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Photography Curriculum for Teens

Cell phones make photography so accessible! Today I’m sharing a photography curriculum for teens that we were sent to try out. My 13-year-old loves it – and she’s learning a lot!

photography 4 teens review

Disclosure: I’m a member of Timberdoodle’s blogger review team, and they sent me this product to review. I did not request or receive any other compensation, and all opinions are my own.

Our Photography 4 Teens Curriculum Review

Growing up with a blogger as a mom who sometimes freelances as a photographer on the side, my kids have always been around cameras and photography.

photography 4 teens

Photography 4 Teens is an online photography course for teens. Timberdoodle includes it as part of their 9th grade curriculum kit.

My 8th grader tried out this course because she was the most interested out of my four children. She is pretty academically inclined, and in general I would recommend this course for high schoolers rather than middle schoolers.

online photography course

The course is made up of instructor videos followed by a workshop where photos are critiqued. Then there are notes and a short quiz that grades itself. The course also includes a printable workbook.

learn photography at home

The content is well organized, and it’s easy to track your progress. You can also go back and review content.

Who Will Enjoy This Photography Curriculum Most?

This photography course is best suited to teens with a genuine interest in the subject. I would also recommend it for highly motivated middle schoolers like my daughter.

What Do You Need for this Teen Photography Course?

You can use any type of camera for this class, even an older cell phone! The course teaches the basics of photography; things like lighting and the rule of threes. It also talks about how cameras work. There is a DSLR section in the course for teens who have access to that type of camera. My teen loved borrowing my camera for this portion of the class!

The course also comes with a printable workbook to help students reinforce concepts from the course. Here are a couple of sample pages:

high school photography course

What Did We Like?

My teen learned a lot from this course! Here is a fun photo she took using concepts around composition and lighting from the course:

teaching teens to take photos

I saw a lot of growth in how she approached taking photos as she worked through this course. She isn’t all the way done with it yet (currently 39% of the way through according to the dashboard!), and I’ll come back and edit with updates as needed.

What Would We Change?

Overall, we really liked the Photography 4 Teens course! My daughter said that she would have liked tutorials or links to tutorials on how to use different models of DSLR cameras since at one point you have the option of using that type of camera for the course.

Some kids might like a space to share their photos and get feedback from peers or an instructor. My teen was fine with the structure of the course. Some teens might need someone else assigning deadlines for this self directed course.

Have you tried this photography curriculum for teens? What did you think?

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

4 thoughts on “Photography Curriculum for Teens”

  1. This is very interesting. It seems photography has generally become a societal interst due to social media! ;)
    It was great to see you! Wishing you a fun stay in Denmark!

    1. It was so wonderful to see you! Social media really has made photography more popular! Together with phones that can take endless pretty great photos without requiring film or much editing afterwards.

  2. That does sound pretty cool. It’s amazing the pictures you can take with your phone now. My brother was showing me how his camera worked with low-level light and it was AMAZING! I have phone envy now because I’m so jealous of his camera.

    1. I upgraded my phone and then left my DSLR at home for this big Europe trip we are on. It’s not the same as a DSLR, but it’s good enough. And that amazes me – that a cell phone can compete with a DSLR on any level.

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