Photography Job & Career Types – Requirements

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If you love to shoot pictures and want to build a career with creativity, enroll in a photography degree program to learn the craft. The photography industry is so diverse that you’re sure to find a career to satisfy your shutterbug dreams.

Photography Jobs & Careers

Considering a photography degree? Unlike many professions that require expert training for a singular role, photography is a wide field that offers countless applications and options. Students receive comprehensive training in fundamental skills for both darkroom and digital photography, mastering the latest photo editing software along with a range of equipment, from large-format film cameras to the newest, high-megapixel point-and-shoot devices.

Here is a sampling of satisfying careers for photography degree holders:

• Photography Studio Owners/Operator
• Portrait Photographer
• Fine Arts and Commercial Photographer
• News Photographer
• Freelance Photographer
• Wedding Photographer
• Crime Scene/Forensic Photographer
• Medical Photographer
• Photographic Lab Technician
• Digital Image Specialist
• Photo Blogger
• Photo Retouch Artist
• Motion Picture Location Scout
• Fashion Photographer
• Wildlife Photographer
• Advertising Photographer
• Scientific Photographer
• Industrial Photographer
• Stock Photographer
• Travel Photographer
• Government Photographer
• Camera Store Owner/Clerk
• Sports Photojournalist
• Passport Photographer
• Photography Instructor

Photography Degrees: Your Future in Focus

No matter your professional or artistic calling, today’s photography degree programs begin with instruction in technique, theory, and practical applications. You may study photo composition, exposures and apertures, lighting, film speed, focus, printing, cropping, and camera accessories. You’ll have an opportunity to study the history of art–particularly photography–as well as camera mechanics, film processing, digital photo manipulation and correction, flash devices, and a range of lenses.

Those interested in production can find courses in digital editing software, slide duplication, and darkroom apparatus. Your practical classroom assignments expose you to the full range of photography styles: black and white, full color, macro and micro photography, portraiture, landscape and nature, photojournalism (news, sports, features), and fashion photography. Some schools even offer classes in underwater photography.

Shooting for Your Degree

Additional coursework introduces students to posing techniques, working with adults, children, models, and animals. Elective photography courses in advertising, architectural, electronic design or video can expand your talents for the marketplace. Every course lends an opportunity to build experience as well as a print or digital portfolio of completed work to show prospective clients or employers.

Depending on your school and photography degree program, you might also enroll in courses that teach you how to:

• Track your clients and images
• Maintain billing, purchases, and tax records
• Network and promote your business
• Copyright your work
• Prepare gallery exhibitions
• Price your work as well as your services

Learning web or digital design software can help you prepare a web-based store or marketing tool for your work. If you have a scientific side, you might sign up for courses in medicine, biology, engineering, or architecture to prepare for a career in technical photography.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 50 percent of all working photographers are self-employed professionals. Salaried photographers may work for portrait or commercial photography studios, chain stores, print and online media, the entertainment industry, advertising and public relations firms, in corporate media and promotions departments, for the military, or government agencies. With diversity like that, any shutterbug can find a career path to fit the bill, especially with a photography degree.

Woodrow Aames
Woodrow Aames has written articles and profiles for Yahoo, Microsoft Network, Microsoft Encarta, and other websites and print magazines around the world. He holds an MFA degree and has taught English abroad.

Find Photography Schools Near You

Find the right school today.