Will the type of camera I use affect my chances of being accepted to a college?

Right now (I'm currently a junior in high school), I use a point & shoot camera because I can't afford a DSLR (saving up for one, though!). I'm not sure yet, but I'm thinking of going to some kind of art school for either photography or graphic design after high school. If I do choose one of those majors, I'll obviously need to put together a portfolio. My question is: Will the fact that I use a point & shoot, rather than an SLR or DSLR, affect my chances of being accepted? Will the college want to know what kind of camera I use? Does a point & shoot look "bad," so to speak?




Thanks in advance! =)

I suppose it should be worded... My questions are... instead of My question is...
Just in case anyone cares. =)

Not to toot my own horn, but I got into several art colleges (Brooks, Ringling, Pratt, SCAD, RISD) and my portfolio was a mixture of photos I took with my disposable camera and photos I took when my friends let me borrow their digital point & shoot cameras.

If you can take great photos with a regular camera, that speaks volumes about your talent. Don't worry about it.

By the way - when you're applying, pay special attention to their programs. There are certain schools who, for the first two years, teach only photo theory. I was glad that I found this out before it was too late. (I almost WENT to one of those schools.) Essentially this means that you will only touch equipment in your junior year. (Not a lot of fun.)

If you have any questions, please email me! I'm always happy to help.

It's about the way your portfolio looks, not the camera that matters. That said, you will obviously have more control with a DSLR or the few point & shoot models that have good controls (shutter/aperture priority.)

no

No

You're kidding, right?

No. No one cares what brand / type / price of the camera. They would like to see your beautiful photos. There is no need to flaunt your Nikon D30000 or Canon D99 or Leica M9 or anything like that--just show us your beautiful photos.

If you forget using a digital camera and buy a good used 35mm SLR, you can start shooting right away and start developing your skills using an adjustable camera.

Most schools require a photographic student to start learning photography first before moving into the realm of digital imagery.

The school I went to required us to use a 4x5 view camera for the first year.

The community colleges in the Phoenix area require two classes in traditional photography, learning how to compose, expose, develop and print their film. The techniques learned are directly applicable to digital imagery and the discipline of being responsible for learning how to expose, developing film properly and printing near perfect images can only enhance digital images.

Your acceptance into a school (photo or otherwise) has more to do with your GPA and other performance factors you established while in junior high and high school

This should encourage you : http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamer...

If your camera introduces elements into your pictures that would be considered poor technique, it might well have an influence.

For example, distortion, field curvature, excessive noise, chromatic aberration and purple fringing are things you should not have in portfolio images.

However if your pictures don't suffer from any of those ailments I'm sure the college won't be bothered by what camera you used.

Be aware that you'll likely be required to purchase an SLR or DSLR for your course. If you can swing it, get one now and get used to using it.

HTH
V2K1

One of the biggest misconceptions about photography is that you need an SLR to be a photographer or to take good pictures. This is not true.

Sure, there are some differences in quality between a cheap point and shoot and a nice SLR, but don't dwell on that. The strong point about SLRs is the flexibility of them. You can go from extremely wide angle to telephoto, apply filters, buy fast or slow lenses, manually set aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. This allows you to be much more creative with the photos.

The most important thing is that you learn, before you go to college, the technical basics and have a camera that will let you experiment with them. There is a lot more to taking pictures than where you point the camera. If you camera doesn't allow you to manual change settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) you need a new camera. It doesn't have to be an SLR, though.

Someone looking at your portfolio is going to pay a lot more attention to your use of depth of field, for instance, and your composition than they are the quality of the camera used.

Moral of the story is: learn to be a good photographer. It will show, no matter what camera you use.

If you want some advice on your photography, what camera to look at, or anything else that you doesn't warrant an official question on here, e-mail me through my profile.

Hope this helps!

it shouldn't

You are going to college to study art, not to be the resident artist. I don't think you will need a portfolio before you get there, you will be developing one while you are there.

I would also recommend that you get a pretty nice manual 35mm camera - one that does not make up its mind for you - and a few lenses and start taking pictures from the ground up.

no ma'am. cause "its not the camera, its the person behind the camera"