Press photographers and photojournalists

Photographs submitted by NCTJ-trained photographer Leah McClaren in the portfolio section of the NCE for photographers.

The National Certificate Examination is held twice a year in May and November.  It is designed to examine all-round competence in a range of fundamental skills at a level appropriate to a photographer who has passed the NCTJ Certificate in Journalism qualification and completed the basic training, including completion of the logbook.

There are five parts to the exam: practical; portfolio; picture spread (advance project), video and logbook. 

Portfolio

This should be collected over the whole training period.  Ten pictures are required, all of which must be acceptable for publication.  At least five of the photographs must be from published assignments (either the published pictures or similar ones from the same assignment) and cuttings must be submitted.  At least 50 per cent of the images must be in colour.  Marking will take into account the journalistic aspect of the pictures; relevancy of the caption; technical and print quality; overall presentation; creative and innovative approach.

Categories are: news (2); sport (2); character study; presentation; exterior night; fashion; flash; and weather.

Advance Project

Candidates have four weeks to prepare a double-page spread or single page broadsheet on a given subject.  Press photographers must include not more than six pictures and 200 words to illustrate the theme. Photojournalists must include one or more pictures and a story of between 500-1000 words.

Practical Section

Models and props are supplied as required and candidates are asked to provide pictures from the following journalistic scenarios:

1. Action shot - brief caption required plus transmission of shot to given instructions;

2. Front page picture for supplement/magazine; and

3. Three inside pics (template provided) plus 100/150 word caption story. 

Download and selection: identify selected images and crop on screen; input captions; and save to file. 

Video

Candidates have four weeks to provide, on DVD, a video of between 60 and 90 seconds long, with impact, to illustrate a given theme, and to interpret the subject in as wide a sense as possible.

The submitted video package must have been shot entirely by the candidate but may be edited by a third party. It must be entirely self-contained including at least one interview with a subject where audio is recorded to a professional standard. It may contain voice-overs or licensed music. 

This assessment takes into account the variation in the style of video packages that occurs on various newspaper websites.

Logbook

Logbooks are an integral part of the NCE and carry the same 60 per cent pass rate as the other three sections.  Logbooks are only issued to trainees when they are registered for the NCE by their employer.

The logbook records details of the trainee and training progress, including evidence of regular in-house assessments and a selection of cuttings demonstrating that the trainee has satisfactorily covered a range of key tasks.

It must be available to the editor at all times. It is the joint responsibility of the editor and the trainee that it is kept up-to-date and submitted, fully completed, to the NCTJ for assessment when the trainee sits the NCE.

Guidelines on content, presentation and submission of logbooks are available from the Related Documents.

Marking procedure

The pass mark for each of the five sections is 60 per cent.

Re-sits are available twice a year on NCE exam days. Failed logbooks may be re-submitted at any time.

After each NCE the NCTJ publishes an examiner's report which includes advice for future candidates. Trainees are strongly urged to read it and note its recommendations.

To view award-winning photographs from the photography NCE 2009 click Download NCE for photographers slideshow

Related

Logbook guidelines for photographers (PDF, 51.86 Kb)

Replacement logbook pages (photographers) (PDF, 116.92 Kb)