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School photographer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Peter Glendinning,

Susan McSpadden

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical school photographer skills. We ranked the top skills for school photographers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 39.4% of school photographer resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a school photographer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 school photographer skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how school photographers use customer service:

Motivated customer service representative with over 3 years retail experience in a fast paced environment.
Guaranteed customer satisfaction handling large volume of photography, resolving issues with good time management and customer service skills.

2. Kids

Here's how school photographers use kids:

Worked with kids from kindergarten through high school, with a variety of skills and abilities.
Assist photographer with posing kids and getting them well groomed and ready for picture day.

3. Camera Equipment

Here's how school photographers use camera equipment:

Assemble and operate school portrait and class photo studio set, including ID card printer and full lighting and camera equipment.
Set up an array of camera equipment while utilizing a DSLR camera to capture student portraits.

4. High-Quality Images

Here's how school photographers use high-quality images:

Photographed high-quality images for both print and Internet distribution.
Photographed high-quality images for both print and Internet distribution.

5. Adobe Photoshop

Here's how school photographers use adobe photoshop:

Edit portraits using Adobe Photoshop.
Offer a range of post-production and image editing with Adobe PhotoShop and LightRoom.

6. Photographic Equipment

Photographic equipment is meant to make a photographer's job easier in capturing outstanding photos. These include using walkaround lenses, different types of lens filters, cleaning kits, external flash, reflectors, and tripods.

Here's how school photographers use photographic equipment:

Set up and utilized photographic equipment and computer systems.
Travel to high schools in District, Set up photographic equipment and registration table.

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7. K-12

K12 is a term that incldues all 12 years of education in the US education system. It includes the education offered at the primary stage, middle stage, and secondary stage. It includes children of ages as young as 5 to 18 years. The grades included in K12 are Kindergarten, the initial 5 stages, grades 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. This system is followed specifically followed in the US and may vary in other countries.

Here's how school photographers use k-12:

Photograph students (K-12) at various schools on Maine.
Worked with K-12 in school taking photos.

8. School Administration

Here's how school photographers use school administration:

Maintained professional relationship with school administration.
Ensured a great picture day experience with professional, enthusiastic interactions with the students, school administration, parents and helpers.

9. Transport Equipment

Transport equipment and supplies include various lifesaving equipment, namely ventilators, oxygen tanks, splints, and cardiac monitors. Transport equipment also includes the other non-emergency transport equipment including wheelchairs and moveable beds.

Here's how school photographers use transport equipment:

Transport equipment to create a studio environment.
Maintain and transport equipment in a safe manner between schools according to company guidelines.

10. Student Helpers

Here's how school photographers use student helpers:

Provided clear instructions and expectations for school staff and student helpers to ensure a positive work flow and/or to resolve issues.
Provided clear Picture Day direction and expectations for parents, school personnel and student helpers.

11. Photo Shoots

A photoshoot is a series of photographs that a photographer takes of someone, usually of a model or a famous person, to be used in a newspaper or a magazine. The goal of a photoshoot is to achieve a predetermined visual objective. Later, these images can be used for editing or post-production..

Here's how school photographers use photo shoots:

Traveled to various schools throughout Ohio and set up equipment and props for photo shoots.
Worked with multiple team members to complete a photo shoot within assigned deadlines.

12. Pre-K

Pre-K or pre-kindergarten is a classroom-based program for children below the age of five, and it is a voluntary preschool program. It helps the child develop social and emotional development before they are ready to start preschool.

Here's how school photographers use pre-k:

Traveled to local schools and photographed students Pre-K through Eighth Grade, teachers and staff for yearbook, IDs and spring portraits
Position entails traveling to various schools, Pre-K through High School to accomplish the taking of annual School Portraits.

13. Quality Photographs

Here's how school photographers use quality photographs:

Drive to/from schools in the area, take quality photographs of students and staff, print school IDs.
Travel to schools with a team to take quality photographs of students and staff.

14. Studio Equipment

Studio Equipment refers to the electronic devices and workplace equipment that can be found in a radio, film, photography, or production studio. This may include any piece of recording equipment, cameras, lighting, and backdrops required for the particular studio. Much of this equipment must be maintained, either with routine cleaning, repairs, or other forms of maintenance.

Here's how school photographers use studio equipment:

Set up backgrounds, lights, and other studio equipment in a neat, timely fashion.
Maintained studio equipment with knowledge of studio lighting and DSLR Camera adjustments.

15. DSLR

Here's how school photographers use dslr:

Operated DSLR cameras and photography equipment.
Trained to learn all types of digital cameras from the small point and shoots to the larger more advanced DSLR cameras.

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What skills help School Photographers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What school photographer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Peter Glendinning

W.J. Beal Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University

In my experience, people like being a photographer for reasons that often have to do with what they like doing in life, what their personality is, what their passions outside of photography are. The "people person," the "quiet poet," the "analytical type," and more, all can find a field in photography that suits them well, whether fashion photography, landscape photography, architectural photography or other. Someone who is lazy, disorganized, feels they already know everything, undisciplined, lacking in courage, will probably not like this field.

What type of skills will young school photographers need?

Susan McSpadden

Marketing Photographer, Johnson County Community College

Graduates in the field of photography would benefit significantly from some business knowledge. Take some business classes, if you can, even if it's a weekend continuing education session. There are freelance opportunities out there, if you are self-motivated and seek them out. Knowing about self-employment tax and how to budget your earnings as a freelancer would help until you are able to land a full-time position with a company or institution. Just like with any profession, being a go-getter, a self-starter, a hard worker, a go-the-extra-miler will help.

What soft skills should all school photographers possess?

Pamela Venz

Professor, Birmingham-Southern College

Observation: all artists have highly developed skills of observation, attention to detail and applying their skills of observation to whatever task is at hand.

Creative Problem Solving: it's title clearly connects this skill with artist of all disciplines. Successful creative problem solving involves the ability to be flexible, to be open to many different interpretations of everything, to seek resolutions from seemingly unrelated sources and apply those resolutions in innovative ways.

Communication: One cannot succeed if one cannot communicate. Communication skills include not only verbal communication but written communication and for photographers and other artists visual communication as well. The ability to articulate one's ideas to a varied audience is crucial for success in any field.
Individual initiative: No one's path after graduation will be easy regardless of the field of the degree attained. The desire to achieve and the discipline to work towards that achievement cannot be understated.

Teamwork: We all must be able to work alone and to have the discipline to work alone towards a goal. But we are social beings and the ability to work as a member of a team is also crucial for success regardless of the field. Teamwork requires one to compromise, to communicate one's ideas in a diplomatic manner, to accept roles one may not want to do and to delegate roles to a group that reflect each individual's strengths and weaknesses.

Do you want to know more?

List of school photographer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a school photographer resume and required skills for a school photographer to have include:

Customer Service
Kids
Camera Equipment
High-Quality Images
Adobe Photoshop
Photographic Equipment
K-12
School Administration

Transport Equipment
Student Helpers
Photo Shoots
Pre-K
Quality Photographs
Studio Equipment
DSLR
Display Set-Up

Maintenance Tasks
Computer System
Graphic Design
Computer Programs
Private Schools
Digital Photography
Lifetouch
DVD

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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School Photographer Skills

Updated January 8, 2025

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