need help with gcse options! (photography)

I am currently halfway through y9, and need to start picking my gcses. I've been wanting to pick photography for a while now but I'm not so sure as I am still a beginner and only take photos from my phone (I am quite interested though). I was just wondering if

I'm really passionate about being a photographer but im really worried about these.. can someone help me?

Hi there!

I did photography as a one year course for GCSE and got a grade 9 even though I had never properly used a camera before, so it’s perfectly suitable for beginners! I did have to work most weekends and a lot of evenings, however it was still manageable and I really enjoyed working on my project. I’d assume that a 2 year course (if that’s what you are doing) would be much easier to manage.

The coursework is a mix of practical and analysis work, but it’s definitely nothing too hard. Your teacher will be helping you with editing and taking photos, and they’ll also teach you how to critique and analyse your work which will help you achieve the higher grades. The types of editing (and how hard it will be) will depend on the images you take and the theme you follow - more technical edits will definitely get you higher grades, but if the simpler editing still makes your work impactful then you will still do well.

I enjoyed it so much at GCSE that I’m now doing it as an A-level (predicted an A), and although at A-level you have to put a bit of extra work in since the grade boundaries are quite high it’s definitely worth it.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any more questions you may have!

Thank you so much! This really helped! Sorry, another question what kinds of editing software did you use for your photography, and did u have to buy a new camera?

Hi! You’re welcome 😊

We mainly used software like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

I didn’t have to buy a camera because I shot most of my images in school, and they had ones we could borrow. I’m sure that your school will do the same to make the subject more accessible to all students who are interested. They may even allow you to rent one out to use at home (but just check this in advance as it differs from school - my college now has a system where you can take cameras out of college for up to a week at a time, so it’s definitely possible). If you want to buy your own camera then that’s perfectly fine, but I’m sure some will definitely be made available.

Hope this helps 😊