My Favorite and (Mostly) Free Resources for Learning Photography
As promised, today I’m sharing my favorite resources for learning photography. Most of them will be FREE, since I am a super bargain hunter and don’t like to pay for anything I don’t have to, but there will be a couple resources that cost money as well. So here we go!
This website is AWESOME. There are so many topics and tutorials on here! And they’re all written in a way that is really easy to understand if you’re new to all the technical jargon. This was my main resource when I started learning manual mode and about how my camera works. She also has an awesome guide for your photography journey here). There are SO many techniques and skills, it’s nice to have a list that tells you when you should learn each skill. Definitely check out this site!
2. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
Your local library should have this, so count this one as another free resource! Again, this was really helpful to understand more about manual mode and why the exposure triangle actually works together to get a good image. I read this again just barely, and it was a good review! There are also some tips for “creatively correct” exposures, which was really helpful when I was first starting out, as well as gave me new ideas to try.
3. FREE learning manual email challenges
There are a couple sites that offer free challenges/emails to help you learn manual mode. I didn’t find these until later, but it was still a good review and a chance to get things down solid. Click Love Grow has a mini course here, Live Snap Love also has a five day challenge to take better photos here. I’m sure there are tons more!
4. The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby
This book goes over a lot of different topics. I love it for a couple reasons: 1. I can flip to anywhere in the book and get some quick tips on what I’m working on/looking for 2. It’s actually kind of fun to read, and super easy to understand (are you seeing a theme here?). I’ve also used his books to learn Photoshop Elements and Lightroom, so his books are another awesome resource.
5. Clickin Moms
Ok, so here’s a resource that isn’t free, sorry. But I still think it’s worth the money! Sometimes taking an actual course can be a lot more beneficial than just reading a post. So far I’ve only done their Breakout Sessions, which are like mini courses. If you decide to do a Breakou ssion, I would recommend trying to do a live one! This means that the instructors and other students will be posting in a forum, so you can ask questions and get some (limited) one-on-one help. I’ve done one live, and one just from their archives. I LOVED both, but it was definitely nice to be able to ask questions if I didn’t understand something or wanted some tips. You can find their courses here.
There are other resources I’ve used, but these are the ones I’ve used the most and since the beginning of learning photography. I hope these resources help, and as always, if you have any questions I would love to help!