Cost of a photography degree

G86

Hi guys,

My sister is hoping to study photography, but I'm a bit concerned about the cost involved. Could anyone give me some info on what equipment etc., and associated cost that she'd need over the 3/4years?

Thanks a million
G

melekalikimaka

not a whole lot, I a nearly finished mine. you can spend alot, or very little, tailor to your budget basically.

Zillah

It depends on the course, some will supply more than others. She'll never be left without equipment to do the job but in my experience it is better and less stressful if you have your own. She'll probably do some film work at the start, the procurement and processing of which will need to be paid for but that's not a huge burden.

The big issue is whether she'll buy her own digital SLR. If she can possibly afford it she absolutely should, they're great fun and allow you to practice and develop in your own time without having to worry about film costs or anything like that.

There are two extremes: She can spend almost nothing, meaning that she will have to hope to use the college's cameras, which means waiting in line, putting up with time and rule restrictions and possibly getting banged up equipment, and have to do her post processing on shared computers in competition with all the other people. The other extreme, of course, is that you spend a fortune on a top of the range DSLR, lenses, accessories and a powerful mac for editing.

Assuming you're relatively comfortable middle class I'd suggest dropping 500-800 quid on a Canon or Nikon digital slr (we can help picking one ) and maybe one lense (the kit lens would be ok if money is tight though). If there is an anyway modern PC in the house it'll run a free editing program called Gimp which is a lot like photoshop and comes highly reccommended.

If she doesn't get a DSLR she's certainly not going to be the only one without one, and certainly not in first year, but if you want her to develop and gain confidence shooting then it is your best shot.

You can always contact the college themselves, the course coordinator or one of the photography lecturers, and they'll be able to give you a heads up on any unavoidable costs.

G86

Thanks guys, she's going to be funding it herself through part-time work, and then I'll be helping her out too. So, money is going to be a bit tight which is why I wanted to find out before getting her hopes up. The only thing I was also concerned about are her chances of getting a job from it, as I did a Media degree myself and I know all about tough industries! I've been getting her to look at more rounded design courses that include other modules as well as photography too.

For some reason I just thought it would be really expensive, but it seems affordable if she can rent equipment! I could work on getting her the camera too if it was only the one.
Thanks for the info

G86

melekalikimaka wrote: »

not a whole lot, I a nearly finished mine. you can spend alot, or very little, tailor to your budget basically.

Did you do yours in DIT melekalikimaka?

melekalikimaka

GCD, college fees aside, its perfectly manageable. oh and you dont rent, you dont pay anything, just place a deposit

G86

melekalikimaka wrote: »

GCD, college fees aside, its perfectly manageable. oh and you dont rent, you dont pay anything, just place a deposit

Ah ok thanks, she couldn't go there as she'll be getting a grant. We're just looking into a few places now.

Thanks again

PCPhoto

what type of photography does she want to get into - if its photojournalism .... she may not need the qualification (It would prob be better for her but plenty of photographers are self taught)


there are plenty of tutorials out there online for her to learn how to do stuff.

BrendanRyan

I did mine in DIT, just finished and found it a very costly experience, film can be expensive, printing books is expensive putting on exhibitions can be expensive, on the other side of the coin these things can be done on the cheap too, but when the pressure's on its though, every cent i had to spare went to some sort of collage expense.

I don't want to be too negative, it is very possible to do it on the cheap, but will need to be very smart with cash.

In terms of getting a job, well it depends on what job your sister wants... There's a lot of theory to be mulched through in DIT as pcphoto says, if your sister aspires to be a photo-journalist, wedding photographer, fashion then it may be worth asking is there need for collage?

DIT would probably aspire for its students to become, well primarely artists, archivists, curators that sort of thing. In my opinion there is not enough weight given to commercial photography but the skills that are developed are easily transferrable between a variety of subjects.

There's also the skills developed in regard to presentations, critiquing, writing and so on that may be important...although in Ireland, especially now there is very little use for any of these skills unfortunately. The photography "Industry" in Ireland is very small its mainly comprized of individuals businesses, so i'll probably get out smartish

but 4 or 5 years is a long time, ireland could be buzzing again!

all the best
Brendan
hope that wasn't awfully negative!