Photography
Photography Course
If you are planning to work towards a career as a professional photographer or in related media professions, you will be aware that it may be an advantage to have a photography degree. You will also be aware that there are many, many photography courses online and several photography degree courses available.
However, IDI’s online photography course differs from other distance learning photography courses because it has been especially designed to prepare you for employment in a range of photographic professions which include commercial, client led practices such as advertising and editorial photography through to documentary photography and personally defined fine art photography, as well as related fields of employment such as production, picture editing, curating and gallery management.
The course enables you to study towards a photography degree online by encouraging you to explore and evolve your own photographic vision and practice. Through a sequence of practical projects, you gain a range of technical skills and professional knowledge. Experimentation and risk-taking are a feature of our online photography courses and are encouraged together with the critical study of photographic histories, theories and contemporary practices.
Our online photography degree programme emphasises professionalism and industry relevance. We have experienced a significant demand for photography courses online and we are delighted to provide our Dip HE photography courses for students across the UK and internationally.
*Please note: The Interactive Design Institute currently delivers this course to the level of Certificate in Higher Education (Cert.HE) and Diploma in Higher Education (Dip.HE) online. Subject to approval, students will have the option of completing their Degree either online or through attendance at the University of Hertfordshire.
This programme specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the course and the intended learning outcomes that you might be expected to achieve.
Module Descriptions Level 4 (Year 1 of Degree) click here
Digital Environments
This module introduces you to the digital photography environment and divides into three main practical components, allowing you to cover a wide range of processes that relate to the digital platform. You will have the opportunity to use, explore and experiment with the digital SLR and learn about photo image management and manipulation. The module will also cover instruction in the colour management process, from monitor calibration techniques to file managing your uploaded images and converting them for printing. Additionally, there will be instruction in converting analogue imagery into high-resolution digital formats. The module will also cover current and historical debates on truth and representation as it relates to digital photography.
Digital Environments Document
Photography Projects
This module will allow you to experiment and explore as a means to establish your own photographic interests in relation to other contemporary practice. You will be introduced to a broad range of processes and approaches - from photomontage to documentary, from image/text to installation. You will be encouraged to develop your own photographic voice by discussing, debating and evaluating your thinking while pursuing your goal of converting abstract ideas into strong visual imagery.
Photography Projects Document
Photography Practices
In this module, you will be introduced to the technical and creative still-imaging skills involved in film-based and digital SLR photography through a series of practical projects. You will be asked to produce work in response to a series of set thematic briefs, both studio and location based; the nature of these projects will vary in length and expected outcome. You will begin to develop an understanding of the process of research, selection and evaluation in relation to photographic processes, and begin to consider the placing of your own practice in a current professional and artistic context.
Photography Practices Document
Media Histories and Culture
In this module, you will be introduced to some of the ideas, concepts and commentaries that account for the emergence of the modern world and contemporary media cultures. You will examine processes of delivery and contexts of media artefacts such as web sites, live and animated films, models, computer games, and begin to locate your own practice within these broader cultural and professional structures. You will begin to familiarise yourself with vocabulary of ideas and terms that support the discussion of media artefacts and adopt information handling practices to gather, select and present materials from relevant sources, and begin to integrate these approaches and activities into your own photographic practice.
Media Histories and Culture Document
Module Descriptions Level 5 (Year 2 of Degree) click here
Traditions and Locations
This Module allows the student to develop an understanding of their own work in context with both a wider computational aesthetic and within the traditions of 20th Century art and Design. Particular attention is given to the analysis of ideas that specifically relate to students' own work. Assessment is typically based around the submission of an extended study of a particular practitioner, genre, group, form, theme, theoretical perspective or cultural issue.
Traditions and Locations Document
Professional Development
In this module, you will be required to produce a report on the operation of the photography and other affiliated media industries. You will learn about developing business strategies and marketing concepts that will prepare you for working as a high quality professional photographer within the industry. This module will cover various business practice issues as well as encouraging you to identify an audience for your work and realising relevant patterns of consumption. You will be required to undertake a work placement, enter a competition or respond to a 'live' project/brief as a way of applying your professional skills and outlook to this experience.
Professional Development Document
Photography Assignments
In this module, you will develop more advanced levels of technical and creative skills in response to a series of set briefs, which may include photojournalism, portraiture, fashion shoots, photo-illustration projects or an editorial project. You will be required to demonstrate an awareness of your own practice in the context of a broad range of relevant practical, professional, historical and critical discourses. Additionally, you will develop and demonstrate a critical awareness of a variety of factors concerning potential audiences, clients and users of your work.
Photography Assignments Documents
Negotiated Photography Projects
In this module, you will consolidate your working approach to Photography, and develop and communicate a rationale for your own practice in context of a broad range of relevant practical, professional, historical and critical discourses. You will be required to produce a proposal for a body of work, outlining your procedure from planning and research to selection and resolved outcome. The final portfolio of work will show refinement and development of selected media skills in execution and presentation. You will also critically evaluate your own work, and that of other practices and practitioners in relevant areas.
Negotiated Photography Projects Document
Elective Module Options click here
Level 4 (Year 1 of Degree) Certificate of Higher Education
Following an induction week, you will learn the core areas of analogue and digital photography and digital image processes. This includes lighting, shooting in the studio and on location, digital work flow and how to retouch and manipulate images, technical theory and use of the darkroom. This is accompanied by group projects and presentations of studio/ location work. The study of the histories and theories of photography gives you a foundation to your photography practice both in practical and through written work.
You complete the first year with an emerging independent photography practice which relates to contemporary professional photography.
Level 5 (Year 2 of Degree) Diploma of Higher Education
During year two, you begin to define who you are as a photography practitioner, and to identify your professional goals. You respond to assignments and negotiated projects by considering professional concerns such as markets, audiences, clients and users of the photography industry.
Advanced photography and digital imaging skills are also covered. This stage also introduces and develops your professional awareness and may provide an opportunity to experience a 'live' working environment through contact with influential professional photographers.
Level 6 (Year 3 of Degree) BA
*Please note: The Year 3 (Level 6) programme described here is that currently available through attendance based study at the University of Hertfordshire. Subject to validation, students may also have the option of completing a year 3 (level 6) programme online. However, the content and award title of this programme may vary from the one described here.
Year 3 is the 'portfolio level' – the emphasis at this level being on building a portfolio of work as a preparation to entering the design profession. You will have the opportunity to enter national design competitions, and will work to a series of professional briefs. You will also be able to negotiate personal projects in order to develop your personal creativity.
Please note: Year 3 (Level 6) programme described here is that currently available through attendance based study at the University of Hertfordshire. Subject to validation, students will also have the option of completing a year 3 (level 6) programme online. However, the content and award title of this programme may vary from the one described here.
Photographers are usually categorised according to the subject or type of illustrative work they undertake, although a clear-cut division between each area of work is difficult to define. Successful photographers are versatile and tend not to limit themselves to one particular area.
Consequently, photographers are employed by newspapers, magazines and other media, fashion houses, design studios, advertising companies, hospitals and government departments. However, many photographers work on a freelance basis.
The following gives an overview of some of the types of photography available to the professional:
Studio photographers take pictures of a general nature, namely taking photographs of people for a specific purposes such as a passport, identity documents, graduation ceremony, portrait studies, weddings, engagements and other important events.
Advertising photography is mainly suited to the more experienced and creative photographer. Advertising photographers are almost always work to a specific brief, but their work must also be original.
Fashion photographers must know how to create lively, original and interesting images while showing garment detail. A flair for clothes and a good working relationship with the models are essential.
News pictures are highly topical. This area usually places great demands on the photographer’s ability to meet deadlines and produce usable images under often difficult circumstances.
Photo journalism requires a good eye, rapid reactions and a thorough knowledge of all the photographer’s equipment and materials. An ability to write journalistic copy can also be useful in this area.
Research institutes and hospitals require photography to record operations and experiments. Medical and scientific photography requires a scientific or medical background and knowledge of photographic theory. Photographers in this field have to be able to use specialised cameras and a variety of electronic flash equipment. The work is usually done under laboratory conditions and creative opportunity will be of a technical nature.
Professional photographers must have organisational and business skills in order to be successful. Other essential qualities include creativity, originality and good eyesight.
Salaries vary according to the type of work and the experience of the photographer. While a photographer’s assistant may earn as little as £10,500 per annum, more established photographers can expect to earn from around £25,000 to £65,000 per annum and beyond.
Shutter Speed Setting
We have established that there are two primary variables that regulate the amount of light entering through the lens into the camera body – the shutter and aperture.
The Shutter
Inside the camera body a mirror sits at 45 degrees in front of the shutter, to reflect onto the focusing screen and then on up through a pentaprism towards the viewfinder. In analogue photography the shutter is positioned in front of the film plane, while in digital photography the shutter is positioned in front of the image sensor. You may ask the questions:
Do digital SLR cameras need shutters?
As the sensor is electronic can it not be turned on/off for the length of time determined by the shutter speed?
On most digital SLR cameras a mechanical shutter controls the amount of charge accumulated on the sensor. The pixels on the sensor remain “charged” during the exposure and if the shutter remained open, light would continue to alter the charge accumulated by each pixel, which could result in blur or ghosting. We will cover sensors in more detail later in this chapter.
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