Can I teach myself how to use a camera without going on a course?

[SaltandPepperRibs]

I really like getting a good photo, but I'm limited by my tech skills I think. I can spot a good potential photo, and I know in theory what aperture, shutter speed etc do, but I don't know how to apply that theory. I currently use my basic digital SLR on the auto settings.

I really don't have any child-free time to do a RL course, but are there any beginner step by step online tutorials or anything that might help me?

Have you looked at Craftsy? They do a number of online photography courses, which you can do at your own pace, including ones for beginners. I've not actually done any of these courses myself, but have done quite a few of the drawing and painting ones and learnt a lot from those. Not sure what the situation is like with photography, but for drawing I found that while there are a lot of free tutorials around and interesting YouTube channels, none really go into the subject in as much detail as I need to properly learn how to do things myself.

No I haven't, I'll look at that, thank you!

You're welcome. For info, if you are interested, this site has so many sales that there's little point paying full price for any of the courses. It's a bit of a slippery slope though. I'm currently working my way through 4 different drawing courses, some of which I signed up to because they had a really good sale on just before Christmas . On the plus side, I'm learning a lot!

Oh brill! I can see my sewing gear might be getting an outing in the near future...

I've bought the beginner's digital photography course and have learnt a fair bit already this morning

Is that the National Geographic one? That one caught my eye this morning, but I'm trying to resist buying it as I don't think I can do more than 4 courses at a time!