Photography Facilities
Introduction
At Swansea College of Art, Photography students work across industry-standard digital tools and traditional processes. You’ll work across shared workshops supported by expert staff within a close creative community.
Workshop & Facilities
Photography Studio
Our photography studios provide flexible, professional spaces for image-making across a range of practices. Equipped with Profoto D2 lighting on a high-glide system, alongside continuous Godox and LED lighting. With a range of modifiers and Capture One tethering available, the studios support both controlled and experimental approaches to image-making.
Seminar & Crit Spaces
Our teaching spaces are designed to support discussion, critique, and the development of ideas within a studio-based environment. Large tables allow for group teaching, peer review, and the presentation of work in progress, encouraging dialogue around process and intention. Wall display areas enable you to test sequencing, scale, and relationships between images, while screens support digital presentations and contextual research. The space reflects an emphasis on critical engagement, where making and thinking operate in parallel.
Digital Printing
Our digital print facilities include Epson SureColor P9500 and P3500 printers, enabling high-quality output from A2 printers through to large-scale banner production. These facilities support the production of exhibition-ready work.
Analogue Darkroom
Our analogue darkroom provides the space to develop and print photographic work using traditional techniques. This environment supports a hands-on engagement with material processes and the craft of image-making.
Analogue to Digital Workflow
We support a seamless analogue-to-digital workflow, allowing you to move between film-based processes and digital production. High-resolution scanning and digital editing tools enable you to refine and develop work across formats.
Black and White Film Processing
Dedicated facilities for black and white film processing allow you to develop your own negatives and prints. This supports a deeper understanding of exposure, contrast, and tonal control.
Colour Processing
Our colour processing facilities enable you to work with colour film, expanding your technical skillset and understanding of photographic materials within analogue practice.
Mounting Facilities
Our mounting facilities allow you to professionally present your work for exhibition. You’ll have access to equipment and guidance to produce clean, resolved outcomes.
Open Access Workshop Space
Our open-access workshop provides space for binding, frame making, and hands-on production. This encourages experimentation with form, material, and presentation as part of your photographic practice.
Photography Stores
Our photography store houses a wide selection of industry-standard analogue and digital cameras, lenses, and portable lighting kits. You’ll be able to access professional equipment to support projects at all stages, with the flexibility to work both in the studio and on location.
Exhibition Space
Stiwdio Griffith is our dedicated gallery space, providing opportunities to exhibit work in a professional context. You will develop an understanding of installation, audience engagement, and curatorial practice through exhibiting your work within this space.
Mac Suite
Our Mac suites are equipped with Apple computers and have access to the full Adobe suite. You’ll have flexibility to work independently, supported by technical staff when needed.
RISO
RISO printing offers a distinctive, experimental approach to image-making and publishing. Where you can produce bold, layered prints while developing technical understanding, with guidance from specialist staff throughout your projects.
Letterpress
Our letterpress workshop allows you to explore traditional typographic processes using physical type and presses. You’ll explore physical making processes, supported by technicians who guide experimentation and craft-based outcomes.
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- Professional black and white darkroom with 18 enlargers with lenses for 35mm, medium and large format printing
- Fully equipped black and white processing room, with loading booths, developing tanks, regularly refreshed chemicals, film & tank drying cabinets, film viewing lightbox
- C41 colour film processing room, with deep-tank processor, film drying cabinets and viewing lightbox
- Black and white print drying rooms with lines, racks and heat press
- Focus finders, multi-grade filters, spotting kit
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- 16 Apple iMac workstations
- 8 specialist Eizo monitors, fully colour-calibrated for professional printing
- Industry standard software: Adobe Creative Cloud (including Photoshop), Flexi Colour, Lightroom
- 2 x Hasselblad Flextight film scanners
- Epson flatbed scanners
- Professional proofing laserjet printers
- 2 x Epson 4880 inkjet printers for roll and single sheet A4, A3, A3+, A2
- Large format Epson 9800 (44” roll) inkjet printer for large exhibition work
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- Large scale studio which can be booked whole or divided into two working studio spaces
- Pantograph Hi-Glide lighting system
- Digital flash and tungsten lighting heads
- Lighting control - soft boxes, umbrellas, snoots, reflectors, gels
- Light meters, triggers
- Colorama backdrops - grey/black/white
- Still life infinity curve
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Equipment available for loan
- Lumix GH4s
- Cannon EOS 5D MKIIs & MKIIIs
- Canon Digital Lenses – 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm Macro, 24-105mm, 70-200mm, 75-300mm Zoom)
- Hasselblad H3 D Medium Formats
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Equipment available for loan
- Hasselblads (6x6)
- Mamiya RZs (6x7)
- Mamiya 645s (6x4.5)
- Fuji GW670s (6x7 Rangefinders)
- Mamiya 7s (6x7 Rangefinders)
- Large Format Field Cameras (5x4 inch)
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Equipment available for loan
- Canon Speedlight and Metz Flashguns
- Portable Lighting Kits with battery packs
- Light meters & Flash meters
- Tripods
- Zoom H4 Pro Audio Recorders
- Data Projectors & Media Players
- DSLR Steady Cam Rigs
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- 3 Large Photography Crit Rooms for lectures, screenings, seminars and critiques
- Project Space – bookable experimental studio space
- Student Base Room with sofas, iMacs, sink, boiling water tank for tea & coffee, lockers
- Archive Room for storage of exhibition work
- Staff Office in teaching area with open-door policy
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We believe that it’s essential for your work to have a professional finish, and to this end, practical projects are supported by workshops. Having access to additional practical knowledge ensures that you can use the University’s excellent facilities with confidence, make informed choices about method and equipment, and ultimately produce work to an exceptional standard.
Workshops cover:
- Historical print methods
- Fibre-based black & white printing
- The use of various camera formats from medium format roll-film and 5 x 4 film, to digital (including medium format)
- Digital workflow and printing
- Video shooting and editing
- Exhibition installation and projection
- Studio and location lighting
Gallery
