Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator Perform work involved in developing and processing photographic images from film or digital media. May perform precision tasks such as editing photographic negatives and prints.
Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator is Also Know as
In different settings, Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator is titled as
- Digital Printer Operator
- Film Processor
- Film Technician
- Lab Technician
- Photo Lab Specialist
- Photo Lab Technician (Photographic Laboratory Technician)
- Photo Printer
- Photo Specialist
- Photo Technician
Education and Training of Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
Training Required for Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator in different industries are
- Prepress Technicians and Workers
- Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers
- Printing Press Operators
- Etchers and Engravers
- Office Machine Operators, Except Computer
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Semiconductor Processing Technicians
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Photographers
- Motion Picture Projectionists
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders
- Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers
- Chemical Technicians
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers
What Do Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator do?
- Create prints according to customer specifications and laboratory protocols.
- Examine developed prints for defects, such as broken lines, spots, or blurs.
- Fill tanks of processing machines with solutions such as developer, dyes, stop-baths, fixers, bleaches, or washes.
- Immerse film, negatives, paper, or prints in developing solutions, fixing solutions, and water to complete photographic development processes.
- Insert processed negatives and prints into envelopes for delivery to customers.
- Load circuit boards, racks or rolls of film, negatives, or printing paper into processing or printing machines.
- Load digital images onto computers directly from cameras or from storage devices, such as flash memory cards or universal serial bus (USB) devices.
- Maintain records, such as quantities or types of processing completed, materials used, or customer charges.
- Measure and mix chemicals to prepare solutions for processing, according to formulas.
- Monitor equipment operation to detect malfunctions.
- Operate machines to prepare circuit boards and to expose, develop, etch, fix, wash, dry, or print film or plates.
- Operate scanners or related computer equipment to digitize negatives, photographic prints, or other images.
- Operate special equipment to perform tasks such as transferring film to videotape or producing photographic enlargements.
- Place sensitized paper in frames of projection printers, photostats, or other reproduction machines.
- Produce color or black-and-white photographs, negatives, or slides, applying standard photographic reproduction techniques and procedures.
- Read work orders to determine required processes, techniques, materials, or equipment.
- Reprint originals for enlargement or in sections to be pieced together.
- Retouch photographic negatives or original prints to correct defects.
- Review computer-processed digital images for quality.
- Select digital images for printing, specify number of images to be printed, and direct to printer, using computer software.
- Set automatic timers, lens openings, and printer carriages to specified focus and exposure times and start exposure to duplicate originals, photographs, or negatives.
- Set or adjust machine controls, according to specifications, type of operation, or material requirements.
- Apply paint, using airbrushes, pens, artists' brushes, cotton swabs, or gloved fingers to retouch or enhance negatives or photographs.
- Clean or maintain photoprocessing or darkroom equipment, using ultrasonic equipment or cleaning and rinsing solutions.
- Dry prints or negatives using sponges, squeegees, mechanical air dryers, or drying cabinets.
- Examine drawings, negatives, or photographic prints to determine coloring, shading, accenting, or other changes required for retouching or restoration.
- Examine quality of film fades or dissolves for potential color corrections, using color analyzers.
- Produce timed prints with separate densities or color settings for each scene of a production.
- Shade negatives or photographs with pencils to smooth facial contours, soften highlights, or conceal blemishes, stray hairs, or wrinkles.
- Splice broken or separated film and mount film on reels.
- Thread filmstrips through densitometers or sensitometers and expose film to light to determine density of film, necessary color corrections, or light sensitivity.
- Upload digital images onto Web sites for customers.
Qualities of Good Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- 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.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- 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).
- 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.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- 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.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- 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.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- 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 Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- 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.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- 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).
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- 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.
- 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.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- 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.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- 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.
- 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.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Tools Used by Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
- Artists' brushes
- Automatic photo printers
- Barcode scanners
- Cement splicers
- Chemical stirrers
- Color testing equipment
- Contrast filters
- Darkroom beakers
- Darkroom densitometers
- Darkroom hydrometers
- Darkroom thermometers
- Darkroom timers
- Daylight splicers
- Developing spirals
- Digital cameras
- Digital minilabs
- Drum scanners
- Drying cabinets
- Film developing trays
- Film pickers
- Film plates
- Film processing tongs
- Film refrigerators
- Film winders
- Flatbed scanners
- Hand mixers
- Infrared goggles
- Infrared scanners
- Laser photo printers
- Leader cards
- Manual photo printers
- Measuring cylinders
- Mechanical air dryers
- Minilab processors
- Mounting presses
- MultiMediaCard storage devices
- Paper cutters
- Personal computers
- Photo drying squeegees
- Photo printers
- Photo retouching air brushes
- Photo scissors
- Photographic developing tanks
- Photographic print enlargers
- Power mixers
- Roller transport film processors
- Rotary drum processors
- Secure digital (SD) cards
- Sensitometers
- Silver recovery systems
- Solid ink printers
- Tape splicers
- Thermal dye sublimation printers
- Ultrasonic cleaners
- Ultrasonic film splicers
- Universal serial bus USB flash drives
- Water flow meters
- Water recirculation pumps
Technology Skills required for Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operator
- Adobe Creative Cloud software
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Amazon Web Services AWS software
- Camera Bits Photo Mechanic
- Cascading style sheets CSS
- Docker
- ExpressDigital Labtricity
- Git
- HeliconSoft Helicon Focus
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Publisher
- Microsoft Word
- MongoDB
- MySQL
- Phase One Capture One
- RESTful API
- SAP software
- Structured query language SQL
- TypeScript