GCSE Photography - My daughter - Camera
- Thread starter Ruffy
- Start date
OP
Ruffy
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 1,623
- Name
- Paul
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Oh...that's poor, hers is inclusively photography thank god, art is separate.
Solo man
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 3,628
- Name
- Lee
- Edit My Images
- No
It's interesting how schools differ with this...
My son's school does art as a GCSE and photography as a GCSE, and he is not able to choose both subjects as the exams for both are at the same time, so you can choose one or the other.
trevorbray
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 9,141
- Name
- Trevor
- Edit My Images
- No
That's just so wrong
amtaylor
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 1,782
- Name
- Andy
- Edit My Images
- No
This is very impressive that sometimes you can take 5 shots and have 8 keepers [emoji12]
That's called efficiency. Up to 50 shots on one film [emoji23]
redhed17
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 7,316
- Edit My Images
- Yes
My camera can do 10fps, so 16 secs and and that's the pictures sorted.
Or do they want them to be different, and a little more thought put into it. 
Teflon-Mike
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 1,076
- Name
- Mike
- Edit My Images
- Yes
My daughter has just completed her A-Level photo course after starting with the GCSE.
HUGE amout of variation between the different exam boards, even more between individual teachers.... BUT as far as the Daughter's studies wentL-
1/ School were reasonably relaxed and DID NOT expect parents to go out and buy students thier own 'My Fist SLR' outfits, let alone, high end examples!! School had Cannons in the store room for student use 'where required'... they weren't very often!
Limitations of the class-room, and H&S gobe mad, they wern't even allowed out side to take photo's in the school grouds very often, even LESS get thier mitts on a 'propper camera'.
2/ working within the limitations of what they could do in the class-room; they spent very very little time taking photo's. Apertures, shutter speeds and ISO's were never even broached; they largely concentrated on the 'asthetic' aspects of composition; they did studio set ups, and looked at things like high ad low key lighting; they looked at modeling and posing'; they looked at natural vs artficial light, and spent a lot f time looking at the work of the masters, and critiqung thier and thier own work, and a lot of time on photo-shop; learning basic management technques; basic editing manipulations, and working from web-grabs a lot of the time, things like photo-montage and filter effects etc.
Where they HAD to take photo's and especially for home-work assignments, they were largely taken with camera-phones, the school assumed pretty much every-one would have.
Where they DID get hands on with teh DSLR's, it was, as far as I can tell incredibly basic stuff; 'the anatomy' of a camera kid of thing; drawng scematcs of the exposure mode dal and explaining the icons; explainng that they knew what a lens was and does, and how to change one.
3/ As the course became more challenging/involved during the 2nd year, they were let out nto the play-ground or set up studio situations in the class-room where they used the school cameras....
Reason school recomended Cannon's were that that was what the school had, and the tutor used.
Daughter, was for the first year the sole Nikon user, using my camera until I cought her popping water-filled balloons over it in the bath for a shutter speed experiment!!!!!!!!!!!! One or two of her class-mates joined her with a Nikon, in the 2nd year, after I'd bought her a 2nd hand D3100 and 35mm prime (to try save MY camera from water filled balloon experiments! NOTE: Cheap and 2nd hand IS GOOD! Especially if they come home and say they dropped it!!) In lessons, she seemed to become 'teacher' on all maters camera related for the other Nikon users... her teacher even listenng to her explanations of how to work one, after he'd told other Nikon uses to ask her, 'cos he didn't have a CLUE where to find settings on one! Hint: Conformity has it's merits, if you like an easy life!
4/ It wasn't until A-Level that she really started to get any use what-so ever from the DSLR. There was also a mid-race horse switch as the Sixth-form was transferred from the Secondary she'd done her GCSE's at to the Grammar school... Local Education Department 'rationalization'... whch did show marked contrast between the approaches of different teachers, and the Grammar School teacher was a lot more concerned with technical camera operation, where her High-School teacher had been much more relaxed about that and concerned with the 'creative' side of stuff.
5/ I have suffered all my kids going through high-school and "Dad I HAVE TO HAVE... <insert must have teen icon of the moment... from a pair of trainers with a Christmas cracker frog pumpy thing on the back, through the latest lap-top, and all manner of 'stuff' in between, from hair gel, hair dye, fishnet stockings, and stiletto heels, neon green converse pumps, trading card albums, battle tokens, whatever THEY were!... oh, and a moped.. or three!!!>
NEVER BELIEVE ANYTHING when your kids tell you "I have to HAVE!" or you'll be paying for it for twenty years beyond the mortgage being cleared!.... ASK FOR THE LETTER that says so! THEN talk to teacher!
"Oh No No! They dont NEED a carbon fiber canoe for the geography trip! I told them they MAY bring a pair of wellies... but the centre does have waders.... I think some-ones got the wrong end of the stick, on that one!"... y-e-r-s I thought so....
I assume, at this tme of year, your child wont be starying the course until September.... "Lets see what Santa brings shall we?" would be my ploy!
You and she have likely far more than enough to start buildng her pre-course portfolio; so worry about the assigment objectves as in the number of images and the subject matter, rather than what they use to get them...There's a good chance that that pre-assignment is a) to week out the slackers who think its a make-weight 'doss' lesson; and b) to gie them a body of images to work on on the class-room learning photo-shop manipulations etc, rather than wasting time looking for stock shots to steal off google.
See how she gets on at the start of the course with what she has; and weigh up what to do then, thinking Christmas, and whether its worth percevering as a maverick, using Cannon in a class of Nikon shooters, or whether to join the herd for an easy life.
Extra features of the mid-range APS-C sensor DSLR's are 'useful'... Ugh!?!?!? Crickey! As far as I could tell, on my daughter's course, they used green-box P&S or for dedicated shutter speed shoot-outs or depth-of field explanations, full manual! They used a fraction of the features of even the most basic entry level cameras, and daughter actually caused consternation in the staff-room, when reportedly in her Drama class, asked to video a group performance, she deemed the web-cam they were given some technical term that must be specific to Drama... stormed over to the photo-class, and asked to borrow a DSLR and tripod!!!And MORE when in A-Level photography they had to do 'Cinematography' technique and use video... and she explained she'd already done it.... in Drama! I would have trouble justfying buyng a higher end APS-C DSLR for my own use on the 'aded features', let alone for a school child to lug about to and from school, and the park, and drag through the mud and the woods, and chuck water-flled baloons around infront of!
Likely that that 2nd hand D3100 is still probably far more than adequate.. was for my daugher for both GCSE and A-Level.. and cheap eough to be no great loss to the water-filled baloon experiments, if they go wrong! Or as happens at school 'stuff' goes misting from gym lockers, or gets broken when they have a satchel socker match down the coridoor..... darn site less gauling to write off hundred and fifty quids worth of 2nd hand entry level kit than start fretting about claiming on the house insurance! And how to explain how your camera happened to end up in the bath, full of water, or aparently mauled by a buch of marauding chimps with sledge hammers, without evoking the 'negligence' caveot!
As for the film camera? Err... Prior to her startig her photogaphy course, after she found my old Zenit in a box on top of the wardrobe ad asked me to teach her to use it.. that was as much conventional as she ever did... and school avoided the genre... I would suspect they MAY suggest doing some conventional film photography, but I very much doubt that it will be mandatory, or if it IS, they will do enough to justify any more that a disposable or charity shop special. if and when it comes to it... ISTR that my daughter reported that they did 'proper' photography, making pictographs exposing some photo-paper with a dev spiral on it on the bench under a desk-lamp and running t through chemistry! So again, probably best of talking direct to teacher... daughters was horrified at the notion of her taking my old Oly OM10 into class, and havng to explain it, and simply commented that she 'may' like to include some 'conventional' images in her portfolio to show experimenting with... ahrg! 'alternative' (its NOT alternative, its conventional! DIGITAL is the 'alernatve!';-)) photo techniques.
THAT'S my experience and suggestion based on it, FWIW, anyhow.
HUGE amout of variation between the different exam boards, even more between individual teachers.... BUT as far as the Daughter's studies wentL-
1/ School were reasonably relaxed and DID NOT expect parents to go out and buy students thier own 'My Fist SLR' outfits, let alone, high end examples!! School had Cannons in the store room for student use 'where required'... they weren't very often!
Limitations of the class-room, and H&S gobe mad, they wern't even allowed out side to take photo's in the school grouds very often, even LESS get thier mitts on a 'propper camera'.
2/ working within the limitations of what they could do in the class-room; they spent very very little time taking photo's. Apertures, shutter speeds and ISO's were never even broached; they largely concentrated on the 'asthetic' aspects of composition; they did studio set ups, and looked at things like high ad low key lighting; they looked at modeling and posing'; they looked at natural vs artficial light, and spent a lot f time looking at the work of the masters, and critiqung thier and thier own work, and a lot of time on photo-shop; learning basic management technques; basic editing manipulations, and working from web-grabs a lot of the time, things like photo-montage and filter effects etc.
Where they HAD to take photo's and especially for home-work assignments, they were largely taken with camera-phones, the school assumed pretty much every-one would have.
Where they DID get hands on with teh DSLR's, it was, as far as I can tell incredibly basic stuff; 'the anatomy' of a camera kid of thing; drawng scematcs of the exposure mode dal and explaining the icons; explainng that they knew what a lens was and does, and how to change one.
3/ As the course became more challenging/involved during the 2nd year, they were let out nto the play-ground or set up studio situations in the class-room where they used the school cameras....
Reason school recomended Cannon's were that that was what the school had, and the tutor used.
Daughter, was for the first year the sole Nikon user, using my camera until I cought her popping water-filled balloons over it in the bath for a shutter speed experiment!!!!!!!!!!!! One or two of her class-mates joined her with a Nikon, in the 2nd year, after I'd bought her a 2nd hand D3100 and 35mm prime (to try save MY camera from water filled balloon experiments! NOTE: Cheap and 2nd hand IS GOOD! Especially if they come home and say they dropped it!!) In lessons, she seemed to become 'teacher' on all maters camera related for the other Nikon users... her teacher even listenng to her explanations of how to work one, after he'd told other Nikon uses to ask her, 'cos he didn't have a CLUE where to find settings on one! Hint: Conformity has it's merits, if you like an easy life!
4/ It wasn't until A-Level that she really started to get any use what-so ever from the DSLR. There was also a mid-race horse switch as the Sixth-form was transferred from the Secondary she'd done her GCSE's at to the Grammar school... Local Education Department 'rationalization'... whch did show marked contrast between the approaches of different teachers, and the Grammar School teacher was a lot more concerned with technical camera operation, where her High-School teacher had been much more relaxed about that and concerned with the 'creative' side of stuff.
5/ I have suffered all my kids going through high-school and "Dad I HAVE TO HAVE... <insert must have teen icon of the moment... from a pair of trainers with a Christmas cracker frog pumpy thing on the back, through the latest lap-top, and all manner of 'stuff' in between, from hair gel, hair dye, fishnet stockings, and stiletto heels, neon green converse pumps, trading card albums, battle tokens, whatever THEY were!... oh, and a moped.. or three!!!>
NEVER BELIEVE ANYTHING when your kids tell you "I have to HAVE!" or you'll be paying for it for twenty years beyond the mortgage being cleared!.... ASK FOR THE LETTER that says so! THEN talk to teacher!
"Oh No No! They dont NEED a carbon fiber canoe for the geography trip! I told them they MAY bring a pair of wellies... but the centre does have waders.... I think some-ones got the wrong end of the stick, on that one!"... y-e-r-s I thought so....
I assume, at this tme of year, your child wont be starying the course until September.... "Lets see what Santa brings shall we?" would be my ploy!
You and she have likely far more than enough to start buildng her pre-course portfolio; so worry about the assigment objectves as in the number of images and the subject matter, rather than what they use to get them...There's a good chance that that pre-assignment is a) to week out the slackers who think its a make-weight 'doss' lesson; and b) to gie them a body of images to work on on the class-room learning photo-shop manipulations etc, rather than wasting time looking for stock shots to steal off google.
See how she gets on at the start of the course with what she has; and weigh up what to do then, thinking Christmas, and whether its worth percevering as a maverick, using Cannon in a class of Nikon shooters, or whether to join the herd for an easy life.
Extra features of the mid-range APS-C sensor DSLR's are 'useful'... Ugh!?!?!? Crickey! As far as I could tell, on my daughter's course, they used green-box P&S or for dedicated shutter speed shoot-outs or depth-of field explanations, full manual! They used a fraction of the features of even the most basic entry level cameras, and daughter actually caused consternation in the staff-room, when reportedly in her Drama class, asked to video a group performance, she deemed the web-cam they were given some technical term that must be specific to Drama... stormed over to the photo-class, and asked to borrow a DSLR and tripod!!!And MORE when in A-Level photography they had to do 'Cinematography' technique and use video... and she explained she'd already done it.... in Drama! I would have trouble justfying buyng a higher end APS-C DSLR for my own use on the 'aded features', let alone for a school child to lug about to and from school, and the park, and drag through the mud and the woods, and chuck water-flled baloons around infront of!
Likely that that 2nd hand D3100 is still probably far more than adequate.. was for my daugher for both GCSE and A-Level.. and cheap eough to be no great loss to the water-filled baloon experiments, if they go wrong! Or as happens at school 'stuff' goes misting from gym lockers, or gets broken when they have a satchel socker match down the coridoor..... darn site less gauling to write off hundred and fifty quids worth of 2nd hand entry level kit than start fretting about claiming on the house insurance! And how to explain how your camera happened to end up in the bath, full of water, or aparently mauled by a buch of marauding chimps with sledge hammers, without evoking the 'negligence' caveot!
As for the film camera? Err... Prior to her startig her photogaphy course, after she found my old Zenit in a box on top of the wardrobe ad asked me to teach her to use it.. that was as much conventional as she ever did... and school avoided the genre... I would suspect they MAY suggest doing some conventional film photography, but I very much doubt that it will be mandatory, or if it IS, they will do enough to justify any more that a disposable or charity shop special. if and when it comes to it... ISTR that my daughter reported that they did 'proper' photography, making pictographs exposing some photo-paper with a dev spiral on it on the bench under a desk-lamp and running t through chemistry! So again, probably best of talking direct to teacher... daughters was horrified at the notion of her taking my old Oly OM10 into class, and havng to explain it, and simply commented that she 'may' like to include some 'conventional' images in her portfolio to show experimenting with... ahrg! 'alternative' (its NOT alternative, its conventional! DIGITAL is the 'alernatve!';-)) photo techniques.
THAT'S my experience and suggestion based on it, FWIW, anyhow.
scottduffy
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 3,348
- Name
- Scott
- Edit My Images
- Yes
I switched all my gear from Olympus to canon as that was recommended to me by my lecturer and it was silly. I've done nothing with it that I couldn't have with mirrorless. I would recommend mirrorless any day as she'll need to carry it and my bag anyway is bloody heavy.
Kodiak Qc
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 20,285
- Name
- French Canadian living in Europe since 1989!
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Kingo46
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 740
- Name
- John
- Edit My Images
- Yes
my son done his GCSE last year he got a A in it, the school give them canon 
camera I have fun telling his teacher they should use Nikon 
when I asked why they use Canon she said what the head teacher use (she was a Nikon user herself) and he got a deal with Canon
we didn't have to buy our own camera, for him to use,
camera I have fun telling his teacher they should use Nikon when I asked why they use Canon she said what the head teacher use (she was a Nikon user herself) and he got a deal with Canon
we didn't have to buy our own camera, for him to use,
Snapper67
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 580
- Name
- Dougie
- Edit My Images
- Yes
I think Canon and Nikon purposely try not match each others cameras exactly for features, just to muddy the water a bit.
It's the exact same throughout the majority of Japanese Industry.
The Japanese government deliberately make them compete independently (on the surface).
CNC machine tool industry (Mori-Seiki / Matsurra along with a host of others),
Performance Cars for export - Subaru Rally Spec Cars - Nissan (GTR)- Honda (NSX).
Think back to the VHS - Beta wars etc.
Very smart people the Japanese.
Last edited:
Andrew Benbow
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 218
- Name
- Andrew
- Edit My Images
- Yes
My daughter and I were recently in the Lakes on a workshop, part of that includes sharing some images every evening, she was using a Canon 40d and her's were by far the best images overall - she is studying art at A-Level and has a really good "eye" for composition IMHO.
Not having a touch screen makes it a bit frustrating for me but she doesn't miss that because she's never had a camera with one.
That said, the 760 is a great camera I just wish it had custom modes and bulb mode.
Not having a touch screen makes it a bit frustrating for me but she doesn't miss that because she's never had a camera with one.
That said, the 760 is a great camera I just wish it had custom modes and bulb mode.