BA (Hons) Commercial Photography Bachelor's degree at the University of Derby

This module is designed to develop fundamental skills in photography, focusing on the practical and technical aspects of camera usage. You will explore the core principles of exposure, composition, and camera settings to produce high-quality images. Additionally, the module covers essential photographic software tools for image editing and post-processing, enabling students to enhance their photographs effectively. You will also learn efficient file management techniques to organize and store digital and analogue assets, along with the importance of colour management for maintaining accurate and consistent colour across devices. The module also introduces you to professional scanning & print

Assessment: Coursework

"Photographic Studio Production - People" is a module designed to develop essential skills for photographing people in a professional studio setting, with a focus on portraiture, fashion photography, and the creative practice of tableau vivant. You will learn how to manipulate studio lighting to highlight the human form, experimenting with various techniques to create dynamic and compelling portraits. In fashion photography, the module explores styling, posing, and the integration of fashion elements to produce visually engaging imagery. The module also introduces the concept of tableau vivant, a practice that involves creating staged, narrative-driven compositions. You will explore the aest

Assessment: Coursework

This module focuses on developing essential skills for working within a professional photographic studio environment, with a particular emphasis on still-life and product photography. You will be introduced to studio lighting techniques, camera settings, and compositional strategies to effectively photograph objects in a controlled studio setting. The module explores the use of various lighting equipment, backdrops, and props to create visually striking and commercially viable images. You will gain hands-on experience in arranging and photographing a range of objects, from simple still-life compositions to more complex product setups. Through practical assignments, they will learn how to man

Assessment: Coursework

There is barely an event in our world that goes by without a photograph (or many photographs) being made as a record of evidence. It might be an important event that impacts on the whole world. It might be an image of your evening dinner. Since its inception in the first half of the nineteenth century, especially with the advent of digital communication, photography is intertwined with everything we do. It has become synonymous with the activities and behaviours of human life. As such, the histories of photography are not simply about images. This module explores a wide range of historical perspectives on photography and will help to inform and stimulate your curiosity about the myriad ways

Assessment: Coursework

This module will help you develop these key critical thinking skills and will introduce you to important and diverse theories on and around photography, in order to foster your visual literacy skills and cultural awareness to a high level. You will learn important methods by which to interpret and understand the meaning of photographs, the multiple, varied and even conflicting attitudes towards photographs and how they signify. You will learn about a wide range of critical positions intrinsic to photography, art, and cultural production, such as modernism, postmodernism, conceptual art, feminism, structuralism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis, gende

Assessment: Coursework

The Visual Message and The Audience module is designed to develop your ability to create commercially relevant photographic work that communicates ideas effectively to target audiences. With a focus on bridging creative vision and professional practice, this module guides you in refining your visual identity while addressing the specific demands of client briefs. You will engage with practical projects that emphasize the translation of creative concepts into purposeful, audience-driven images. Key themes include understanding audience psychology, crafting visual messages with impact, and tailoring photographic work to meet commercial objectives. Workshops will focus on advanced technical ski

Assessment: Coursework

The Digital Innovation and Creative Practice module focuses on enhancing your advanced technical and conceptual understanding of digital photography within professional and creative contexts. This module provides hands-on experience with a broad spectrum of industry-standard and manufacturer-specific software tools for image capture, manipulation, and workflow management, enabling you to streamline digital processes effectively. A key component of the module is the introduction to digital medium format photography, with practical sessions in a studio environment that emphasize tethered shooting setups and professional studio lighting techniques. You will explore the creative and technical ch

Assessment: Coursework

The Visual Context and Creative Exploration module focuses on empowering you to develop a distinct creative identity and produce innovative, commercially relevant visual content. Designed to foster autonomy and originality, this module encourages you to experiment with diverse photographic and lens-based practices to explore new creative directions within the commercial context. You will engage with advanced techniques in visual storytelling, working across various media such as moving image, stop-frame animation, and cinematography. These practices will be explored not only as creative outlets but also as tools to enhance the versatility and appeal of your commercial portfolios. The module

Assessment: Coursework

The Unfolding Image module is designed to strengthen your ability to produce professional photographic work that effectively responds to commercial briefs within real-world contexts. With an emphasis on ethical practice, thoughtful analysis, and strategic problem-solving, you will learn to interpret and address client needs while maintaining creative integrity and precision. Through practical assignments, you will explore the nuances of audience-specific communication, focusing on delivering images that align with the commercial purpose and resonate with defined target demographics. Guided workshops will deepen technical expertise, enabling you to select and apply appropriate methods and tec

Assessment: Coursework

Digital Lab - Explorations is an experimental module which situates student interests and practice in digital approaches and processes. In particular this module will focus on an understanding of the digital infrastructure, systems and processes and their impact on creative practice, human experience and communities. Building on the initial digital practices, developed in Level 4, you will be introduced to a range of digital processes and tools, which you will learn through engagement and practice, evaluate the affordances and implications, and apply through experimentation and enquiry. Through this, you will be able to form your own preferences and begin to direct a more focused deeper prac

Assessment: Coursework

Social Practice Lab: Explorations provides an opportunity for you to explore the potential impact of creative practice on people and communities. You will review and evaluate a range of conceptual, theoretical and historical approaches to socially engaged practice, understanding the relationship between approaches and specific social, economic and cultural contexts, and consider these as value and impact models. You will consider ways of working collaboratively and co-creatively with communities, including communities of place, intention, identity and practice in both real and online environments. From this foundation in practice and theory, you will engage in a live project with a defined c

Assessment: Coursework

Materials Lab - Explorations is an experimental module which situates your interests and practice in materials, craft and making in a process of practice and research development. You will explore and experiment with a range of processes including analogue, hand-based approaches, and digital approaches. Through this, they will be able to form your own preferences in process and develop a deeper practice which can develop into the strategies modules in Level 6. You will engage with a range of conceptual, theoretical and historical approaches to materials and making, understanding the relationship between evolution, innovation and the social, economic and cultural context. Also having a perspe

Assessment: Coursework

Culture Lab - Image Explorations begins with looking, as an aesthetic, historical and political act. You will be encouraged to develop your own critical practice of looking, observing and interpreting critically and contextually. Culture Lab - Image Explorations begins with looking, as an aesthetic, historical and political act. You will be encouraged to develop your own critical practice of looking, observing and interpreting critically and contextually. You will engage with a range of conceptual, theoretical and historical approaches to images, image making and image interpretation, using a range of critical lens such as semiotic, grotesque, feminist, queer and postcolonial approaches. You

Assessment: Coursework

Creative Industry and Enterprise Lab - Explorations is a module that aims to underpin your industry interests and intentions with experiences, methods and approaches rooted in best practice. In particular this will focus on experiential research undertaken through work experience placements and internships, and/or creative enterprise development looking at bringing a product or service to market. In both cases these rely on understanding the needs of different stakeholders and applying knowledge, skills and competences to understand how they can add value to that given situation. The experiential knowledge acquired will be contextualised by a range of workshops and resources which will addit

Assessment: Coursework

This module forms part of the placement year typically completed between the second and final stage of a degree programme. The module provides a framework for the development of reflective skills appropriate to all areas of professional practice including for example aspects of problem solving such as objective setting, planning, negotiating, demonstrating, and reflecting. The emphasis in this module is on the analysis and evaluation of work completed within the organisation and future employability planning. During the module students will develop a reflective portfolio where they record the skills, knowledge and experience developed during the placement experience and evaluate how this wil

Assessment: Coursework

The Photography in Practice module equips you with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in the commercial imaging sector, emphasizing the interplay between creative practice and the business contexts that shape client decision-making. This module bridges personal creative direction with market demands, preparing you to respond effectively to professional opportunities. You will undertake negotiated projects tailored to your creative aspirations, with opportunities to engage in live briefs, competition entries, and collaborative ventures. The module fosters innovation and critical inquiry, encouraging you to experiment and address the ethical considerations of your work while developi

Assessment: Coursework

The Photographic Project module is designed to advance your ability to produce a cohesive and market-ready body of work through self-initiated projects. This module fosters independence, initiative, and professional confidence, enabling you to refine your practice and deepen your expertise in a chosen area of photographic specialism. You will undertake approved projects tailored to your creative goals and career aspirations, focusing on techniques and concepts that align with professional standards and emerging market opportunities. The module emphasizes the potential to broaden portfolio appeal and explore new commercial possibilities while maintaining a distinctive creative identity. A cor

Assessment: Coursework

The Independent Development Project module challenges you to produce a substantial, self-directed body of work that demonstrates your professional readiness and commercial viability in photography. This module provides a platform for you to showcase your ability to work independently, with initiative and confidence, while refining a personal style that aligns with your intended area of professional practice. You will develop projects that balance creative exploration with industry relevance, emphasizing the critical interplay between photographic practice and the ideas, contexts, and audiences that shape it. A key focus is on the practical skills required for presenting and installing photog

Assessment: Coursework

Digital Lab - Strategies situates your research and practice within the discourses of digital systems and invites you to develop a novel practice which reflects your interests, experience and ambitions. You will investigate the infrastructure, principles, operations and ethics of digital systems and their impact on culture, society and the environment. These include generative AI, data mining, speculative futures, user experiences, new industries. From this specific knowledge and context, you will develop a creative digital intervention which reveals, critiques and engages audiences with digital cultures, and an illustrated research paper which outlines the critical context of that intervent

Assessment: Coursework

Social Practice Lab: Strategies focuses on the impact of creative practice on people and communities. You will define a community, which may include place based, online or communities of practice and undertake a process of research, including live research, into the factors, needs and opportunities for that community and devise a creative process which is responsive to that defined situation. You will frame your practice in the context of selected theories and appropriate exemplars of practice from a diversity of socially engaged practitioners, critically evaluating and understanding the specific relationship of approach to context. You will propose, negotiate and realise a self-directed ind

Assessment: Coursework

Materials Lab - Strategies will embed your research and practice within the emergent discourses and practices of materials and materiality. Drawing on resources and contexts such as: Theories of materials and materiality, including new materialism, actor network theory, embodiment, phenomenology, aesthetics and emotional design Social, economic and historical precedents of craft, materials and making Experimental practices in novel materials and applications You will be situated in a rich critical, creative and practical environment through which to develop your own research and practice which articulates your future academic and professional intentions. You will combine a practice-based eng

Assessment: Coursework

Cultural Lab - Curatorial Strategies provides an opportunity for you to draw on your research and practice in critical and cultural contextualisation into a curatorial proposal which gives an opportunity to contextualise works, artefacts and phenomena for an audience. You will need to consider a range of different perspectives on the exhibition proposal itself and also on the process of curating too. You will frame this into an exhibition catalogue, which articulates complex concepts and practices for an audience. You will propose, negotiate and realise a self-directed independent curatorial project which explicitly frames the module learning outcomes and the theme of the module. This will i

Assessment: Coursework

Creative Industry and Enterprise Lab - Strategies provides an opportunity for you to focus on a specific research investigation which articulates both your future and also the future of a specific industry context. This may take the form of an enterprise proposition, researching market opportunities, and forming an innovative proposal around these. This may take the form of an investigation into a specific industry problem and applying research to consider a novel response. The module begins with an audit of the your strengths, competences, and development needs, together with your professional intentions. Diagnostics around interpersonal and business development skills will support you in t

Assessment: Coursework

Independent Critical Strategies challenges you to speculate on your own future as a creative practitioner and critical thinker. The module will offer a variety of perspectives and challenges which will stimulate your thinking and inspire your distinctive direction as a creative practitioner researcher. You will propose, negotiate and realise a self-directed independent creative research project which explicitly frames the module learning outcomes and the theme of the module. This will be achieved through a negotiated learning agreement which is agreed by the academic team. You will have the option to propose a larger interdisciplinary research project which meets the requirements both for th

Assessment: Coursework