How to become Photographer in 2024

Photographer Photograph people, landscapes, merchandise, or other subjects. May use lighting equipment to enhance a subject's appearance. May use editing software to produce finished images and prints. Includes commercial and industrial photographers, scientific photographers, and photojournalists.

Photographer is Also Know as

In different settings, Photographer is titled as

  • Advertising Photographer
  • Commercial Photographer
  • Graduation Photographer
  • Newspaper Photographer
  • Photo Editor
  • Photographer
  • Photojournalist
  • Portrait Photographer
  • Sports Photographer
  • Studio Photographer

Education and Training of Photographer

Photographer is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Photographer

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Photographer

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Photographer

Training Required for Photographer

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Photographer in different industries are

What Do Photographer do?

  • Take pictures of individuals, families, and small groups, either in studio or on location.
  • Adjust apertures, shutter speeds, and camera focus according to a combination of factors, such as lighting, field depth, subject motion, film type, and film speed.
  • Use traditional or digital cameras, along with a variety of equipment, such as tripods, filters, and flash attachments.
  • Create artificial light, using flashes and reflectors.
  • Determine desired images and picture composition, selecting and adjusting subjects, equipment, and lighting to achieve desired effects.
  • Test equipment prior to use to ensure that it is in good working order.
  • Review sets of photographs to select the best work.
  • Estimate or measure light levels, distances, and numbers of exposures needed, using measuring devices and formulas.
  • Manipulate and enhance scanned or digital images to create desired effects, using computers and specialized software.
  • Perform maintenance tasks necessary to keep equipment working properly.
  • Perform general office duties, such as scheduling appointments, keeping books, and ordering supplies.
  • Determine project goals, locations, and equipment needs by studying assignments and consulting with clients or advertising staff.
  • Select and assemble equipment and required background properties, according to subjects, materials, and conditions.
  • Enhance, retouch, and resize photographs and negatives, using airbrushing and other techniques.
  • Set up, mount, or install photographic equipment and cameras.
  • Produce computer-readable, digital images from film, using flatbed scanners and photofinishing laboratories.
  • Direct activities of workers setting up photographic equipment.
  • Employ a variety of specialized photographic materials and techniques, including infrared and ultraviolet films, macro photography, photogrammetry and sensitometry.
  • Engage in research to develop new photographic procedures and materials.
  • Set up photographic exhibitions for the purpose of displaying and selling work.
  • Load and unload film.
  • Develop visual aids and charts for use in lectures or to present evidence in court.
  • License the use of photographs through stock photo agencies.
  • Mount, frame, laminate, or lacquer finished photographs.
  • Photograph legal evidence at crime scenes, in hospitals, or in forensic laboratories.
  • Transfer photographs to computers for editing, archiving, and electronic transmission.
  • Develop and print exposed film, using chemicals, touch-up tools, and developing and printing equipment.
  • Write photograph captions.
  • Send film to photofinishing laboratories for processing.

Qualities of Good Photographer

  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Photographer

  • Board reflectors
  • Bubble machines
  • Camera cleaning brushes
  • Camera flash attachments
  • Camera positioning tripods
  • Computer inkjet printers
  • Computer laser printers
  • Contact print frames
  • Darkroom thermometers
  • Darkroom timers
  • Digital pens
  • Digital photo printers
  • Digital still cameras
  • Dimmers
  • Dye sublimation printers
  • Electric print dryers
  • Film cameras
  • Film drying cabinets
  • Film scanners
  • Flash memory data storage devices
  • Flatbed scanners
  • Focus assists
  • Fog machines
  • Force film washers
  • Global positioning system GPS devices
  • Graduated neutral density GND filters
  • Graphics tablets
  • Haze filters
  • Image enlargers
  • Incident light meters
  • Label printers
  • Lamp reflectors
  • Laptop computers
  • Large format printers
  • Macro lenses
  • Magnifier loupes
  • Mobile adapters
  • Negative proofers
  • Neutral density ND filters
  • Optical media printers
  • Optical viewfinders
  • Personal computers
  • Polarizing lens filters
  • Rapid photo print washers
  • Reflected light meters
  • Ring flashes
  • Snoots
  • Softboxes
  • Sound blimps
  • Special effects projectors
  • Studio strobe flashes
  • Tablet computers
  • Telephoto lenses
  • White balancing lens filters
  • Wide angle lenses
  • Wireless flash triggers
  • Zoom lenses

Technology Skills required for Photographer

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe Creative Cloud software
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
  • Apple Final Cut Pro
  • Apple macOS
  • Blinkbid
  • Cradoc fotoBiz
  • Email software
  • Facebook
  • Genbook
  • Google Drive
  • HindSight InView
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • Light Blue Software Light Blue
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Word
  • ShootQ photography studio management software
  • ShootZilla
  • Simplifi pixifi
  • Simply Studio System
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • StudioCloud
  • StudioPlus Spectra
  • SuccessWare service management software
  • Tave Studio Manager
  • Twitter
  • Web browser software
  • WeVideo
  • WordPress
  • YouTube