What I love about America is that, regardless of your background, you can choose any career path you want.
Just take me for example, I’m Latino, and a photographer (a path less traveled for many of us).
And no, I didn’t go to an expensive photography school. Instead, I found a range of courses tailored to my unique needs. So, if you’re an aspiring Latino photographer, let me share some courses that you might want to look into to chase your dream while managing your budget.
Just a heads up, they’re entirely online, so you’ll need an internet connection to access them. If you’re currently looking for one, I’d recommend Xfinity. Their speed and reliability are great, plus they make it easy for Latinos to set up with Spanish support through Xfinity Servicio al Cliente.
Now, let’s explore the courses!
The Photography Masterclass
Chris Parker has over 30 years of experience as a photographer and has created an intensive 28-hour-long course on Udemy for beginners to perfect the basics of photography and grow their chances of landing a decent entry-level role.
The best part? You can start learning with any camera you have.
The course is paid, and upon completion, you will receive a certificate. You can also choose to access the course material on your phone or TV, whichever works better. You’ll be taught in detail about the 4 main components of photography, which are:
- Equipment
- Light
- Composition
- Editing
You can expect to learn things such as:
- Using exposure to achieve the ideal lighting with ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.
- Creatively choosing manual camera settings.
- Using composition to improve photo quality.
- Basic photo editing with GIMP, Lightroom, and Photoshop.
In addition to the 28-hour-long course material, it features a range of assignments, articles, and downloadable resources to help you refine the concepts and strategies taught.
Photography Masterclass: Your Complete Guide to Photography
This one is also available on Udemy and features the minds and skills of 3 photography experts, Phil Ebiner, William Carnahan, and Sam Shimizu-Jones, each of whom has extensive experience in the field.
The 91-hour course dives into how both beginners and pros can perfect their photography skills, regardless of whether they’re using a phone, a mirrorless, or a DSLR, and how they can make a business out of it.
The course focuses on various forms of photography, some of which include:
- Portrait & Landscape
- Long Exposure
- Product
- Low Light
- Sports and Action
- Street
- Architecture
- Events and Weddings
- Aerial and Drone
- Wildlife
- Night
You can expect to learn skills such as:
- Understanding how cameras work.
- Mastering manual mode shooting.
- Buying the right budget-friendly equipment.
- Learning practical shooting tips for real-world scenarios.
- Improving photo quality with composition, lighting, and proper settings.
- Improving end results with professional editing tips.
- Launching a photography business and putting your new skills to use.
This course is also paid and offers a completion certificate.
Like the previous course, you can access this one on your phone or TV as well. There are assignments, articles, and downloadable resources available to you, but the feature I found particularly helpful is the practical demonstrations, which can help you put your photography skills to good use in many real-life situations.
Landscape Photography: Capture the Beauty of Planet Earth
If you’re into outdoor photography, capturing the beauty of Mother Earth, this one’s for you. The Skillshare course takes you on a journey to Bali, Indonesia, with photographer Sean Dalton, as he captures and teaches you how to photograph nature all around you.
The course is much shorter than the other ones on this list, lasting only 2 hours, and focusing on the following landscape photography-related aspects:
- Finding beautiful locations for landscape photos.
- Choosing the right landscape photography gear.
- Tips to compose landscape photos.
- Choosing the ideal camera settings for any scenario.
- Tips for sunrise, sunset, and blue hour shooting.
- Editing your landscape photos after a simple editing workflow.
The only catch is that there is no certificate on completion, but considering the knowledge Sean offers, I think that it might be worth your while through a lot of real-life situations when you’re out there chasing adventure.
You may have to sign up to Skillshare to access the course, but hey, they do offer a 7-day free trial, so it can’t hurt to try, right?
Cityscape Photography: Shape and Perspective
Let’s move from nature to an urban setting, with Domestika’s course, featuring award-winning photographer Andrew Moore. As the name suggests, the course teaches you to explore and capture beautiful architectural landscapes in the city.
Like the previous course, this one also lasts around 2 hours, teaching you to:
- Understand architectural form as a metaphor.
- Adjust composition, light, color, and shape.
- Understand narrative when shooting.
- Choose the right equipment.
- Know your subject and the location.
- Select, edit, and print final photographs.
- Create a body of work.
Photography – Turning Life into Art
Ever since I was a child, capturing family moments meant a lot to me, and I’m glad that online courses can help others like me turn their dreams into a reality, while helping them maintain their budget. The ones I’ve shared above are the perfect balance between affordability, in-depth knowledge, and time effectiveness, allowing you to easily navigate the industry and turn life into art.
