Notes · PhotographyUK · A-Levels

Photographic media, techniques and processes

Photography has two great families of media - traditional analogue (film and the chemical darkroom) and digital (the sensor and the computer) - and the specification expects awareness of both. This topic maps the span of photographic media, techniques and processes: what analogue photography is and how film is developed and printed; what digital photography is, from the sensor and RAW capture to image-editing software; how the two workflows compare and what they share; and how to select media purposefully for an intention and experiment with them. It is the AO2 foundation on which the camera, composition and processing topics build.

5 sections~23 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

T·0333 / 15

Exam profile

AO2 · Explore and select appropriate photographic media, techniques and processesAO2 · Understand both traditional (analogue) and digital photographic technologiesAO3 · Use media as the means of recording from first-hand

Operators:exploreselectcompareexperimentprocess

basic level

AS-Level expects competent handling of at least one photographic medium and awareness of the alternatives.

higher level

The full A-Level expects a broad, experimental command of media and processes, selected purposefully across a sustained enquiry.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Photographic media, techniques and processes

The span of photographic media#

FoundationAQA 7206 Photography (media, techniques and processes)Ofqual GCE Art and Design subject content

Photographic media, techniques and processes

Fig. 1The span of photographic media: two great families - analogue and digital - sharing the camera and light, plus camera-less and moving-image processes.

Photography is a family of media, not a single technique, and A-Level Photography expects you to be aware of its span. At the broadest level, the medium divides into two great families: traditional, analogue, chemical photography (film exposed in a camera and developed and printed in a darkroom) and digital photography (light captured on an electronic sensor and processed on a computer). Both make images by capturing light through a lens, so they share the fundamentals of the camera, exposure, composition and light; they differ in how the image is recorded and processed after capture. Understanding this division is the map of the discipline's media.

Within these families sit the specific media, techniques and processes you can work with. On the analogue side: different film stocks (black-and-white, colour negative, colour transparency; different formats and speeds), the negative, the enlarger and the chemical print, and darkroom techniques such as dodging, burning and contrast control. On the digital side: the digital sensor and the RAW and JPEG file, and image-editing software (such as Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop) for adjusting exposure, contrast, colour, tone and cropping, and for more radical manipulation, montage and compositing. Beyond both sit camera-less and experimental processes (photograms, cyanotype) and lens-based moving image (video, film, animation).

The word 'technique' refers to how you use a medium - the exposure and camera controls, the quality and direction of light, the choice of lens and viewpoint, the darkroom or digital adjustments - while 'process' refers to the whole sequence from capture to finished image. A single photographic outcome is the product of many technical choices and a whole process, and A-Level Photography asks you to explore both deliberately. The medium you choose (film or digital, colour or black-and-white) shapes what is possible; the techniques you apply within it shape the result; and the process by which you develop, edit and finish completes the image.

It is worth stressing early that no medium is inherently superior. Digital dominates contemporary practice and is where most students work, and it offers vast, immediate, low-cost control; but analogue film and the darkroom offer a distinctive tactile quality, a slower and more considered way of working, and a hands-on engagement with how the photographic image is physically made, which many photographers value and which deepens understanding. The specification's requirement to be aware of both is not nostalgia - it is so that you understand the medium as a whole and can choose the right tool for your intention.

For your own practice, the practical upshot is this: know the media available to you, understand what each does and its qualities and limitations, and select purposefully rather than by default. Most students will work primarily digitally, but exploring at least some analogue or camera-less process, and understanding how the darkroom relates to digital editing, both broadens your AO2 and deepens your grasp of the medium. The following sections take the two families in turn, then compare them and turn to selecting and experimenting.

Worked example

Choosing medium, technique and process for one idea

A student wants gritty, timeless black-and-white portraits with a hand-made feel. Distinguish the medium, technique and process choices.

Choose the medium
Black-and-white film, developed and printed in the darkroom, suits the 'timeless, hand-made' intention better than a slick digital file - the medium itself carries part of the meaning.
Choose the techniques
Techniques within that medium: soft directional light for character, a standard lens and close viewpoint for intimacy, and a higher-speed film for grain.
Choose the process
The process runs from exposing the film, through developing the negatives, to making enlarged darkroom prints with dodging and burning to control the tones.
Note the alternative
The same intention could be approximated digitally with a black-and-white, high-contrast, grain-added treatment - a legitimate choice, but the analogue process delivers the tactile quality more authentically.

Result: The example separates the medium (black-and-white film + darkroom), the techniques (light, lens, film speed) and the process (expose, develop, print) - the three levels of choice AO2 asks you to make deliberately.

Typical mistakes

Thinking 'photography' means only digital, and being unaware of analogue/darkroom or camera-less processes.
Assuming one medium is inherently better rather than choosing the appropriate medium for an intention.

Active revision

List the photographic media and processes you have access to (digital camera, phone, film camera, darkroom, editing software, etc.) and note one quality and one limitation of each.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Art and Design (7201-7206) specification (AQA)

Traditional and analogue photography#

StandardAQA 7206 Photography (traditional techniques)Ofqual GCE Art and Design subject content

Traditional, analogue photography records the image chemically on light-sensitive film. When you expose film in a camera, light striking the film creates a latent (invisible) image by changing light-sensitive silver-halide crystals in the emulsion; developing the film in chemicals turns this latent image into a visible one. With most film this produces a negative, in which tones and colours are reversed (the light parts of the scene are dark on the film and vice versa). The negative is the master from which prints are made, and understanding the negative-positive process is the key to analogue photography.

Film comes in varieties that are themselves creative choices. Black-and-white film records only tones; colour negative film records colour for printing; colour transparency (slide) film produces a positive directly. Film has a speed, or ISO (for example 100, 400, 1600), which describes its sensitivity to light - slower films (low ISO) give the finest grain and cleanest image but need more light, while faster films (high ISO) allow shooting in low light but show more grain. Film also comes in formats (35mm, medium format, large format), with larger formats giving greater detail and tonal quality at the cost of bulk and expense. Choosing the film is part of the analogue photographer's craft.

The darkroom is where analogue images are finished, and it is a genuinely creative space, not mere developing. To make a print, the negative is placed in an enlarger, which projects its image onto light-sensitive photographic paper; the paper is exposed and then developed, stopped and fixed in chemical baths, producing a positive print. Within this process the photographer has real control: the exposure time and the paper's contrast grade set the overall look, and techniques such as dodging (holding back light from an area to lighten it) and burning (adding light to darken an area) allow local adjustment of the print's tones. The photographer Ansel Adams famously elevated this printing craft to an art.

Working in analogue has distinctive qualities that shape how you photograph. Because film and printing cost money and take time, and because you cannot see the result instantly, analogue tends to make photographers slower, more considered and more deliberate - you think before you press the shutter. The chemical print has a particular tonal quality and physical presence, and the hands-on darkroom process gives a tactile engagement with the medium that many find valuable. For a student, even a limited experience of shooting and printing film deepens understanding of exposure, tone and the physical nature of the photographic image.

Analogue also connects you to the history and tradition of the medium (explored in the contextual topic), since for its first century and a half photography WAS analogue. The great photographers of that period - from the documentary of the 1930s to the landscapes of the mid-twentieth century - worked in film and the darkroom, and understanding their medium helps you understand their work. Whether or not you make analogue a major part of your own practice, being aware of it, as the specification requires, is part of understanding photography as a whole.

Worked example

How film speed changes an analogue image

A student must choose between ISO 100 and ISO 1600 black-and-white film for a dim indoor gig and for a bright still life. Advise.

Recall what film speed does
Low ISO (100) is less sensitive - fine grain, clean tones, but needs plenty of light; high ISO (1600) is more sensitive - works in low light but shows coarse grain.
The dim gig
The dark venue has little light, so ISO 1600 lets you shoot hand-held at a usable shutter speed; the grain suits the raw, energetic subject and becomes an expressive quality.
The bright still life
The still life is well lit and static, so ISO 100 gives the cleanest, most detailed, finest-grained image - ideal for a considered, sharp result.
Note it as a creative choice
Film speed is not just technical: grain can be a fault to avoid (the still life) or an expressive texture to embrace (the gig) - the choice serves the intention.

Result: ISO 1600 suits the dim, energetic gig (light and expressive grain); ISO 100 suits the bright, considered still life (clean detail) - film speed selected for both light and effect.

Typical mistakes

Confusing the negative (reversed tones on the film) with the final print (the positive image).
Thinking developing and printing are purely mechanical rather than a creative process with real tonal control.

Active revision

Draw and label the analogue process as a flow: expose film to latent image, develop to negative, enlarge and expose paper, develop to print - and note where dodging and burning fit.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications (Ofqual)

Digital photography#

StandardAQA 7206 Photography (digital techniques)Ofqual GCE Art and Design subject content

The digital photographic process

Fig. 2The digital process: light on the sensor becomes a file (ideally RAW), which editing software adjusts - the modern equivalent of the darkroom - toward the final image.

Digital photography records the image electronically rather than chemically. In a digital camera (or a phone), light passing through the lens falls on an electronic sensor - a grid of millions of light-sensitive elements (pixels) - which converts the light into a digital signal, stored as an image file on a memory card. The resolution (how many megapixels) describes how many pixels the sensor records, and thus how much detail. The great practical difference from film is immediacy: you can see the image at once on the screen, review and re-shoot, and store, copy and process the file freely. This immediacy makes digital forgiving and fast to learn, and it dominates contemporary photography.

A key digital choice is the file format, especially RAW versus JPEG. A JPEG is a processed, compressed file - convenient and small, but with much of the original image information already 'baked in' and discarded. A RAW file records all the data the sensor captured, unprocessed, giving far more latitude to adjust exposure, colour and tone afterwards without loss of quality. For serious work, shooting RAW is generally preferred because it preserves the most information for editing - it is the digital equivalent of keeping the full negative rather than a fixed print. Understanding this choice is part of controlling the digital medium.

Digital editing software is the second half of the medium, and it is the modern equivalent of the darkroom. Programs such as Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop let you adjust exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows, colour and white balance, and tone; crop and straighten; convert to black-and-white; and remove blemishes - all non-destructively on a RAW file. Beyond these adjustments, software allows more radical work: montage (combining images), compositing (blending elements), and manipulation of every kind. The same creative controls the darkroom offered (and many it never could) are available digitally, which is why editing is a genuine, creative part of digital photographic practice.

Because digital capture and editing are so powerful and immediate, they bring both opportunities and temptations. The opportunity is vast, precise, low-cost control and the ability to explore and refine freely (excellent for AO2). The temptation is to shoot carelessly (relying on fixing it later), to hoard thousands of unlooked-at frames (weak editing, weak AO4), and to over-manipulate (slick effects that serve no purpose). Used well, digital tools serve a vision - you still compose, expose and light deliberately, and edit toward an intention; the software refines and realises, it does not replace, photographic thinking.

Digital also raises the question of honesty in manipulation, which matters especially in documentary and photojournalism. Because a digital image can be altered undetectably, the ethics of what you change - and whether you disclose it - become real. In expressive and experimental work, manipulation is a legitimate creative tool; in work that claims to record reality, it must be handled with integrity. For your own practice, use digital's power deliberately and honestly: it is an extraordinary creative medium when it serves your intention, and a superficial one when it does not.

Worked example

Why shoot RAW for an editing-heavy project

A student shooting a high-contrast sunset intends to bring out both the bright sky and the dark foreground in editing. RAW or JPEG?

State the editing intention
They plan significant tonal adjustment - recovering detail in the bright highlights and lifting the dark shadows - which demands maximum image information.
Recall the format difference
A JPEG has already discarded much highlight and shadow information; a RAW file keeps all the sensor captured, so far more can be recovered without quality loss.
Choose RAW
Shooting RAW lets them pull back highlight detail in the sky and open up the shadow foreground in editing, achieving a balanced image a JPEG could not support.
Note the discipline
RAW's latitude is not an excuse for sloppy exposure - a well-exposed RAW gives the best result - but it is the right choice whenever heavy editing is intended.

Result: RAW is chosen because the heavy tonal editing needs the full image information film-like negative preserves - the format matched to the process.

Typical mistakes

Shooting carelessly and relying on 'fixing it in editing', rather than composing, exposing and lighting deliberately.
Over-manipulating with slick effects that serve no intention, or ignoring the honesty question in documentary work.

Active revision

Shoot one subject in RAW, then process it two ways in editing software (for example a natural version and a high-contrast black-and-white version); note how much latitude the RAW file gave you and how the treatments change the meaning.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Art and Design (7201-7206) specification (AQA)

Analogue versus digital: two workflows#

StandardAQA 7206 Photography (both technologies)Ofqual GCE Art and Design subject content

Analogue and digital workflows

Fig. 3Analogue and digital share the whole capture core - camera, exposure, composition, light - and differ in how the image is recorded and processed afterwards.

The specification asks for awareness of both analogue and digital technologies, and the most useful way to hold them together is to see them as two workflows that share a common core. Both capture light through a lens using the same camera controls - aperture, shutter speed, ISO - and both rely on the same fundamentals of exposure, composition and light. Everything up to the moment of capture is essentially the same discipline. What differs is the medium the image is recorded on (chemical film versus electronic sensor) and how it is then processed (the wet darkroom versus the computer).

Their shared core is worth stressing because it means the core skills of photography transfer completely between the two. Learning to expose correctly, to control depth of field with aperture, to render motion with shutter speed, and to compose and use light are identical whether you shoot film or digital. A student who understands the exposure triangle on a digital camera already understands it on a film camera. This is why the camera and composition topics apply to both media, and why 'analogue versus digital' is really a question of the recording and processing stages, not the photographic fundamentals.

Where they genuinely differ, the differences are instructive. Analogue: a physical negative, a chemical wet-process darkroom, delayed results, real cost and deliberation per frame, a distinctive tonal and tactile quality, and a strong link to the medium's history. Digital: an electronic file, computer editing, instant review, effectively free frames and rapid iteration, vast and precise editing control including radical manipulation, and easy storage and sharing. Each shapes how you work: analogue tends to slow and concentrate you; digital tends to free and accelerate you. Neither is better; they suit different intentions and temperaments.

Crucially, the darkroom and digital editing are the same creative stage done two ways. Both take a captured image and finish it - controlling tone, contrast and local lightness, and cropping. Dodging and burning in the darkroom correspond directly to the dodge and burn (and exposure, contrast and local adjustment) tools in editing software; the darkroom's contrast grades correspond to a contrast slider. Recognising this correspondence demystifies both: digital editing is not a betrayal of 'real' photography but the modern form of the finishing craft photographers have always practised, and understanding the darkroom deepens your understanding of what editing is doing.

For your practice, the takeaway is that you should understand both, work fluently in at least one (usually digital), and choose the medium that suits your intention and available resources. Many students shoot mostly digital but explore some film or camera-less process to broaden their AO2 and deepen their understanding. When you write about your work or others', you can discuss the medium as a meaningful choice - the tactile grain of film versus the clean control of digital - rather than treating the technology as neutral. Awareness of both, as the specification requires, makes you a more complete photographer.

Worked example

Deciding between film and digital for a project

A student's project is a slow, contemplative study of a landscape across the seasons. Which workflow, and why?

Read the intention
The project is slow, contemplative and considered - about deliberate observation over time, not rapid capture.
Weigh analogue
Film's cost-per-frame and delayed feedback enforce exactly the slow, deliberate shooting the project wants, and its tonal quality suits a contemplative landscape.
Weigh digital
Digital's speed and iteration are less aligned with the intention, though its editing control and low cost across many seasons are practical advantages.
Decide and justify
Either is defensible, but the intention leans toward analogue for its deliberation and tonal quality - a medium chosen to reinforce the way of working, not just to record.

Result: The medium is chosen to suit the intention: film's slowness and tonal quality reinforce a contemplative landscape project - showing awareness of both technologies used as a meaningful choice.

Typical mistakes

Thinking analogue and digital are wholly different disciplines rather than two workflows sharing the same photographic core.
Treating digital editing as 'cheating' rather than the modern form of the finishing craft the darkroom always performed.

Active revision

Make a two-column comparison of analogue and digital: what they share (the capture core) and where they differ (recording, processing, feedback, cost, quality). Then note which suits a project you are planning, and why.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications (Ofqual)

Selecting media and experimenting#

AdvancedAQA 7206 Photography (selecting and experimenting, AO2)Ofqual GCE Art and Design subject content

An experimental sample workflow

Fig. 4Purposeful experimentation: from an idea, produce a spread of variations, review them, select the appropriate approach and refine it - the evidenced AO2 rhythm of explore then refine.

Knowing the range of media is only useful if you select from it purposefully and experiment within it - which is exactly what AO2 rewards. Selecting media means choosing the medium, techniques and processes that best serve your intention: film or digital, colour or black-and-white, a particular lens and light, a darkroom or digital treatment, or a camera-less or experimental process. The choice should follow from what the work is about and the effect you want, not from habit or default. A considered photographer can justify why a given image was made in a given medium and process.

Experimentation is the active, evidenced exploration that AO2 demands. Rather than settling immediately on one approach, a strong photographer tries alternatives and tests them: shooting the same subject with different techniques, processing an image several ways, trying an unfamiliar process, deliberately breaking a rule to see what happens. The evidence of this experimentation - the sample sheets, the variant edits, the tests, the annotated comparisons - is precisely what shows AO2. Experimentation is not aimless; it is a purposeful search for the media and techniques that will realise the intention, and it often turns up unexpected directions worth pursuing.

A productive way to experiment is the sample or test sheet: take one subject or idea and produce a spread of variations, systematically changing one thing at a time (the light, the aperture, the treatment, the process), then review them together and select the strongest to develop. This makes your exploration legible and your selection informed, and it directly evidences the 'explore and refine' of AO2. Experimenting broadly early in a project, then narrowing to refine the chosen approach, is the natural rhythm - divergence then convergence - and it produces both the evidence and the quality the objective rewards.

Experimentation should also reach beyond the obvious. Trying at least some processes outside your comfort zone - a camera-less photogram, a cyanotype, a long exposure, a multiple exposure, a montage, an alternative or hand-finished process - broadens your understanding and your AO2, and can give your work a distinctive quality. Even if you return to a more conventional medium for your final response, the experiments demonstrate range and often feed ideas back into the main work. The experimental-imagery topic explores these process-led approaches in depth; here the point is that experimentation across media is a core AO2 habit for any project.

Finally, selecting and experimenting must connect to the whole enquiry. The media you explore should be driven by your research (AO1) and your recording (AO3), and should aim at your response (AO4): you experiment to find how best to say what you mean. Keep the experiments purposeful and evidenced, review them honestly, select the appropriate techniques, and refine them - and your AO2 will be strong, your work will be richer, and your final response will rest on genuine exploration rather than the first thing you tried. Purposeful experimentation is the engine of a developing photographic project.

Worked example

Turning a single idea into evidenced AO2 experimentation

A student's idea is 'reflections in the city'. Show how to explore it as evidenced AO2.

Diverge across techniques
Shoot reflections in windows, puddles and metal, at different times of day, with different apertures (sharp vs shallow) and both in colour and black-and-white - a broad spread.
Try a process experiment
Also try a deliberate experiment - a double exposure overlaying a reflection and its source, or a montage - to test a process-led direction.
Review and annotate
Lay the variations out together and annotate what each does, noting which best capture the disorienting doubling the student finds interesting.
Select and refine
Select the double-exposure direction as most promising, then refine it through repeated attempts into a small resolved set - evidencing explore-then-refine.

Result: The single idea becomes a broad, evidenced exploration narrowed to a refined direction - purposeful experimentation that shows AO2 and turns up a distinctive approach.

Typical mistakes

Settling on the first approach without experimenting, so no exploration is evidenced for AO2.
Experimenting aimlessly without connecting it to the intention, or without keeping the evidence and selecting from it.

Active revision

Make a sample sheet for one idea: produce eight variations changing one variable at a time (light, aperture, treatment, process), lay them out, annotate what each does, and mark the two you would refine.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Art and Design (7201-7206) specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Art and Design (7201-7206) specification

Ofqual

Ofqual - GCE AS and A level qualifications

Photographic media, techniques and processes

5 sections~23 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

Photographic media, techniques and processes

Key points

Choosing medium, technique and process for one idea

Key points

How film speed changes an analogue image

Key points

Why shoot RAW for an editing-heavy project

Key points

Deciding between film and digital for a project

Key points

Turning a single idea into evidenced AO2 experimentation

Sources

Photographic media, techniques and processes

Key points

Choosing medium, technique and process for one idea

Key points

How film speed changes an analogue image

Key points

Why shoot RAW for an editing-heavy project

Key points

Deciding between film and digital for a project

Key points

Turning a single idea into evidenced AO2 experimentation

Sources