An award-winning portrait studio in Shipley has given Bradford College photography students a helping hand.

Venture Portraits, which is based on Windsor Court, has given £20,000 of photographic equipment to the college.

The move will allow students, which until now have had to fork out for their own processing to be done outside the college, to process in-house.

The firm has given equipment including print and film processing kit to help students with their studies and save them money.

Richard Mayfield, a senior photographer at Venture and graduate of Bradford College's photography degree course, said: "The processors are both professional models, which we used to produce all our work before we converted to digital. Our studio is among the most advanced in the country and we switched to digital some time ago so the equipment was no longer needed.

"We decided to donate it to Bradford College because we knew it would be a big help to students and we want to encourage creative young talent coming into the industry."

Collette Parker, a photography student at Bradford College, added: "Anything which helps reduce our costs is really welcomed by the students."

The firm has a number of award-winning photographers on its books. Early last year Venture photographers Matthew Imison and Nigel Lazaro scooped six awards in the British Institute of Professional Photography competition.

The firm, which runs its own training academy to find the next generation of photographers, also ran a competition last year to find the best young portrait photographer in the region.