Learn Digital Photography with Harvard University’s Free Online Course (2024)

Since the tak­ing of the very first pho­to­graph in 1826, pho­tog­ra­phy has devel­oped, as it were, in ways hard­ly imag­in­able to its first few gen­er­a­tions of prac­ti­tion­ers. The most thor­ough trans­for­ma­tion so far has, of course, come in the form of the dig­i­tal rev­o­lu­tion (and espe­cial­ly itslat­est fruit, the cam­era phone), which has in many real ways deliv­ered on its promise of mak­ing “every­one a pho­tog­ra­ph­er.” But the abil­i­ty to take a pic­ture is one thing, andthe abil­i­ty to take a pic­ture worth look­ing at — let alone look­ing at more than once —quite anoth­er.

For­tu­nate­ly, high tech­nol­o­gy has democ­ra­tized not onlythe means of pro­duc­tion, but also the means of learn­ing with online cours­es like thisfree one on dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­physourcedfrom no less an insti­tu­tion than Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty.

Its mate­ri­als come from Dan Armen­dariz’s Har­vard courseDGMD E‑10: Expos­ing Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy,and itstwelve mod­ules “will take an aver­age stu­dent about 10 to 15 hours to com­plete, and they teach a wide range of top­ics in dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy, includ­ing expo­sure set­tings, read­ing his­tograms, learn­ing about light, how sen­sors and lens­es work, and how to post-process pho­tos.” You can watch the lec­tures above, or find them on YouTube and iTunes,and find relat­ed mate­ri­als on this course web­site.

Even a basic under­stand­ing of all those top­ics willput you far ahead of the aver­age social-media snap­per, but as with any pur­suit, gain­ing some knowl­edge cre­ates the desire formore. You thusmight also con­sid­er tak­ing the dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy coursefrom Stan­ford pro­fes­sor and Google researcher Marc Lev­oy we fea­tured last year. (Also see this free mas­sive open online course, See­ing Through Pho­tographs. It’s from the MoMA, and it starts again on Jan­u­ary 23.)Itwould take a life­time to mas­ter all the gear and attain all the know-how out there, even if pho­tog­ra­phy stopped chang­ing today, but don’t let that intim­i­date you. Just bear in mind the wise words of Hunter S. Thomp­son: “Any man who can see what he wants to get on film will usu­al­ly find some way to get it; and a man who thinks his equip­ment is going to see for him is not going to get much of any­thing.”

Har­vard’s free dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy course will be added to our col­lec­tion,1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter,please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­inga dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Annie Lei­bovitz Teach­es Pho­tog­ra­phy in Her First Online Course

An Intro­duc­tion to Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy: Take a Free Course from Stan­ford Prof/Google Researcher Marc Lev­oy

Muse­um of Mod­ern Art (MoMA) Launch­es Free Course on Look­ing at Pho­tographs as Art

The His­to­ry of Pho­tog­ra­phy in Five Ani­mat­ed Min­utes: From Cam­era Obscu­ra to Cam­era Phone

How to Take Pho­tographs Like Ansel Adams: The Mas­ter Explains The Art of “Visu­al­iza­tion”

Hen­ri Carti­er-Bres­son and the Deci­sive Moment

Alfred Stieglitz: The Elo­quent Eye, a Reveal­ing Look at “The Father of Mod­ern Pho­tog­ra­phy”

ALISON — A Trove of 750 Free Online Job Train­ing Cours­es

Based in Seoul,Col­in Mar­shallwrites and broad­castson cities and cul­ture.He’s at work on a book about Los Ange­les,A Los Ange­les Primer, the video seriesThe City in Cin­e­ma,thecrowd­fund­ed jour­nal­ism projectWhere Is the City of the Future?, and theLos Ange­les Review of Books’Korea Blog.Fol­low him on Twit­ter at@colinmarshallor onFace­book.

Comments (33)

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• Jay Umana says:

  January 16, 2017 at 1:22 pm

  Wow.

  Reply

• Eugene Ayeh says:

  January 16, 2017 at 2:00 pm

  I won’t to be a part of the pho­tog­ra­phy pro­gram

  Reply

• Eugene Ayeh says:

  January 16, 2017 at 2:05 pm

  I won’t to be pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er

  Reply

• SONIA says:

  January 17, 2017 at 5:07 am

  I just want to learn pho­tog­ra­phy
  If this will hlp me out it ll hlp me to ful­fill my dream

  Reply

• DT Swans says:

  January 20, 2017 at 2:36 am

  See Also

  Free Online Digital Photography Courses for Beginners10 Best Free Online Photography Courses in 2024Best Digital Photography Courses & Certificates Online [2024] | Coursera10 Best Free Online Photography Courses in 2024

  The course has been with­drawn by Har­vard and Ali­son due to dat­ed (2009) con­tent. Not good jour­nal­ism.

  Reply

• DT Swans says:

  January 20, 2017 at 2:07 pm

  “Not good jour­nal­ism” was prob­a­bly a not good com­ment (sor­ry about that), but the head­line does say, “Learn Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy with Har­vard University’s Free Online Course”. The relat­ed con­tent on Hunter S Thomp­son and MoMA/Coursera is def­i­nite­ly worth check­ing out, though.

  Reply

• Andre Kok says:

  January 26, 2017 at 11:20 am

  I wish to par­tic­i­pate in the free 0nline dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy course please. Please advise on how I sign in. Thank you

  Reply

• Sujoy Pal says:

  January 30, 2017 at 7:18 am

  I want to take the course. Please advise.

  Reply

• Nick Charles says:

  February 10, 2017 at 6:42 pm

  There is no course — this is a course syl­labus for a col­lege exten­sion class from the Fall of 2015! I would say you are a bit late in “find­ing” this “free” course. If there is a real clas, it is not evi­dent in the link pro­vid­ed.

  Reply

• SAMDIPAN BOSE says:

  February 17, 2017 at 7:07 am

  Excel­lent

  Reply

• Sandipan Bose says:

  February 17, 2017 at 7:08 am

  Great

  Reply

• Mau says:

  May 10, 2017 at 7:05 am

  Yeah, pho­to please

  Reply

• Al Imran says:

  February 2, 2018 at 3:13 pm

  i just want to be a pro­fes­sion­al photographer,could you please help me?

  Reply

• Mike McCoog says:

  February 6, 2018 at 8:20 am

  I am look­ing to com­plete my A/S degree, after many years. I am look­ing for an art class, could you please send me all the details and so I can see if this class would be accept­ed by my pre­vi­ous CC. I love pho­tog­ra­phy. Thank You

  Reply

• Aarti says:

  February 8, 2018 at 5:09 am

  How is course and which loca­tion any fees

  Reply

  See Also

  12 free photography courses and content to keep you busy during quarantine

• chris zarichansky says:

  June 9, 2019 at 10:58 am

  Does any­one know what kind of cam­era I would need for this class?

  Reply

• Reshma says:

  August 28, 2019 at 12:20 am

  I want to study pho­tog­ra­phy lev­el best. I loved this field so much. But my par­ents had no inter­est in pay­ing fee on this fields. So y I join or I can’t.. So I hope this is the last chance for my dream

  Reply

• Nolubablo Madikizela says:

  November 18, 2019 at 11:21 pm

  I would like to that how do I do apply for this online course because I would real­ly like to a part of this amaz­ing thing

  Reply

• Manish lal says:

  January 26, 2020 at 4:44 am

  Would love to join you… Please sug­gest how to go about… Thanks

  Reply

• Abiyot Dima says:

  February 1, 2020 at 5:52 am

  I want to be a pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er. Please help me out.

  Reply

• Jim says:

  March 19, 2020 at 2:05 pm

  The best way is to become an assis­tant to a cur­rent pro. There is much more to being a pro­fes­sion­al than tak­ing pho­tos. The sec­ond most impor­tant piece is to learn the busi­ness side. IF you want to go to school for pho­tog­ra­phy go to one that spe­cial­izes in it and includes cours­es on how to man­age the busi­ness end.

  Reply

• Armando Massinga says:

  June 2, 2020 at 6:25 am

  Pho­tos are my thang

  Reply

• YASSER ELTAJANI ALI ADAM says:

  June 4, 2020 at 8:32 am

  My name is yass­er I’m from Sudan in my free time I like to play foot­ball and devolpe my self in my career

  Reply

• Dulcet says:

  June 27, 2021 at 11:18 am

  I want to be a pro­fes­sion­al film­mak­er

  Reply

• BILAl Bencheikh says:

  July 8, 2021 at 8:35 am

  can we get a free degree

  Reply

• Freedman Pierre says:

  December 23, 2021 at 4:11 pm

  I would like To Learn, dog­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy with Arvard Uni­ver­si­ty Free online please

  Reply

• Cassandra Antoine says:

  December 25, 2021 at 10:41 am

  I want to be a pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er…

  Reply

• Nemours Fritz Gerald, Souffrant says:

  December 26, 2021 at 12:11 pm

  Wan­na sub­mit for this course

  Reply

• Lubabalo Qayiso says:

  May 6, 2022 at 2:21 am

  Can you please help me with a pho­tog­ra­phy.

  Reply

• Cynthia Owens says:

  August 26, 2022 at 2:11 pm

  Where is week two?

  Reply

• Ariza Abbas says:

  January 3, 2023 at 4:02 am

  I wish to par­tic­i­pate in the free 0nline dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy course please. Please advise on how I sign in. Thank you

  Reply

• Vilas vakte says:

  February 16, 2024 at 12:49 am

  Nice 👍…
  Earn online mon­ey

  Reply

• Vilas vakte says:

  February 16, 2024 at 12:50 am

  Super…

  Reply