You don’t need to know anything
It may be useful to know abit about photography (exposure triangle and possibly composition), which might save you some time and money on wasted endeavours - But you don’t need to know anything at all!
In my class, there were 2 design students, 2 interior architecture students, 1 landscape architecture student, 1 computational design and I was the only student in engineering. Most had some sort of experience with either a DSLR or even owned a film camera - however a few of them had never touched a camera before - and that fine!
You’ll learn what you need to know on the way
You’ll need to buy things
Despite the course being AU$850, you’ll need to purchase some supplies
Resin Coated (RC) Paper
The Art Scene store on campus sells the Ilford Multigrade IV RC Deluxe Pearl 30 (2 5+ 5 bonus) for $50 - making it $1.667/pc.
I personally bought the Satin finish (25 pack) from DigiDirect for $41.85, making it $1.674/pc - so it’s probably more worthwhile to get it from the campus store.
EDIT: At the time of writing, DigiDirect has it listed for $38.25 - $1.53/pc.
I think for the course you should buy at least 50 sheets worth of RC paper.
A 25 (or even 30) pack might last you if you conserve your paper and don’t make too many mistakes, but if you end up having to purchase another, it won’t be as cheap as buying a 50 pack from the beginning.
Before the course starts, you should figure out who else is taking the course, and perhaps buy a large pack and split the costs between each other!
Film Rolls
The Art Scene store on campus does not sell this!
You’ll get one free roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 135/24 film during the 35mm film camera workshop, but you’ll need to purchase your own (or similar) yourself.
Teds Camera sells this for around $12.50 for a roll of 24 exposures
Negative Sleeves
The Art Scene store on campus does not sell this!
Buy these online! I bought a pack of 25 sheets from Ted’s Cameras for $24.95, making each sheet roughly $1/pc. Realistically it just looks like an A4 sleeve that has had an iron used to create pockets inside it…
Note: The ones I bought from Teds Camera were glassine material, rather than just plastic coated.
You’ll get a free sheet
It takes time
Developing photograms in the dark room takes time - around 20 minutes per print. Safe to say, I never followed the correct timings for any of my prints; except for the final pieces.
Developing a role of film takes around an entire hour 😒.
Honestly I would just cop a $7.50 processing fee from a camera store.
Rewind Photo Lab even gives you a free negative sleeve (Save $1!!!); and you’ll have the surety that it will be developed correct
But it also takes time to plan what you want to take photos of, as well as to actually go out and take them
Make use of the 4D Hub / Resource Centre
Apart from the essential things you need to borrow, you can also borrow other sorts of gear! For example I borrowed a light meter and a film camera shutter release cable!
I kind of also wanted to borrow a Zoom recorder - completely unrelated to this course… but I refrained :p
Digitise Your Work
A photographic fixer is a chemical solution to increase the longevity of your print, as over time the image will fade and disappear. I would recommend scanning your prints (or even just taking a photo) so that you can permanently keep your images forever!
Be creative!
Make the most out of this course, especially given that you’ll probably never step into a darkroom or film processing facility again!
At the end of the course, use up your remaining paper to make cool things, or to enlarge some photos that you might have :)