GCSE Art and Design: Photography
Exam Board: OCR

Photography at GCSE is a hugely practical, creative and varied course. The UoBS Art Department is lucky enough to have an amazing range of equipment, including our computers with industry standard software, like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Premier Pro, professional DSLR Cameras, graphics tablets, and a variety of studio lighting, backgrounds and props.

Photography is just as creative as Art. It's about looking, learning, thinking and communicating ideas to the people viewing your photos. The word Photography comes from Greek, meaning 'drawing with light' and that is what photographers do every time they take a picture. They plan and consider every aspect of their shots - from lighting, to the model, their costume and pose, to the manual camera settings, and to how they edit their photos. Photographers explore various techniques to create images that make a statement about things that interest or concern them. The most exciting aspect of Photography is that you are capturing the world as you see it.

All photography projects will be written up and presented on a computer alongside all of the creative 'post production' work (such as Photoshop. Premiere Pro etc). It is therefore important to like working with computers, as most of your time will be spent on them.

What will be studied?
Students start the course by experimenting with different types of photographic equipment and techniques. You will learn how to control a DSLR to take successful photos that consider things like Composition and the Formal Elements. You will create an online portfolio as you build up skills, knowledge and confidence. You will start to specialise in your favourite and most successful techniques as the course goes on, but to start with, keeping an open mind to all of the processes is a must!

As the course develops, students will create two main projects for their GCSE. They will be given a theme to research, then can choose two to three digital artists to study to inspire their ideas, before they take a wide range of photographs to help with their theme's development, before eventually creating a personal, professional 'Final Piece'. There are a variety of specialist areas to choose from, including; Documentary Photography/Film, Photo-Journalism, Studio Portrait Photography, Still Life, Location Photography outside of school, Experimental Photography, and Moving Images including Film, GIF's and Animation. Work is not limited to one area of study.

How is it assessed?
There are two assessed projects. The Portfolio accounts for 60% of the GCSE grade. Learners complete a body of practical work showing their personal response to a starting point. They study artists, take photographs and experiment with ideas before creating a final piece using digital media.

The 'Externally Set Task', which accounts for 40% of the GCSE grade, is the equivalent to an exam. Students will be issued a booklet in January from the exam board (OCR), which will provide learners with a number of themes, each with a range of written and visual starting points. Students will be asked to create a project based on one of the options they provide in the booklet in a similar way to the first project, but this time with even more independence. The preparatory project work and the final piece (completed over 10 hours) are all marked together.