Welcome to a new term for Digital SLR Skills students! Whether you’ve followed our free photo course before or are planning to give it a go for the very first time this year, our aim is simply to help you improve your photography.

We’ll do this by taking you on a journey that steers you through the basics of photography and helps you get creative too. You can use it as a refresher course for skills you already have or as a means to unlock some of the secrets still hidden within your digital SLR.

Over the last few years I know that many of you have benefited from the Digital SLR Skills course because its structured learning helps you understand all the important techniques needed to take consistently good photos. We also set you regular practical exercises to hammer home all the points you’ll be covering.

To take part fully you need to sign-up using the link on the left. By doing this you’ll be sent extra content that isn’t in the magazine, including special monthly learning videos that will reinforce all the skills you’ll be mastering, and of course you’ll be able to upload the images you take for each module to the student galleries. If you complete the course, you’ll also get a special Digital SLR Skills certificate to show you’ve passed.

The course starts next month (April issue, on sale 22 Feb) with the first full in-magazine module, so sign-up now and be ready in time for the start. If you want to make sure you don’t miss a single issue of Practical Photography for the duration of the course then you can take advantage of our special subscription offer too - click the link on the left.

Go on, make 2012 the year you take your photography to the next level!