BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

When can you start this course? | UCAS code | Fees | Entry requirements

Why choose this course?

You'll build up a mix of technical and creative abilities in photography, including traditional craft based skills and skills in new digital technologies. You'll also look at how to apply what you've learned in the workplace.
You'll enjoy some prestigious work experience and produce a number of professional projects with a range of clients. In fact, this exchange of creative ideas and experience between you and people working in the industry, is a core feature of the programme.
The course is accredited by the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) and the Association of Photographers.

About the course

This course takes on board key changes that have taken place in the imaging sector and the demands on new professionals entering the industry, so it will prepare you to work successfully in the commercial photography industry of tomorrow.

There have been some significant developments in the imaging sector over recent years with the growth, speed and proliferation of digital technologies. Increasingly commercial photographers are responding to change, not just in the way we capture images but in the way we use them. Photography has always changed and influenced the world around us. We are becoming ever more sophisticated in the way we understand the visual world. Contemporary commercial photographers are at the leading edge and have the skill and vision to work within the demands of a client based economy. We deliver images of outstanding quality and vision, setting the pace for generations to come. Commercial photographers have the skills in lighting and direction to make themselves adaptable, to move around the commercial world as the demand for images shifts from subject to subject and interest to interest. You'll learn how to adapt and utilise new and existing technologies to deal with the changes in an exciting and fluid industry.

Commercial photography is still a thriving and lucrative market and it's the most adaptive and widely used medium.

Here at Derby, we encourage you to adapt to the changes in the business environment and we'll help you to look for bespoke solutions, which suit you as an individual.

If you want to gain work experience, you can take an optional work placement between stages two and three during which you'll study an additional qualification, the Diploma in Professional Practice.

If you don't have the appropriate qualifications to start this course, you can study Year Zero for a year first.

Find out more about what subjects and modules you'll be studying...

Your career

Gabrielle Prince recently beat over 400 entrants to win the Tetley Student Photography Competition: "I'm very grateful to my tutors at the University for their advice and encouragement". Read the full story...

Working closely with industry this course aims to give you the advantage you need when you're looking for a job in the image industry. The skills you'll develop, both academic and practical, are transferable to enable you to be flexible when working in a variety of different areas, from commercial, advertising and editorial photography through to location finding and management, photo retail, image manipulation or being a photographer's agent or picture researcher. You'll also be able to go on to postgraduate study.

View more student success stories on our Commercial Photography website.

What our students say

Watch our student interviews

How you'll learn

Studio workshops, group and individual tutorials, seminars and lectures. This is supported by a programme of visiting photographers and trade suppliers.

How you're assessed

The assessment of all your practical modules is by submission of practical work, formal presentation of course work, and contribution to individual tutorials, group tutorials and seminars. The context and dissertation modules require you to submit essay work and course work. Practical work makes up 75% of the course, and critical studies 25%.

Fieldtrips

Each year we organise an educational field visit to a cultural centre in Europe or the USA and we visit trade shows and galleries nationally. Day-long field visits to a variety of locations are also offered.

Anything else?

Find out more about about applying for the second or third year of the course.

Start dates

If you're from the UK or EU you can apply to study this course in:

September 2012

If you're from a country outside the EU you can apply to study this course full time in:

September 2012

UCAS code

W640

Fees

This is a specialist course.

UK/EU students

Full time: £7,995 (each year)
Part time: £1,000 per module (you usually take 18 of these modules in total).

International students

Full time: £10,250 (each year)

*These fees apply if you're starting this course between September 2012 and August 2013. We recommend you check fee details with us though, as they can change. Costs can increase each year.