Polish Your Camera Skills With Nikon's Free Online Photography Classes
Your feed will thank you.
Scrolling through your Instagram feed isn't just a way to find inspiration (or memes, let's be honest), accounts such as National Geographic and Lonely Planet are great ways to see some amazing photography. If you're looking to refine your skills to get the perfect balance of composition, color, and focus, camera manufacturer Nikon is offering its digital photography classes for free through April.
The classes, which typically go from $15 to $50 each, are all available at Nikon School Online and, for a limited time, they'll all be completely free. With 10 classes on offer, everyone from budding shutterbugs (start with "Fundamentals of Photography") to pros will find a few tips and tricks to add to their arsenal. Instructors include professional photographer Reed Hoffman, who hopes to help photographers "go beyond [their] camera’s Auto mode and master the fundamentals of photography." Courses even zero in on very specific skills, like macro photography, taught by photographer Joey Terrill.
"Nikon’s mission has always been to empower creators," the camera company says on its site. "In these uncertain times, we can do that by helping creators stay inspired, engaged and growing."
If you're not planning on heading to a national park or a bucket-list destination just yet, there are courses on pet photography and classes on how to handle fidgety kids. That course describes itself as guiding photographers on exactly how to "get genuine expressions from children and pets, how to create poses that look and feel natural, how to softly blur the backgrounds, how to set your camera, which lenses are best, and more."
In addition to the courses, Nikon is also giving everyone free access to its Nikon Live streaming events. While some of the talks may be aimed at pros, there are a few that'll cater to a wider audience, such as talks on creativity and interviews with videographers on how to capture high-speed action without falling into slow-motion, blurry ESPN-style cliché.