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What is certification by THE PHOTO ACADEMY?

Recognition of
previous learnings
Since so many of you asked for it, we made your wish come true. From now on, the training courses you attend are considered milestones leading to a certification. This includes the ones you have already attended.
A valued education
The acquisition of a certification will be an opportunity to showcase your new skills, notably thanks to a certified document bearing a blockchain seal (generated by our partner Smart Certificate). You can then share it on Linkedin, for example.
Customized
programs
Each of the existing and upcoming certifications are designed with a specific photography skill in mind. Want to become proficient in urban or family portrait photography? Want to retouch your images efficiently? Our certifications will meet your expectation.

Explore new photography paths

What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Get out of the automatic mode in order to learn how to use your camera for creative purposes
  • Understand the workings of your camera, the lens, and the various shooting functions, and take pictures that fully meet your expectations
Discover the pack of courses Mastering your camera

Preliminary notes: the "Mastering Your Camera" certification is definitely the one to obtain first! It is also essential to get all other certifications except the "Creative Photography" certification
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Become a competent and inspired photographer when it comes to immortalizing a city
  • Have a good first base knowledge in night photography, architecture, and street photography
  • Know how to use the Lightroom software (Level 1: Organize and Select Your Images)
Discover the pack of courses Urban photographer

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Be able to immortalize the precious moments spent with your loved ones
  • Take a successful portrait in natural light
  • Master your smartphone as a camera
  • Master the Lightroom interface and be able ability to sort your images within the software
Discover the pack of courses Family photographer

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Be ready to make your first photo reportage
  • Master the technical aspects and fundamental notions of reportage
  • Master the Lightroom interface and be able ability to sort your images within the software
  • Be able to edit your images in Lightroom
Discover the pack of courses Photojournalist

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Master the fundamental rules of composition
  • Master the Lightroom interface and be able ability to sort your images within the software
  • Be able to edit your images in Lightroom
  • Master the Photoshop interface, understand how it works, and how to use its main features
Discover the pack of courses Master shooting and retouching

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Take a beautiful portrait, or photograph the other "on the run"
  • Get a good first base knowledge in street photography
  • Take successful portraits in natural light
Discover the pack of courses Photographing the other

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Get many skills in (almost) every aspect of photography from mastering your camera to retouching your images, and learning about the main photographic genres
  • Get a good first base knowledge in night photography, portraiture, composition/framing, monochrome photography
  • Master the Lightroom interface and be able ability to sort your images within the software
  • Be able to edit your images in Lightroom
Discover the pack of courses Technical and creative photography

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Become an experienced photographer with many skills in terms of technical ability, post-production of images (selection and retouching), as well as the dexterity of many photographic genres.
  • Get a good first base knowledge in night photography, portraiture, composition/framing, reportage, monochrome photography, street photography, architecture photography
  • Master the Lightroom interface and be able ability to sort your images within the software
  • Be able to edit your images in Lightroom
  • Master Photoshop interface, understanding how it works, and how to use its main features
  • Get a basic knowledge of the history of photography
  • Know how to select and to put into series your images
Discover the pack of courses Technical and creative photography: Master

Preliminary note: this certification requires the "Mastering your camera" certification beforehand.
What will you achieve with this specific certification?
  • Develop your own style to get off the beaten track of photographic aesthetics
  • Get a good first base knowledge in night photography, portraiture, composition/framing, monochrome photography, street photography, architecture photography
Discover the pack of courses Creative photography

Preliminary note: this certification doesn't require any other certification beforehand.

Explore new horizons

— Check certification progress —

What’s in it for you?

First of all, it makes it easier for you to track your own progress. Thus, making it easier for you to achieve your goals and focus on the photography topic or style you want to develop.

The most important aspect for us was to map as much as possible courses with one another to develop learning paths for your practice. In other words, to link the dots from the basics of camera settings to retouching with Lightroom. Choosing a learning paths helps you to identify the pack of courses that you need to follow.

Certifications are a way to validate your photography skills as soft skills on your personal resume. The Photo Academy ensures that you followed the courses within a given certification, gaining the required knowledge along the way. The certifications can be verified.

Our certification program will add technical expertise, and there are many options for specialized certifications to tailor to individual areas of interest.

Why did we develop a certification system?

Our thinking process started from an observation concerning certification and photography.

Is having a camera enough to be recognized as a photographer? What distinguishes a professional from an amateur photographer? Is it necessary to follow a photography school for several years to be professional? What about continuing education?

These are the questions that motivated us at THE PHOTO ACADEMY since the beginning of the project, as well as over the years after communicating with tens of thousands of yous.

There is a serious lack of an entity that validates photography skills. Far from wanting to replace photography schools, our ambition is to improve the system.

Like a TOEFL for learning English, we are not aware of any international institute that offers the equivalent in photography. THE PHOTO ACADEMY humbly proposes to start this work by awarding certificates following its courses.

THE PHOTO ACADEMY’s ambition is to propose the first international certification in photography. It is destined to develop into a more complete learning experience by diversifying the courses we offer, their duration, and their function.

Sounds interesting? Find out more about Certificates in our Help Center!

Certification FAQ

How are the certification valilated and secured?
The certification issued by THE PHOTO ACADEMY are forgery-proofed by using blockchain technology.
Once granted and displayed, the certification can be publicly verified.
Which courses to choose in order to complete a step towards the certification?
There are many ways to complete a step on a learning path. A step is nothing more or less than a sum of knowledge, and it is possible that more than one course will provide you with all of this knowledge.
A course gives you a certain number of credits out of the number needed to complete a step. Therefore, you can choose the course - or courses - that will allow you to obtain all the credits necessary to complete a step.
What is the certification at THE PHOTO ACADEMY?
The certificate - just like the attestation - does not confer any academic grade, but it certifies the completion of training sessions organized by THE PHOTO ACADEMY. We guarantee that we have passed on a precise level of knowledge to the student during these training sessions.
Courses taken in schools other than THE PHOTO ACADEMY and certification
Can courses taken in other photography institutions be recognized in order to obtain a THE PHOTO ACADEMY certification?
Contact us at [email protected], and tell us about your background - every case is different.
We have options for validating prior learning - e.g., an interview with an instructor - that will allow us to gauge each person's knowledge.
What is a credit?
THE PHOTO ACADEMY has implemented a credit system as the basis of its certification system. Each course will be able to award a certain number of credits on one or more learning paths.
Once enough credits are obtained, the learning path is validated.
What are the certifications, the learning paths and the steps towards the certification?
  • A certification is awarded once a learning path has been completed, i.e. once all the knowledge that constitutes it has been transmitted to the learner.
  • A learning path is made up of several pedagogical stages, each of which is well defined around a knowledge base.
  • In short, all the stages of a learning path must be completed to obtain the corresponding certification.

    • See also: What is a credit?