Get Free Photography Education Online...

This is a guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about accredited online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

Whether you are professional photographer or just a photography enthusiast, there are plenty of courses, lessons, and tutorials online that can help you improve you photography skills.

Here are 15 places to get a free photography education online:

Photography Basics - Individuals who are just beginning to dabble in the art of photography will find this free Suite 101 course useful. The course consists of four text-based lessons covering the history of photography, camera types, camera basics, and lighting.

Digital Photography Course - This free online course from CreativeTechs focuses on digital photography. The course lasts for ten weeks and is taught by John Greengo from the PBS series Art Wolfe's Travels to the Edge. Online classes start on September 2.

Online Library of Digital Photography - This digital photography resource offers dozens of free lessons for digital photographers. Lessons are aimed at beginners but include information that may be helpful to more advanced photographers as well.

Digital Photography School - Created by a digital photography enthusiast, this site offers an impressive collection of articles, tips, and tutorials for digital photographers. Education is available for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students.

Cambridge in Colour - Cambridge in Colour features a wonderful collection of digital photography tutorials and images. The site also offers an educational forum for photographers. All of the images that appear on this site are from, in, and around the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Tips from the Top Floor - This award winning photography podcast teaches listeners about digital photography. Tips from the Top Floor also offers daily photo tips and a forum where photography enthusiasts can connect and ask questions online.

MyShutterspace - Created specifically for digital photography enthusiasts, this online social network is a great place to discuss and learn about digital photography techniques.

About Photography - The About.com Guide to Photography provides hundreds of informative articles and tutorials for beginner to advanced photographers. Other site features include a regularly updated blog and community forums.

Photography and Related Media - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers this free online visual arts course to self-learners around the world. The course covers digital imaging, camera operation, lighting, film exposure, development, and photography techniques.

Documentary Photography and Photojournalism - This free self-paced course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology encourages students to create a photo documentary project. The emphasis of the course is on writing, but there is a lot of class material that would be interesting and useful to photographers.

Family Photo Course - This free online photography course from the UK's Open University teaches students how to handle, examine, analyze, and record family photographs. The course also delves into the history of family photography and portrait settings.

Travel Photography Course - Beren Patterson of TribalCog offers this free online course with a focus on travel photography. The course includes lessons on portraits, landscapes, light, exposure, camera care, and more.

PhotoWalkthrough - PhotoWalkthrough offers advanced-level video tutorials for photographers. The tutorials provide information about how different shots are achieved as well as tips on using processing tools like Adobe Photoshop.

Picture Social - PictureSocial is a social network for photographers. Members can share and critique photos, ask and answer questions, and blog about photography experiences.

Photo.net - Photo.net is a very large online community of photographers. The community has a special section just for learning, forums, an online workspace, and other tools to help photographers improve their skills.