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Year 10

Developing your photographic voice

I can understand what shapes a photographic voice and can experiments with photographic genres.

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New
New
Year 10

Developing your photographic voice

I can understand what shapes a photographic voice and can experiments with photographic genres.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Your photographic voice is the distinctive way you see and capture the world through images.
  2. A photographic voice is shaped by a mixture of things such as experimentation and internal and external influences.
  3. There are many aspects in photography to experiment with in order to find your photographic voice.

Keywords

  • Photographic voice - Refers to the unique expression, style, and perspective a photographer brings to their work

  • Distinctive - In photography means having a unique quality or characteristic that sets a photograph or photographer apart from others

  • Experimentation - In photography refers to trying out new ideas, techniques, materials, or styles to see what works and what feels right

Common misconception

A photographic voice stays the same for the whole of the photographer’s lifetime.

A photographic voice is not fixed. It can change, like we do.


To help you plan your year 10 art and design lesson on: Developing your photographic voice, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Support pupils with selecting and focusing on a particular aspect of their surroundings for the first task.
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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is the Rule of Thirds in photography?

A technique where the subject is always in the centre of the frame.
Correct answer: A compositional guideline that divides the image into nine equal parts.
A rule that states a photograph should have exactly three subjects.
A method for adjusting the brightness of an image.

Q2.
Which camera setting controls the amount of light entering the lens?

ISO
shutter speed
Correct answer: aperture
white balance

Q3.
What does ISO control in a photograph?

the sharpness of an image
Correct answer: the sensitivity of the camera sensor to light
the speed at which a photo is taken
the colour temperature of an image

Q4.
What is the effect of using a fast shutter speed?

blurs movement in the image
makes the image darker
Correct answer: freezes motion and captures sharp details
increases the exposure time

Q5.
Which of these is not a type of photographic genre?

portrait
documentary
Correct answer: cubism
landscape

Q6.
What is the purpose of white balance in photography?

to make all images black and white
Correct answer: to adjust the colours in an image so they look natural under different lighting
to add a vintage filter to the photo
to increase the brightness of an image