The following review of the Proud Photography Course has been written by Nicole Braun – one of our wonderful forum moderators.

I recently had the opportunity to use the site proudphotography.com. The site is based around 13 interactive lessons about photography and technique. A note for film users, the site does include tips that apply to you too. In order to complete the course you need to earn 144 points (out of 180), and these points come from completing the lessons and assignments.

Lessons

The first two lessons focus on the very basics of photography and digital photography. The next three lessons focus on some of the basics of actually taking pictures and look at shutter speed, aperture, and composition.

After you get taught the basics, the lessons go more in-depth into other areas of interest. These lessons include:

  • Light & Flashes
  • Black & White Photography
  • Travel Photography
  • People Photography

Finally, the lessons conclude with two more lessons on general tips and tricks for photography as a whole.

One of the interesting things about the lessons is that you cannot move on to the next lesson until you have completed the previous lesson. This might sound kind of tedious if you’re a more experienced photographer, but if you’re looking forward to the next lesson, you’re more than happy to do it. I was really looking forward to reading the black & white photography lesson, but to get there, I had to go through the previous lessons. But what I found was that because of this, I was drawn into it more. It also helped that the lessons were written in a way that they were easy to read and interesting, while still providing the necessary information.

Homework and Quizzes

Most of the lessons also contain some sort of quiz to test you on what you’ve learned. You can re-take the quizzes at any point after you have completed them for the first time, so you can go back and try to get a higher score. The quizzes are not long, usually only several questions. The lessons also have homework attached to them. Some of the lessons are graded by the tutors, and these help contribute to the total points that you need in order to complete the course. There are several tutors there who can provide feedback about your work.

One of the benefits to the format of this course is that you get a good amount of information that has been distilled into smaller, more digestible pieces. If you don’t want to spend an hour or two learning behind a computer screen (you’ll probably spend plenty of time practicing behind the camera), then the format is really manageable. It’s the basic information without having to search all over the internet for it.

500MB of Gallery Space included

In addition to the lessons, you also get 500MB of gallery space to showcase your photographs. This is useful for posting not only your assignment pictures, but also other pictures. You can also share your pictures with other people, such as friends and family, if you change the permissions of the album. Unfortunately, I found this part of the process to be quite difficult. There is a dropdown box where you can select the permission that you want to add, but the list is fairly long and complex. Once you figure it out, however, there are a lot of things that you can do to control what people can and cannot see and do with your gallery.

Verdict

Overall, the site provides a good amount of information, and the environment is more interactive than simply reading about things since you are actually tested on what you learn and how you use it. The lessons are short and to the point, but the information can be useful. If you want information that’s all in one place, or you want more structured lessons without taking the time to take a course in person, then this may be useful.

Sign up for Proud Photography here

Note: Links to Proud Photography in this review are affiliate links and purchases coming from this page earn this site a small commission to help us to continue to improve DPS. Be assured however that this is a genuine review and that it’s author Nicole did not write this with any incentive from purchases.

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