The best things you can learn and do from home in four weeks

Nikon School Singapore

Dust off your DSLR and brush up your photography skills with Nikon School Singapore. For the month of May, the photography school is streaming 10 free live courses online. The in-depth courses are held via Zoom, and feature award-winning and popular shutterbugs covering everything from underwater and sports photography to framing, lighting, and composition. You'll also be clued up on creating and editing YouTube videos. The sessions are interactive, so feel free to ask questions. 

Sign up at school.nikon.com.sg.

Canon

Canon is also hosting free live webinars with professional photographers who will be sharing useful tricks of the trade and tips to improve your photography skills. Taking place every Wednesday from now until May 6, and every Friday from May 15 to May 29, each session is based around a specific area of photography, exposing viewers to a myriad of photography methods.

That's not all – there's also a four-part series where content creator Jimmy Chan shares his secrets on street photography, working with the Canon EOS R system in low-light conditions, and editing the photos in Lightroom to transform them into quality prints.

For more information, visit Canon's Facebook page.

Fender

Want to be the next Jimi Hendrix? Hold your horses – you've got to nail the basics first. Pick up that acoustic guitar that has been sitting at the corner of your room for way too long, and tune into Fender. The famed guitar maker is offering three months of free lessons online in acoustic, electric and bass guitars, as well as ukulele. The high-resolution videos allow you to watch and practise at your own pace with adjustable scrolling tablature and a metronome. You can also track your progress online. By the end of the third week, finesse your skills with your rendition of Wonderwall at your balcony.

Redeem your lessons at fender.com.

Adobe

Bring your visions to life with the all-in-one Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle, a masterclass for anyone keen to flex their creativity muscles and sharpen their design skills – whether or not you use software like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro for work daily. The eight-course bundle covers a range of Adobe CC programs including Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, XD, InDesign, Lightroom Classic, Premiere Pro and Spark. It entails you to more than 61 hours of content, including step-by-step lessons on the ins and outs of each of these programs and what you can accomplish with them. While the bundle is your for keeps, you'll have to subscribe to the Adobe software separately.

Purchase the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle ($48) from stacksocial.com.

School of Perfect Bakes

Challenge yourself by learning to whip up something besides banana bread. Perfect your baking skills and learn how to create Instagrammable cakes with William Seow's School of Perfect Bakes. Its online baking courses are taught by award-winning professional baking and cooking instructor Diana Gale. Her recipes often use local flavours and ingredients including gula Melaka, coconut, and pandan. There are over 50 video lessons, including three complimentary lessons on pandan chiffon cake, gula Melaka coconut buns, and strawberry shortcake. These online lessons can be accessed at any time, so you can try it at any time of the day – even when the craving kicks in the witching hour. 

Register at schoolofperfectbakes.com as a member to access more tutorials, and discounts on baking tools and ingredients. 

It Takes Balls

As its Katong studio closes this circuit breaker, the local craft brand's online store remains open. It's easy-to-follow DIY kits come complete with tools such as knitting needles, yarn, and pattern, as well as free and unlimited knit lessons. It keeps the ball rolling (pun intended) with live online classes (aka knit parties) conducted via Zoom. On top of creating your next crochet masterpiece, it makes a fab way to connect with fellow hobbyists – novices and pros – in Singapore too.

Get started by purchasing a kit online at ittakesball.sg. 

NTUC LearningHub

Give your career a boost with NTUC LearningHub's extensive library of over 100 free online courses covering adaptive skills such as change management, business management, leadership, and innovation, as well as business skills including data analytics, python coding, blockchain, and cloud. The courses are condensed in a micro-learning format designed for bite-sized learning that ranges from nine minutes to seven hours per course. You can choose courses based on your interest and learn at your own time. The platform also allows you to track your progress and receive personalised recommendations.

Register at ntuc.mygo1.com.

Duolingo

Learning a new language is always fun, but it does take a while to master the art of replying in complete sentences – verbally.  The user-friendly app allows you to pick up a language like Arabic, Japanese, German, and Swahili, at a casual pace of five minutes or at an intensive session of 20 minutes a day. There's a lot of visual cues, as well as great vocab tests to help you learn on the go, moving from the bedroom to the living room. Hopefully, by the end of four weeks, you'll be able to speak Klingon, High Valyrian, and  (yes, they're available on the app too).

Get started by downloading the free app at duolingo.com.

Museum of Modern Art

Whether you're into abstract painting, photography, and fashion designs, let the Museum of Modern Art's (MoMA) free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on Coursera fuel your creativity and keep you inspired. Take notes from curators, artists, and designers, and take a closer look at the works featured in MoMA's collection and exhibitions. You can enroll in the program anytime and complete it at your own pace. With a variety of courses to choose from, you'll be looking at art in a different light by the end of the month.

Register at coursera.org.