With new technology, photography is becoming an increasingly accessible and flexible medium. You can explore portrait, documentary, studio photography, pinhole and photogram techniques and the use of photography for archiving and marketing artwork made in other media. Linking photography with print processes and digital manipulation provides even greater creative possibilities.
Creative applications
Including (but not limited to) -
• Portrait photography
• Studio photography
• Narrative photography
• Panoramic photography
• Photographic collage
• Photojournalism
• Photograms
• Landscape photography (including seascapes and skyscapes)
• Exploration of subjects such as the human body, animals, subconscious ideas and still-life
• Experimental and abstract photography
• Using photography to create multi-media artworks by incorporating material such as paint,
paper, special lighting effects (laser, prisms) or combining with 3D objects
• Using photography to document artwork
Technical and practical skills
Including (but not limited to) -
• Understanding a manual camera: Including focus, exposure, depth of field, ISO (film speed), aperture, shutter speed and white balance
• Lighting: Use of natural light, studio lighting, using a flash, using coloured gels and reflectors
• Composition: Special camera angles, cropping, overlapping images, elimination of clutter and distractions, creating a centre of interest, abstraction and using pattern and colour
• Using lenses and filters: Understanding lens types and using filters such as polarising and distorting filters
• Specialised camera techniques: Double exposures, drawing with light, long exposures, pin-hole photography, time-lapse photography and use of obscuring devices such as Vaseline
• Darkroom techniques: Developing film, exposing and printing photographs, dodge and burn, collage and photograms
• Digital post-production: Use of computer and software to scan, retouch, manipulate, adjust and create collages, digital file organisation and management
• Output: Selecting and editing photographs, understanding output options including online and print, creating a cohesive body of work
• Context: Personal interpretation of photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Man Ray, Andreas Feininger, Ernst Haas, Diane Arbus and Brian Blake
