The 8 Best Photography YouTube Channels For Beginners (And Why)
Education isn’t just changing, it has CHANGED. And one of the best sources to learn from online is/has become YouTube. Especially for something visual like photography. This article highlights the best photography Youtube channels for beginners. Check out this post to see the best Youtube channels for photo editing.
There are quite a few out there so it’s pretty important for me to share why these were my top 8 picks. Learning from the right sources means you’ll learn much faster and get the better end of knowledge.
You get the top 10% of the information you ‘DO need‘ from a great teacher and often the bottom 90% you ‘DON’T need’, you get from a bad/average one – at least at the start.
A beginner needs to start with the ‘DO need‘ stuff, and that’s what the links below will give you.
I hope this article helps you become not just a better photographer, but more so, a photographer who ‘gets it‘.
Here are the Best Photography YouTube Channels for Beginners – along with my reasons why:
1. Jared Polin
Why
When it comes to the knowing what the core of photography is, there are few better places to start than on the subject of composition. Essentially, if you can get this element right, you’ve done 80% of the work that goes into snapping an excellent shot. To properly learn this concept, you need a teacher who understands that you don’t know what you don’t know, and guides you through it step by step. Jared Polin’s tutorials do this VERY well.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7AOgJFMBKA
2. CreativeLive
Why
Mastering a skill is mostly a matter of knowing what NOT to do. Therefore learning upfront what to avoid often gets you results much faster than if you were to do the same by trial and error. The danger here however is if you get a teacher who does not really know what he/she’s talking about and who tells you the wrongs things to avoid. That’s why I highly recommend going to CreativeLive for this info. With them, you get years of PROVEN experience that you can rely, and given the fact that they are involved with many different creative areas, the cross-pollination of fundamentals only adds to their level of knowledge.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZVzzgTxys
3. TheNewBoston
Why
There are few YouTube tutorial makers as friendly and well-liked as TheNewBoston is. He has amassed a fan-base of over 1,000,000 people by offering nothing more than simple, like-a-friend-sitting-next-to-you style’d tutorials.
Here I’ve linked his introduction to Photoshop. It’s an application that any aspiring photographer worth his or her salt should know how to use. And this is as good a person to learn it from as any.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jup9kMp681w
4. TheArtOfPhotography
Why
Probably the most important area outside of composition in terms of what makes a photo ‘work’ is that of color and its use to make your photo ‘pop’.
Learning to use the right combinations is something that trips up a lot of eager, albeit inexperienced, beginners. To learn this technique well takes a thorough run through of the reasons why some colors work together while others don’t. The Art Of Photography channel is the best I’ve found in helping to get to grips with this topic of color.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP0OyqECAS4
5. FilterGrade
Why
Now, everyone knows that great photography is a 50/50 game. Half of what makes a photo great is what happens to it AFTER it has been taken. And that’s the editing. If you’ve ever wondered how the best photographers achieved those outstanding images that probably got you into photography in the first place, well look no further than in the use of Photoshop actions. With these simple effects, it’s possible to to turn an average shot into an award winning one. On the FilterGrade channel, we hope to provide some of the best guides on using them. Have a look at our channel (and our custom made actions) and see if we are meeting our promise.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3itiClXiZI
6. DayFloLighting
Why
While not a large channel in terms of subscribers, DayFloLighting provides some of the best content out there on a topic that a lot of beginners new to craft struggle with. That of lighting. In their very easy to follow and professionally created video tutorials, they walk you through the simple steps that you need to take to make sure your photos don’t look like you shot them in a cave.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r_Yi7MnJFs
7. DigitalRev
Why
When it comes to choosing your first camera nowadays, reviews online (and in particular, video reviews for things like this) have become a must. And in that regard there are probably no better reviews than those done by DigitalRev. With their comedic, ‘Top Gear’ style reviews, they let you know in real terms, what the meat and potatoes are behind the camera that you should actually get.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP44dXn2Q-w
8. Academy Of Photography
Why
To round off your basic knowledge of the most foundation aspect of photography, composition. A good primer in the subtle maths behind a good photo is whats needed. For that, the best channel I’ve found is the Academy of Photography. They go into ‘just enough’ detail on this relatively hard subject.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF4h9vhtSGA
Bio: Tapha is an entrepreneur and founder of CandyMetrics, an easy way for Amazon FBA sellers to track their stats. He also shares outside the box tips & strategies on increasing FBA revenue at the CandyMetrics Blog. Want to know more? Say hi to him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TaphaNgum
