Typology and collections in photography
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- Start Date: 29 Sep 2025End Date: 20 Oct 2025Mon (Daytime): 10:00 - 13:00In PersonFull fee £209.00 Senior fee £167.00 Concession £136.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This course will enhance your ability to identify patterns, make strong visual selections and develop a creative photographic project. Focusing on the concept of Typology—grouping images based on shared characteristics, you will explore how visual patterns, themes, and storytelling can enhance your photographic practice. Through guided photo walks in Covent Garden and Holborn, you will collect images that fit within chosen themes, such as abstraction, found objects, or environmental similarities. The course also includes an introduction to Adobe Photoshop and Bridge, where you will learn how to refine your selections, enhance your images, and organize them into a cohesive Typology series. This course encourages personal exploration while strengthening composition, editing, and selection techniques. You will complete a structured typology series, exploring a chosen theme, presented as a digital or printed collection. Various thematic approaches will be explored, including storytelling, abstraction, and environmental collections.
The studio is fully wheelchair accessible. Part of this course is offsite. You will need to be able to ‘walk/travel’ approx 2km. You will need warm/waterproof clothing as you will be outside for several hours.
What will we cover?
- Revision of manual functions of the camera.
- Exploring themes and different styles of photographs.
- An introduction to Typology in photography – understanding its history and artistic significance.
- Guided photo walks in Covent Garden and Holborn to capture images for a Typology series.
- Introduction to Adobe Photoshop and Bridge for image editing, organisation, and presentation.
- Techniques for refining image selection and creating visual consistency within a series.
- Developing a personal Typology project based on individual interests.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Understand and apply the concept of Typology in photography by identifying and grouping images based on shared characteristics.
- Use Adobe Photoshop and Bridge to edit, refine, and organize images for a cohesive Typology series.
- Create and present a final Typology series that demonstrates visual consistency, narrative structure, or abstract patterns.
- Have greater confidence in refining and presenting a photographic project.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is designed for intermediate-level photographers who have a basic technical understanding of camera settings, including ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and white balance. It is ideal for those who have completed our 'Photography for Beginners' course, but you can also join if you are confident in adjusting these settings manually on a digital SLR or mirrorless. A camera with manual controls is essential, the course focuses on creative decision-making and refining selection skills rather than technical fundamentals. No prior experience with Adobe Photoshop or Bridge is required, as an introduction to both programs will be included.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will also have access to Google classroom as our designated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) where you will be able to access hand-outs, briefs and collaborate with peers outside of course hours.
Google classroom login help
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please bring your camera (if you have one) to the classes and you may wish to bring a notebook and pen. The City Lit has a range of Digital SLR and mirrorless cameras (Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Sony), tripods, lenses and flash which you are welcome to use during the hours of the class. It would be useful to bring a memory stick (or portable hard drive – please note: PC formatted hard drives can be read by Apple mac computers but not written to.) We advise all students to have a notebook (A5) to support the recording of information and ideas.
Whilst not necessary for this course, when you enrol on a course at the City Lit, you are entitled to student discount on Adobe Creative Cloud. Please see the link below:
Please note:
- You will need to create an Adobe account using your City Lit email address which includes your student number. (This is in the format 123456@student.citylit.ac.uk)
- You can access your City Lit email through your supplied Office 365 account.
- When your course finishes and you no longer have access to your student email, the software will continue to function on the installed machine for the remainder of the annual subscription.
- At renewal, you will need to create another Adobe account using your personal email.
- The Adobe account is not accessible to City Lit and technical support is extremely limited as a result.
- It is recommended that you do not use the online storage available on Adobe accounts as access to your work is subject to the continuation of your subscription.
- Adobe sales can be contacted on 0800-028-0148.
Adobe Creative Cloud for Students
Adobe Creative Cloud for Students - system requirements
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
City Lit has a wide range of practical and theoretical photography courses, please visit our website.
Sara Epstein – Photography Tutor Sara is a professional photographer with over 20 years of experience capturing stories through editorial, corporate, documentary, and wedding photography. Her work has been featured in The Sunday Times, Rough Guides, and various charity campaigns, where she specializes in creating authentic and compelling visual narratives. As a wedding photographer, Sara has developed a strong ability to capture natural, emotional moments while working in fast-paced and unpredictable environments. At City Lit, Sara teaches photography classes to students of all ages, often adults looking to explore their creativity. Her lessons provide a fun, engaging, and sociable way to learn, helping students build confidence while developing technical and artistic skills. Whether guiding students through the basics or supporting them as they refine their abilities, Sara believes in fostering a welcoming and inspiring learning environment. She studied at Manchester MET, gaining a BA (Hons) in Photography, and has taught photography for over a decade. Sara's goal is to make photography accessible, enjoyable, and creatively fulfillin
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.