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Stanford Professor puts his entire digital photography course online for free

by 51 Comments

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When it comes to the list of digital imaging pioneers, Marc Levoy is one of those names that belongs right near the top. His work has led to many of the technical advances that we see in use today with computer generated imagery. So, it’s no wonder that he jumped into digital photography. From 2009 until 2014, Levoy taught digital photography at Stanford.

In 2016, he revised the course and taught it again at Google in Spring. Now, the entire revised course is available online completely free. The course assumes no prior knowledge of photography whatsoever. It covers pretty much everything you’d ever want to know about photography. Covering a multitude of technical aspects from the basics to extremely in-depth.

There’s hours and hours of video covering Levoy’s lectures to Google over a 4 month period. Several web based apps are there, too, to help understand some of the trickier technical concepts of photography. He also provides several assignments to help you challenge yourself and put what you’ve learned to good use.

It’s a whole hell of a lot of stuff to read and watch. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s well worth watching it all.

You can find the entire course for free here. If you have any interest at all in the technical side of photography (you should), then what are you waiting for? Get stuck in!

UPDATE : If you get the “can’t view now” error, see this workaround.

UPDATE 2 : If you’re still having problems viewing, you can also see all the videos over on Marc’s YouTube channel. Thank you, Marc, for the tip. 🙂

[via Reddit]

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  • because no one have done that before? 🙂

  • Rick

    Lecture1 21mar16:

    “Sorry, you can’t view or download this file at this time.

    Too many users have viewed or downloaded this file recently. Please try accessing the file again later. If the file you are trying to access is particularly large or is shared with many people, it may take up to 24 hours to be able to view or download the file. If you still can’t access a file after 24 hours, contact your domain administrator.”

    Well, that got out of hand quickly…..

    • Marc Levoy

      it appears that this course has gone viral, causing Google Drive to temporarily refuse to serve some of the lecture videos. If you get an error message that says, “Unable to play video at this time” when you click on Play for a lecture, you can instead access the video on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/marclevoy/videos
      -Marc Levoy

      • Kaouthia

        Many thanks, Marc. 🙂

      • Angela Arcese

        Thanks so much for making this available!

  • Mark Niebauer

    “Sorry, you can’t view or download this file at this time.

    Too many users have viewed or downloaded this file recently. Please try accessing the file again later. If the file you are trying to access is particularly large or is shared with many people, it may take up to 24 hours to be able to view or download the file. If you still can’t access a file after 24 hours, contact your domain administrator.”

  • Wow! #ThankYou

  • Diane Marr

    Try a different one with a later date. I was able to view some others besides the first one

  • Well, that got out of hand quickly. Smh

    “”Too many users have viewed or downloaded this file recently. Please try accessing the file again later. If the file you are trying to access is particularly large or is shared with many people, it may take up to 24 hours to be able to view or download the file. If you still can’t access a file after 24 hours, contact your domain administrator.””

  • giorgionetg

    Wooo… Marc Levoi!!! It’s just this all summer I studied about lightfield!!!

  • That’s sad. Can’t view

  • Bruce Murray

    Unable to play this video at this time. The number of allowed playbacks has been exceeded. Please try again later.

  • Thought it was only me that couldn’t view the videos!

  • Claudia Zunker

    I tried to watch but get an error message “Unable to play this video at this time. The number of allowed playbacks has been exceeded. Please try again later.” please can help to sort this out

  • I cant view the videos either, help anyone?

  • Thank you for making this available! You will outgrow your pangs of success, I’m sure!

  • Chris

    Sucks. Can no longer view any video or download any of the MP4s on the website. Pretty useless if it has such a strict Cap. O_o

  • jimjimmy123

    Another photography course for “technicians”. Why is “creativity” so hard to understand and teach others? Art is not a fournier transform formula or a focal point ratio. Beginners will feel this is a course to teach everything about photography whereas it’s just a “really” elaborate camera manual. Good luck becoming a “technician” instead of an “artist”.

    • Dusty Thompson

      Physicists are Mathematicians, so…

      Modern leftwit “Artists” are so full of themselves, its really just sad. Its what happens when you’re an indoctrinated collectivist pretending to be a Individualist. A living breathing oxymoron. Art is an individual endeavor whether creating it or viewing it.

      A Jesus statue in a jar of urine isnt Art, sorry… It is Dada Art (anti Arts).

      • richgibson

        Have you actually seen Piss Christ? I find it a pretty amazing piece of work.

        • Sg Hill

          I bet a lot of God haters think it’s a pretty amazing piece of work. Tell me about somebody…some person you love…and let me make a disgusting mockery of that person, and see how amazing you’d find that. Methinks you’d be singing a different song, ya nasty peckerwood !

      • Kay O. Sweaver

        Some art is an individual endeavor, some is collective.

      • Steve Patz

        I consider your post art.

      • neversink

        Most Modern Artists are dead. I think you are talking about contemporary artists, but then you would be wrong. i know many talented artists who are not full of themselves and would never judge others the way you do. You seem very full of yourself.

        • DianaNicholetteJeon

          TOTALLY AGREE.

    • Kaouthia

      You know that the two are not mutually exclusive, right?

      Knowledge allows an artist to achieve their vision. Otherwise, you might as well just use an iPhone and hope it can figure out what your vision is.

      • DianaNicholetteJeon

        Woah. THIS RESPONSE CAME FROM A MODERATOR??? REALLY????

        Why put down the iPhone? I have an MFA but the phone is my camera of choice, and I have three works done strictly with it in museum collections. Rather than putting down something you clearly have no knowledge of how to use other than to app something to death, spend your time making your own work as technically proficient and compelling as possible. iPhone fans donʻt put down your camera choice.

        • Kaouthia

          I would’ve expected somebody with an MFA to have made fewer assumptions. I actually am a fan of the iPhone, I have owned them for the past 6 years, and currently have two. But, there is a simple fact. They’re technically incapable of producing the work that the vast majority of photographers wish to create.

          Rather than responding to comments about people you clearly have no knowledge of, spend your time trying to push yourself beyond your iPhone’s limits.

          • DianaNicholetteJeon

            The language you used was derogatory to phones, so why would you expect anyone to read it otherwise.

          • Kaouthia

            Are you suggesting that a phone is technically capable of everything that every other type of camera can do? Because that’s the only way you could see it that way.

            Phones are a limited camera technology. That’s just a fact. I could’ve just as easily said “point & shoot”. A decade ago, I probably would have done, but phones are the simple cameras that are now in everybody’s pocket – and we’d have one whether we owned a “real” camera or not. My point was simply to highlight a limited device.

            I’m sorry that you chose to read offence into that.

          • DianaNicholetteJeon

            No, I am not suggesting that. But I am saying that your point was pointed in a put down sort of way, and it was totally uncool for a moderator to put down ANY choice of camera, because in the hands of an artist, even an oatmeal box can be a thing of photographic creation beauty.

          • Kaouthia

            That may have been how you interpreted it, but that is not how it was meant.

          • DianaNicholetteJeon

            Then perhaps you should restate your point so that it is less pointed and insulting.

          • Kaouthia

            Perhaps you should just not take everything you read on the Internet so personally, especially when it was not said directly to you in the first place.

            Merry Christmas. 🙂

    • richgibson

      I don’t think that Levoy has ever claimed that he is doing what you think he is doing.

      You have sort of created a straw man to argue against. Marc Levoy has some some pretty impressive work in ‘computational photography.’

      That may, or may not, be a field which interests you. But it is solid work, and having his course on line is a benefit to a lot of people.

    • Diogenes

      The creative artist within me doesn’t know what the f**k the knobs on his camera are.
      Your argument is invalid. GTFO.

    • Kristofer Savial

      99% about one’s craft is technical data, including the proportions, lighting… The 1% is what ultimately separates the genius from the crowd. Taste, imagination, dreams, an eye for perfection…is the only part of it that can not be taught.

    • neversink

      Those who have written against you and told you to GTFO are basically narrow minded individuals who obviously miss your salient point about creativity and refuse to hear a differing opinion. I have taught photography and concentrated on seeing, on the zone system, on using a light meter, on composition, and on technique. I have never seen a more boring lecture on photography than Mr. Levoy has presented. This is not a photography course about creativity. Instead it is a pedantic and boring course by someone who obviously has either no understanding of creativity or has no understanding of how to attempt to teach creativity within the realm of photography.
      YAWN!!!!!!!

    • Kevin

      “If you have any interest at all in the technical side of photography”
      This is clearly a technical course.
      If you want a creative course, this should not be your choice.
      So, why belittle it?

  • I find his description and math concerning DOF surprising. He uses “pixel size” and not the “circle of confusion” as the C value in his equation. Now, using pixel size has some credibility as it is a fixed size and not determined by guesstimates. However, in saying that, the pixel size varies greatly from camera types and age, which will give different results, using the same lens f/l and f-stop.

    The circle of confusion is based on image size (usually a print) and viewing distance (and likely, the acuity of the viewer!) and is the size of a circle that cannot be distinguished from a point at the given viewing distance.

    BTW, there is also the corollary to DOF where F is, instead of Field, stands for Focus. You can have either one as the spec, but not both together.

  • Dirk

    little late but never mind: I find these discussion bemusing. This course isnt for technicians, or not just for them. I did several courses and found them frustrating. They were aimed at people wanting a quick understanding or those who do not have the aptitude or interest for the science. Fair enough, no problem with that. However I wanted more. I am an academic in various business areas, a qualified lawyer, have physics quals, and a strong engineering background.(and yes, a short span of attention) As part of a business I designed yachting elements. This required a very deep knowledge of solid-works, rhino and 3 D modelling/meshes, finite elements and all that. This unleased the creativity. My designs were featured in major magazines etc etc. I could never design without this knowledge, being able to calculate parabolic curves for example was essential. Many people can design with little depth, but they cannot create the thing of beauty we looked for, nor would it be useful (practical). For me photography is similar. I need that same depth. I suspect Marc Levoy may have some sympathy with this view.
    I also suggest that before criticizing a person as narrow and boring that people take a look at the bio, the publications and background. The guy is an architect with a strong art knowledge and affinity for traditional art coupled to a deep scientific/computational ability. That is wide not narrow where I am sure the art is everything be that in a traditional art sense or the art embodied in genuine science. The science is just the tool that frees the things of beauty we want to create. My two cents. A big thanks to Marc.

  • Alex

    I can’t understand why people are fighting over this. You can take it or leave it. After all it is free.

  • redcat

    very interesting, already amazing at the “Bad photos” Assignment 🙂 I’ll follow this course !

  • Roel Rocero

    The technical aspect of photography is very important. You have to master your tools to be effective with what you do. Photography is more than point and shoot.

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