What you will study
The course is designed to be studied over a ten-week period, with approximately ten hours of study each week.
The course will:
- teach you the key principles of capturing digital images
- show you how to manipulate images with photo-editing software
- equip you with basic skills to navigate technological developments in digital photography
- teach you how to critically evaluate your own and others’ work in the spirit of continuous technical and artistic improvement
- encourage you to develop your photography as part of a supportive online community
- help you to develop a portfolio of which you can be proud.
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?
- Welcome to the course
- Images and our view of the world
- Fundamentals of image composition
- Looking critically at images
- Planning your composition
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 2: When light becomes data
- Welcome to Week 2
- Your digital camera
- Light and its properties
- Finding information about a digital image
- Working with light
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 3: Working with exposure
- Welcome to Week 3
- Visually assessing exposure in an image
- Controlling exposure
- Capturing movement
- Exploring exposure: the histogram
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 4: Focus and depth of field
- Welcome to Week 4
- Exploring lenses and focus
- Focal length and camera shake
- Optical and digital zoom
- Controlling depth of field
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 5: Understanding and using colour
- Welcome to Week 5
- Colours in digital photography
- The language of colour
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 6: Displaying your images
- Welcome to Week 6
- Display technologies
- Printing technologies
- Managing colour
- Image storage
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 7: Historic and contemporary innovation
- Welcome to Week 7
- Technology and technique
- Advanced image composition
- Experimental photography
- Genre-established aesthetics
- Digital darkroom
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 8: The power of smartphone photography
- Welcome to Week 8
- Advantages and limitations of the smartphone
- Knowing your smartphone camera
- Organising your images
- Social media for your images
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 9: Preparing for the end-of-module assessment (EMA)
- Welcome to Week 9
- How your EMA will be assessed and the feedback you will receive
- Examples of assessment of images
- Detailed guidance on Part 1 of the EMA
- Detailed guidance on Part 2 of the EMA
- Submitting your work
- OpenStudio assignment
- Week review
Week 10: What next?
- Moving on from TG089
- Moving towards professional-level photography
- The Royal Photographic Society
- End-of-module assessment
- Introduction
- General advice for submitting your EMA
- Part 1: selecting 10 of your own photographs (60 marks)
- Part 2: writing about your photographs (40 marks)
- Checklist before submission
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.
You will learn
The course will introduce a range of aspects of digital photography including:
- ‘ways of seeing’ and the elements of composition
- the basic principles of capturing light information digitally (e.g. sensors, memory, file types)
- the digital workflow (capture, organise, edit and share)
- how to control exposure, focus and depth of field
- an introduction to digital colour management
- how to print and display your images
- using your smartphone for photography
- an introduction to historical and contemporary photographic aesthetics.
The course includes videos that illustrate how to technically and creatively improve your images using photo-editing software.
Professional recognition
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.
Learner support
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.
If you have a disability
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.
Course length
This course will require around 100 hours to complete.