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Accessibility statement
An image to illustrate Digital photography short course
Whether you are new to digital photography or want to improve your existing skills, this ten-week online course, developed and presented in partnership with The Royal Photographic Society (RPS), will develop your ability to create and share digital images of which you can be proud. The course will develop your technical and visual skills as you learn the principles of digital photography and image editing. You will join a vibrant and supportive online community in which you can develop your photographic skills. A series of weekly hands-on assignments allows you to practise the skills you learn.
This course was created in partnership with The Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society logo
The course is designed to be studied over ten weeks, with approximately ten hours of study each week.
The course will:
The course is a creative mix of practice, learning, sharing and reflection.
Practice
Each week you will do a practical photographic activity that will broaden and strengthen your photographic experience. Together, these activities form the basis of your portfolio that you will draw upon for your end-of-module assessment.
Learning
Each week you will learn about different aspects of photographic techniques, as well as relevant aspects of the technology behind digital photography.
Sharing and reflection
Each week you will share your work within the course’s online community of photographers. You’ll steadily develop your ability to reflect upon your own and others’ work, and to write about your increasing visual awareness.
Week 1: What makes an interesting image?
Week 2: When light becomes data
Week 3: Working with exposure
Week 4: Focus and depth of field
Week 5: Understanding and using colour
Week 6: Displaying your images
Week 7: Historic and contemporary innovation
Week 8: The power of smartphone photography
Week 9: Preparing for the end-of-module assessment (EMA)
Week 10: What next?
You’ll develop as a photographer by creating and sharing images with fellow students: taking and uploading them each week to OpenStudio (the course’s online photo-sharing platform), looking at your own and other people’s images, and commenting on or critiquing images.
As a beginner, you might feel you don’t know enough to comment on others’ images. However, we’ll help you to gain the confidence to discuss images knowledgeably, for example, composition, use of colour, exposure and focus. By commenting on images, you’ll develop your judgement of what makes a ‘good’ photograph. By sharing your own images, you’ll find out what others see in your work and receive constructive comments on how you might improve them. Collaborating with fellow students by sharing photos and comments is an essential part of the course.
The course will introduce a range of aspects of digital photography including:
The course includes videos that illustrate how to technically and creatively improve your images using photo-editing software.
This ten-week online course is presented in partnership with The Royal Photographic Society (RPS).
Successful completion of the course will lead to the award of The Royal Photographic Society Certificate in Photography. This is free to members of the Society and is available for a small fee to non-members.
If your images are of a high standard, you may wish to try for a qualification or distinction in photography. The course has been designed to give you the necessary basic skills to tackle The Royal Photographic Society Licentiate Distinction (LRPS) in still photography.
You’ll have access to online forums that we strongly encourage you to participate in, as they’re an excellent source of support and information. These forums combine input from learning advisors who are expert photographers with self-help from fellow students.
At the end of the course, you’ll receive expert feedback on the images you submit for the end-of-module assessment.
Course work includes:
The end-of-module assessment (EMA) has two components:
Your EMA will be marked, and you‘ll receive expert feedback on the visual awareness and technical quality shown by your set of images.
This course last 10 weeks and will require around 100 hours to complete.
Online study texts, tutorial videos, a photo-sharing website, and supported discussion forums.
You will need a camera that creates images as digital files. Obviously a digital camera is designed to do this but mobile phone cameras are also suitable. Whatever camera you use, it is preferable if it has some controls or settings (e.g. shutter speed and aperture, or automatic settings such as ‘sport’, ‘landscape’ or ‘portrait’), as the course will teach you about the full range of controls and settings that a photographer uses. However, it will also be possible to complete the course using a basic camera with little or no control over its settings.
You will need photo-editing software. There are many suitable packages available which vary in their sophistication. It is possible to complete the course using a basic package such as the photo app already provided on your computer or tablet.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
The course is suitable if you are completely new to photography and it does not assume any knowledge of photographic techniques or digital photo-editing skills. It will also appeal if you are an amateur photographer wanting to top up your skills and be part of an online community sharing and improving your photographs.
We assume that you might be fairly new to computing but are not a complete beginner. You should be able to use your computer to save and locate files, install software and access websites.
Photography is inherently a highly visual subject, and use of a camera may require some manual dexterity.
The course includes significant amounts of work with a computer. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you, you are advised to contact us about support which can be given to meet your needs.
Written transcripts of audio material are provided.
StartEndRegister byEngland fee
17 Oct 202631 Jan 202708 Oct 2026£250
06 Mar 202730 Jun 202725 Feb 2027£250
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
If this course is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could ask your employer to sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees. Your sponsor just needs to complete a simple form to confirm how much they will be paying and we will invoice them.
The fee information provided here is valid for short courses starting in the 2026/27 academic year. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
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