The history, development, products, and impact of image-making are well-represented in literature. The literature looks extensively at the technological developments and advancements in the field and how photography has contributed to our understanding of historical, political and social tensions. However, the training and preparation of photographers has received less attention in the literature, particularly in photography education in resource-constrained contexts. This paper seeks to present mushfaking as a conceptual framework that addresses the multi-literacies required in photography education. This approach uses inexpensive solutions to aid digital photography's teaching and learning process. Mushfaking is offered as a learning design tool for practice-based teaching and learning. The paper aims to offer a new dimension on how mushfaking can be used as a learning design principle to show how this concept could bring theory and praxis together, facilitating the design of context-based solutions to educational problems.