera, having tested many courses before they’re officially launched. She has taken over 50 online courses in various subjects. Archisha’s experience as an online learner and teacher has given her some perspective on what to look for in an online course, using her experience to evaluate each course in this list.
Fabio also has experience as an online learner and as a tutor who revised the research and the 2023 version of this article.
Pat is also a keen amateur photographer and online learner who revised the 2024 and 2025 versions of this article.
How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them
Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses. Here’s how we approached this task.
First, we combed through Class Central’s Catalog and the internet to find a variety of free and paid courses.
Second, when choosing courses, we considered the following factors:
- Renowned Institutions: We picked the most recognized institutions in Photography.
- Instructor experience: We looked for instructors with extensive experience in Photography.
- Course content: We looked for courses that covered a wide range of topics, from the basics to more advanced techniques.
- Student reviews: We read student reviews (when available) to get a sense of the quality of each course.
To evaluate each course, We watched some of the course videos and read the course syllabus. We also looked at the course’s rating and reviews on Class Central.
Ultimately, We used a combination of data and our own judgment to make these picks. We’re confident these recommendations will provide you with the knowledge and skills you need to start taking photos as a hobby or take your first step into being a professional photographer.
Original article written by Archisha. Later updates by Fabio and Pat.
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