TheDarkroom Academy is running its academic course on Photography and Multimedia for many years. We have been the first school in Florence to offer multimedia program together with photography at a professional level.
Along with this professional-oriented course, today the school is also offering other programs on Photography with a different targets and goals, such as the Photography and Fine-Art course.
So, what is exactly ‘Photography and Multimedia’ subject and what are the goals of this course? What skills can actually a student get out of this program? What are the differences between this program and other similar programs offered by other schools and universities?
The academic course of Photography and Multimedia offered by the school TheDarkroom Academy of Florence, Italy, is a program aimed to train students to actively deal with the professional world of commercial photography.
What is commercial photography?
Commercial photography is everything that involves a customer which is demanding for a product (images) to be delivered within certain guidelines, aiming to a specific goal (to sell their products or to showcase their business).
Customer, product, goal.
Customers can be from a one-man business to a company. What link them is the product they want to promote. It may be an object or a service, an event or an idea. The customers assign photographers to effectively handle their business’s image towards their audience. Photographers must understand and meet customers guidelines for to reach business’s goal: to sell the ‘product’.
Working a as a professional photographer in the commercial sector means to be able to understand customer needs, producing images which are understandable by largest majority possible audience for to make customer’s products standing out from other ones. Not an easy task.
Demand for the highest possible standard
Today everybody believes photographing is easy. Many feel they can take photos easily. An easy access to tools that can take snapshots quickly, like smartphones, has created the common idea that photography is an easy practice. Social networks, like Facebook or Instagram, are full of trash photos that collect thousands of easy ‘likes’.
Very few of those images might deserve a place on your home wall. Would you use an average-to-low photo for to advertise your business or your company’s products? Not certainly. You would demand for the highest possible standards.
How can you assess a photo 1) is good, 2) have a clear meaning for the largest possible audience, 3) delivers the right message, 4) is effective for your commercial task? You need to learn what is the proper ‘visual communication language’ first.
Photography is a language of communication
Social networks again. The incredible amount of trash images uploaded every day on social networks are comparable to the abuse of swearwords cast on many TV shows nowadays. Day after day, year after year of this practice may have turned down our judging ability. How can a ‘professional photographer’ be able to deliver the correct image with the correct syntax inside, showing the correct message and being effective to the goal if he/she is bombed everyday with trash images? Studying, studying and studying is the answer!
Studying visual communication, how to choose the right subject, how to build up a picture with the correct elements inside, how to place them in the right order in the frame, will answer the question and will enable you to produce effective images that can speak alone.
Why multimedia?
Contemporary multi-medial world of professional photography is requiring photographers which are able to deliver not only photos in a box, or in a portfolio, but, more than that, digital products ready-to-use for a multi-medial platform. That includes products for the web, for the graphic designer, for the video editor or a multimedia package for a new concept of ‘photo product’.
Nowadays photographers have to be proficient in a number of different topics, such as web design, blogging, video making and graphics also. But they have to be creative and to know all the means for to express their assets. Hence the return to the film and to darkroom work. In a media-flattened world, where everybody shoots digital, where everybody is on Instagram, maybe film and silver-gelatine printed black and white photographs are a possible answer. And so is a printed-products such as a photo-magazine. It requires the modern professional to deal with photography, graphics and publishing industry.
Photography and multimedia: respond to the challenge
Photography and Multimedia academic course by TheDarkroom Academy will enable you to effectively produce images for the demanding world of advertising, publishing, fashion and multimedia market.
The course provides a deep study on elements of communication for to enable the students to create images with a clear meaning and effective for the viewer.
Delivering the right products to your clients is a challenge. Who wants to be misunderstood for a wrong advertising campaign? Respond to the challenge in a effective way.
Why studying at TheDarkroom Academy?
Our intensive, practice-oriented course is demanding, yet extremely effective. We teach our students what does mean to actually work as professional photographers. We teach them the tricks and secrets of this profession, useful information that they will not find in photography books.
A testament to this is the fact that our former students have all successfully pursued careers as either photographers, web designers, web masters or video makers. In today’s digital age, photography is a constantly evolving field: new, creative and multi-faceted professional profiles are in high demand.
What sets us apart from others? Practical experience in the field with clients. During the course.
We believe that hands-on training is the most effective way for our students to transition into a career in photography and multimedia. We are a school based in Florence, Tuscany, so we like to take advantage of the possibilities offered by our geographical location. Specifically, we want our students to practise and test what they learn in class, for example by working for some of our renowned sponsors, such as Regione Toscana, Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Artex, Fiera dell’Artigianato Firenze but also to work on new challenging projects such as our brand-new photo-magazine ‘Camera Work by TheDarkroom‘ presented in the year 2017.
In the past years, our students have successfully worked for Lucca Film Festival, Korea Film Fest, Dragon Film Festival, BACI – Balloon Art Convention Italy, BTO – Buy Tourism Online, Hinamatsuri, Ludicomix, Economia3, Festival della Creatività, L’Aquila earthquake, Artigianato in Toscana and many others. These invaluable real work experiences have helped them in taking up successful career as professional photographers in Italy and abroad.
We have set ourselves high goals. We want our students to perform to the highest standards.
During our program, from basics to advanced topics, students learn how to take pictures with both a film and digital camera, how to use lenses, computer, photo editing applications, handle digital archiving, make websites, shoot and edit videos, manage online photo galleries and blog posts, study specific subjects such as architectural photography, photojournalism, commercial and fashion photography.
For he entire duration of the course students study visual communication and learn how to build correct images for to communicate with them.
Our training will enable our students to easily start their careers as assistant photographers or as free-lance photographers working alongside different types of professional figures; furthermore, they will be able to work in professional studios, handle lighting equipment properly and easily shoot with large format cameras, manage client’s blogs and websites, help the company to develop a multi-medial platform for their business.
Photography and Multimedia academic course by TheDarkroom Academy is the answer for who wants to start a career in the world of commercial photography, work for international clients, be hired by international companies, be in line with the demand of the ever-changing photography world.
