Elevate Your Photography - Master Composition. (Udemy.com)
Study 100 great photographs to learn their keys to success. An array of genres - landscape, travel, portrait, food..
Created by: El Gale
Last updated May 2019
What you will learn
- Study: 100 Great Photographs - Exploring What Makes Them Successful
- Learn: The Mechanisms That Distinguish Great Photos From The Masses
- Learn: A Foundation of Tools and Rules To Elevate Your Photos
- Master: Composition - To Create Engaging And Visually Appealing Photos
- Learn: How to Harness Natural Light
- Learn: What Visual Narrative Is And How To Utilize It Successfully
How it compares
Against the other 275 rated Udemy courses in Photography on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 44% of them
- Reviews912#61 of 276 by number of reviews
- Length1.8 hoursshorter than 69% of them
- Last updatedMay 2019earlier than 73% of them
Course Description
Photography is a craft, anyone can learn to take great photographs - with practice and a foundational understanding of the components that make photographs great - you can significantly elevate your photography.
In this course we will study 100 great photographs from across the world - to learn the key features that make photographs successful.
This course is for anyone looking to gain a foundation of insights to elevate their photography. It is not about technical settings or equipment, it's purely a study of the most valuable photographic conventions - which by the end will offer a tool box of skills to take aesthetically pleasing, engaging, and widely enjoyed images.
I made this course because I believe studying others photographs is one of the most beneficial things you can do to learn photography. It offers a great amount of insight and inspiration - it's the closest thing in my mind to replicating the value of a photography degree (the practice of learning through study). This process helped me improve my photography tremendously over the years, and that learning has now be condensed into this super-accessible course.
***Please don't buy this course if you're purely wanting to learn camera settings etc - there are other courses/ free online videos out there for that, this is about the artistic side of photography - Intention & Subject, Light & Shadow, Timing, Colour, and Composition.
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What We Will Cover (A brief overview):
1. Intent & Subject
"a camera is a save button for the minds eye"
Learn the importance of considering the WHAT & WHY. Explore the value in identifying subject and focal points - and discover mechanisms that can lead the eye to them within the image. Learn how you can give new insight to the subject to create even more compelling images, with a stronger sense of intention behind your photographs.
2. Light & Shadow
"Photography is painting with light"
Learn to see the light. Learn what quality light is and how to harness the best natural light forms for stunning, 3-dimensional photos. Understand the value and abilities of shadow - how it can create more interest, engagement, shape or mood in a photo.
3. Timing & Moment
"Photography freezes moments allowing you to stop and connect with the richness of reality"
Understand how consideration of moment can allow you to capture stronger connection to the subject - genuine emotions or compelling compositions.
4. Colour
Colour is a powerful tool in photography - it can bring life to a photo, enhance emotion, direct focus, or be the subject itself. Learn how to harness colour to create dynamic and evocative photos.
5. Composition
Explore 15+ valuable compositional mechanisms to create visually appealing and engaging photos. These are the some of the easiest and most valuable skills to elevate your photographs quickly.
6. Insights to Specific Genres
Key insights I think are valuable in creating great images within these specific fields of photography:
Portraiture
Macro
Street
Food
Nature
7. Bonus - personal tips I have gained value from
A range of general and specific tips and tools that have served me well over the years. A selection of links to check out and online realms I would recommend interacting with.
Enjoy the course!
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
912 Reviews
El Gale
El is an environmental photographer and graduate of a masters in documentary filmmaking. Her experience in photography spans across many years and a wide array of photographic genres.
Her experience in, and passion for, a diversity of photographic fields is what inspired the creation of this course - which offers the underlying foundations that she believes are valuable for any and all photographic applications.
"photography is a love affair with life"
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Reviews
By Alokes Chattopadhyay on 5/20/2025
By completing, am sorry i have to repeat it time and again. This course is an eye opener to me. I come to know many hidden treasure about photographic composition. Not only that I find its an unique course amongst Udemy course on photography curricula. Pls. convey my heartiest thanks teacher.
By Paul Craiger on 9/9/2022
There are plenty of technical photography courses but far fewer courses that focus on the components of what makes a good photograph. Breaking down a good photograph into components is a great way to learn what makes them good. Also, learning what not to do is just as important as learning what to do. This is a very informative and well thought out course.
By Johnathon Walty on 12/11/2021
Amazing course! I took this hoping to see examples of different composition techniques. What I got was soo much more. El clearly has a mastery over photographic composition as well as a passion for the subject. I gained so much insight as she walked me through so many photographic examples, explaining different components of great composition. Thank you for putting this together. Highly recommended!
By Andrew Oldham on 6/29/2020
Extremely useful for a total novice. Truly an eye opening experience while learning. Im a trained 3D artist and have practiced my craft for years. This course for the 1st time helped me actually understood and use properly the color wheel. I highly highly recommend this course! Ive studied this course in preparation for learning Level Design for the gaming industry.
By Previenn Estuardo Sosa Estrada on 1/9/2019
this course has a lot of good information. however, I think she should explain more on how to get those results with the camera and give exercises so we could practice them and see improvement. in the beginning I had to pause a lot or go back to understand better what she was explaining. I believe this course will help a little more when I'm in a higher level of photography.
By Rafal Piecyk on 1/3/2019
Absolutely amazing and most inspiring course. I wish all the courses would have this level of in-depth research and smooth flow. The instructor is truly creating a new standard for the online teaching, achieving what is most important - inspiring... I am very thankful and looking forward to continuing an amazing adventure of capturing time.
By Brendan Chaplin on 12/17/2018
I have taken several courses on Udemy and contrary to expectation, this is arguably the best. I was blown away by how incisive and yet concise this was. It is fast paced and there are just so many fantastic examples. I was busy screen-shotting the images and pasting with comments into MS OneNote so I can revisit. Took me a few minutes to tune into the Australasian accent ("entint" in place of "intent"). Great course though !
By S Fegel on 6/21/2018
Het is leuk om een vakkundige fotograaf uitleg te horen geven over foto's. Waardoor je zelf ook kritisch gaat kijken naar foto's. Wel is het moeilijk om je aandacht de gehele cursus erbij te houden. Ik heb het in meerdere stukken gekeken. Ze praat erg monotoom. Het zijn alleen beelden die je te zien krijgt, van voornamelijk award winnende foto's, waarbij ze wel goede uitleg geeft waarom het mooie foto's zijn. Iets interactiever zou wel mogen of meer variatie in de presentatie. (overigens zie je ook alleen foto's. De hele presentatie zie je de spreker niet.)
By Herman van Zyl on 3/23/2018
I am loving it and find it very informative, it has me captured and wanting more. well done, "EXCELLENT WORK". Thank you El. I have learnt so much with your hypnotizing way of sharing your skill. One thing really stood out for me, and although I believe I am a committed and disciplined photographer you have certainly reminded me that I am still not paying attention to the detail, and I am not thinking through exactly what I really want to convey. In fact I am a lazy photographer and must up my game immediately. i will go through your course a few more times to capture the essence of what you are teaching us. Loved the way you presented the topic and wish you well going forward. Regards Herman
By Alan Torppa on 12/22/2017
very well thought out and communicated clearly with great examples. A truly remarkable course ..... The author is concise... she highlights and organizes the key elements of great photography into a workable format that the consumer can put to work in his/her own photography. Many photography courses are baggy collections of poorly organized points, which are easily forgotten. This course is a huge improvement in that the author's clear intent and tight organization makes it easy to memorize and put into practice. All of this at a price that is unbeatable!
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 90 / 100






