Oak Bay High School has a large custom built darkroom for the exploration of traditional photography methods. This course can be taken independently but is an excellent complement to Digital Photography. This is a comprehensive photography course for the beginner who wants to learn about traditional film photography as a skill and as an art form. It includes:

• Using photography as a means of expression, beyond the snapshot.
• Access to a large modern darkroom created in the new school specifically for this course.
• Development of Darkroom techniques, exploring and creating photographic artworks.
• The vocabulary of the “Elements and Principles” of design, learning to ‘see’ the visual world around them in terms of what creates “Visual Interest”.
• Using the equipment. Students may supply their own equipment, but the school has a wide variety of cameras, lenses, and accessories available for student use.
• Understanding how to manipulate illumination, ISO, shutter, aperture for practical and artistic effect.
• Students will to explore traditional photographic methods and be introduced to the history of photography
• Creative darkroom techniques such as: multiple exposure, dodging and burning, contrast filtering, selective development
• Post darkroom photo altering techniques such as toning and collaging of photos
• Portfolio development. Students will produce a visual portfolio suitable for university application or their resume