Learning how to improve your photography skills is one of the best things you can do to get more views to your blog posts.

A good image can evoke an instant emotional response in your viewers and pull them into the story you want to tell in your post and if done well, can even tell the story better than words can. We've all heard the expression, A picture is worth a thousand words and for good reason, it's true.

Whether you're an amateur photographer snapping shots from your cell phone or a semi-pro using a DSLR camera, there are some basic, fundamental skills that every photographer can benefit from and most of the information you need is available online for free.

Here are some of the best resources for photographers available online.

Best Free Online Photography Courses and Tutorials

Basics of Photography: The Complete Guide: A great resource for beginning photographers, put out by Lifehacker. Explains how a digital camera works and covers image composition, technique, and editing. Mostly in text format, interspersed with a few explanatory videos.

Level: Beginner | Duration: Self-paced

Photography: Ditch Auto – Start Shooting in Manual: A course for amateur photographers who have been using their DSLR or fancy Point-and-shoot camera in “auto” mode, but want to learn to unlock to it’s full potential.

Level: Beginner | Duration: 4.5 hours

Karl Taylor’s FREE Photography Course: One of the most popular courses on Udemy with over 50,000 students enrolled. A mix of videos and PDF fact sheets.

Level: Beginner | Duration: 2.5 hours

A Complete Introduction to Photography by Alex Buisse Alex Buisse covers everything from gear to post processing. Great for those who prefer reading to watching videos.

Level: Beginner to Intermediate | Duration: Self-paced

Introduction to Photography and Related Media: Video lectures from a semester-long undergraduate-level course at MIT. Covers the fundamentals of analog and digital SLR, film exposure and development, darkroom techniques, digital imaging, and studio lighting.

Level: Beginner | Duration: Self-paced

B & H YouTube Channel Hundreds of videos from countless professional photographers on everything from lighting, exposure, composition, in every genre of photography from portrait photography, street photography, landscape photography, fashion photography, art photography, product photography, macro photography, etc..

If you're looking to learn more about getting great shots for your blog posts this is a good place to start. Spend some time learning from the masters and see how it will improve your images immensely.

If you know of other good resources to improve your photography skills add them to the comments below. I'll leave you with a recent shot taken from a Canon T7i.