Photographer Resume:Templates, Examples & Essential Skills

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As a Photographer, you know how to snap a beautiful picture and create a lovely image. But, does your resume also have stunning quality? If not, our custom resume templates can help job recruiters see the whole picture and help you land the perfect photography job. 

Photographer Resume Example MSWord®
Produce the perfect snapshot of your capabilities and experience with our Photographer Resume template in Word format

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ResumeGiants » Examples » Photographer Resume

As a photographer, you capture memorable moments to ensure they last a lifetime.  

Despite the rise of smartphones, there’s a cosmic difference between a regular-Joe-with-a-smartphone and a professional photographer. 

Brands and clients want a photographer with experience in frame composition, effects of camera angles, lighting, camera setting, and the “photographer’s eye.”

While a portfolio link is essential when applying for such jobs, there are certain skills and information it won’t be able to communicate effectively. 

You need a convincing, eye-pleasing, and well-lit professional photographer resume to show you have what it takes to out-snap the rest. 

So, how do you show the potential client that you’re the eye for the job?

In our ResumeGiants guide, you’ll find out how to:

• Present your qualifications and experience in a professional, concise manner
• Identify and list skills for a photographer resume that show why you’re the best fit for the job
• Formulate unique ideas that will help you design a creative photographer resume that stands out from the crowd
• Submit a professional resume that’s better than those of the competition

Ready? Say cheese!

Creating a professional photographer resume from scratch, rewriting or updating your current resume to up your game can be tedious. But it doesn’t have to be. 

Here’s an example of a freelance photographer resume you can adapt using our free resume builder tool to create your document in record time.

Resume Example

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[Talia Gordon]

[Freelance Photographer]

[314 Yoko St., Oregon, OR 97701|   123-456-7890  |   Talia.Gordon@gmail.com]

Summary

Creative photographer with 5+ years of experience collaborating with clients to capture eye-pleasing and memorable moments using digital and film cameras. Winner of “Google Earth Photographer of the Year” with a B.A. in Photography from Washington State University. Looking to apply my photography and editing skills to fill the position of Wedding Photographer at Grill Studios.

Experience 

Freelance Photography Assistant

Perfect Shot | Washington, DC 

September 2019 – 2020

• Assisted the lead photographer in creating a shot list, ensuring we got all needed subjects in good time
• Captured live events such as weddings, birthday parties, concerts, award shows, and sports games
• Monitored and ensured timely setup and teardown of equipment
• Implemented a time-saving and cost-effective method to schedule client meetings with Anytime Scheduling software, leading to a 15% increase in monthly bookings
• Ensured careful equipment handling, including arranging repairs, preventing damage,  maintaining inventory, and troubleshooting malfunctions.

Education 

Bachelor of Arts in Photography

University of Oregon | Eugene, OR

2014 – 2018

• Graduated as valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA
• Photography Club: Founder & President

Skills

• Soft skills: Collaborative, Perceptiveness, Verbal communication
• Hard skills: Portrait and cinematic lighting, Digital editing with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom

Awards & Recognition

• Winner, Doodle Photography Competition
• Winner, Alliance For Change Awards

Photography is a skill that’s applicable to a variety of careers. Check out these related resumes for more inspiration and guidance on how to make your experiences work for the career you want:

• Videographer
• Video Producer

The general rule for deciding the best format for your resume is to use one that puts your best foot forward, like in the photographer resume sample provided above. 

When a company or brand makes hiring decisions for a photographer, they want someone who’s creative and has experience photographing in their field. 

Say you’re applying to photograph a corporate event. 

You wouldn’t prioritize experience and skills relevant to a rock concert. 

You’d want to highlight your experience in covering corporate events in the past. 

So, take some time to consider who your audience is and what their expectations may be. 

Once that’s been decided, you can settle on how you want to organize the information on the page. 

🌟 Featured Content: There are three main resume organization styles to choose from: reverse-chronological, functional, and hybrid. A reverse-chronological resume lists your most recent experience(s) first, followed by your second most recent, etc., while a functional style focuses on emphasizing skills. A hybrid model combines the two.

For a photographer resume, we recommend a hybrid style to ensure that both specific skills (black and white photography, for example) and work experience are clearly on display.

Tips for Formatting your Photographer Resume

Regardless of how you structure it, the standard length of a resume of a professional photographer is one page. 

If you truly have the experience to warrant more space (when applying for a senior role, perhaps), try to keep your resume at two pages maximum with a link to your portfolio.

You only have a minute or two to grab the attention of an employer, and too lengthy of a resume can easily be a turnoff. 

It’s important to be able to summarize what makes you a good fit for the job in just a few, powerful sentences.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind to make that easier:

• Font: Choose a readable font and an appropriate size10 – (12 pt.) to avoid creating a wall of text. 

• Margins and spacing: Stick to single spacing and standard, 1-inch margins to keep your resume neat and easy to read.

• Photos: While it may seem silly to avoid using pictures in a photographer’s resume, it’s usually best to save them for your portfolio. Photos can take up valuable space on your resume that may be better utilized to talk about your qualifications.

After your name, your photographer resume summary or resume objective is the first thing your potential employer comes in contact with. 

A resume objective states your current experience and the direction or goal of your career progression. 

It’s most effective for those with little to no experience, such as recent graduates or freelancers entering the workforce.

A photographer resume summary, on the flip side, is best for professional photographers who have lots of experience. 

Packing the key points of your entire career into just a few lines sounds tricky, right? It certainly can be.

But, don’t stress – the following tips can help make the process much more approachable:

• Read the job posting carefully and take note of keywords. Be sure to incorporate important industry keywords into your summary or objective to express what your employer is looking for.
• Cut the fluff. There isn’t an official standard for the length, but anything longer than five lines risks being too clunky to read quickly. 
• Point to specific, clear achievements. Won a special award, led an important project, or graduated top of your class? Make sure you mention key and unique details about your qualifications like these.

Photographer Resume Objective Example

Although you should keep your resume objective brief, it doesn’t mean it should lack soul like the one below:

This photographer’s resume objective lacks detail. Except for vague statements of fact, it doesn’t go in-depth to give the recruiter an idea of what kind of resume they’re about to read. 

Let’s look at a better example:

This example provides more insight into your photography experience. It highlights the most important parts of your resume and shows the company what your intentions are.

A key factor for this photography resume objective is its ability to point to specific skills that set the applicant apart from others. 

These sorts of details are especially valuable if you’ve been able to showcase them in your professional portfolio.

In your experience section, you should focus only on photography-related work experience. 

Incorporate keywords from the job description you’re interested in to show an employer that you’re the ideal fit for the position (and that you’ve done your homework). 

Also, keep your text here concise; try to limit the description of each experience to one or two lines per bullet point.

While it’s important to cover your bases, not every achievement from your professional career should appear here. 

We recommend picking the three to five that’ll make the most impact and focusing on those.

Photographer Resume Examples: Experience

A poorly composed experience section can lose a hiring manager’s attention or make you seem unqualified for the job.

Take a look at the following example to get a feel for how this can happen:

The descriptions above are concise but don’t provide enough detail. They also don’t quantify or communicate achievements creatively. 

Let’s see an example that executes this better:

This is a good example of a photographer resume experience section because it includes specific actions taken and accomplishments achieved in the role. 

The sentences highlight the candidate’s abilities to 

• Assist and collaborate with others
• Capture high-quality photographs in various settings
• Manage equipment and inventory effectively to improve project turnaround time.

All of these point to the candidate having the relevant experience necessary to pass on to the interview stage of the selection process.

Nothing kills a good photo like a lack of focus or direction. The same goes for your resume’s education section. 

It’s perfectly acceptable to list your education in a traditional way on your photography resume.  That is, by providing information about a college or high school degree. 

However, you may not have discovered your photography prowess until after college. Maybe through an online certification course, or even just practical experience.

Regardless of your experiences, make sure your education section lists only relevant details that add to your resume.

This could mean listing things like:

• Extracurricular activities
• Special achievements
• Related coursework that helped refine your skills
• Your GPA if it is 3.50 or higher.

For instance, you might have taken pictures for your school newspaper or press club. 

Now’s the time to let these experiences shine. 

Nevertheless, if you attended a prestigious photography or art program, it might make more sense to focus on your schooling than your extracurriculars. 

Use your best judgment to decide how much to discuss. Ask yourself what you’d like an employer to learn from reading about your education to help you decide what’s relevant. 

Photographer Resume Education Section

Here’s an example of how not to showcase your education:

In the example above, there isn’t much information that an employer might find useful.

There aren’t details about things like relevant extracurricular activities, awards, software learned during your study, or relevant coursework that might contribute to your portfolio. 

The only extracurricular listed, music club, is unrelated to photography. And you give no idea of how involved you were. ‘Member’ could simply mean you attended once or twice.

Here’s a better example:

This is a good example of an education section because it highlights your educational background, including the institution, degree, and graduation date, as well as your academic achievement with the GPA score. 

Additionally, it showcases your leadership experience and involvement in a school publication and demonstrates your communication and organizational skills.

As you know, photography involves much more than pointing your camera at a still object. 

Every picture you’ve ever admired had a creative mind behind it who took various elements into account. 

Things like composition, lighting, camera angles, color, and photo editing all contribute to creating a unique final product. 

The work of a professional photographer doesn’t end when the lens cap goes back on, though.

Things like people skills, good communication, and the ability to work under pressure are key parts of the job, too.

It’s important to communicate that you have these skills in your photographer skills resume section. 

Choose around 5-6 of your strongest skills and make sure that they’re showcased.

Here are some options to consider for your photographer resume skills section:

As you wrap up your resume, make sure you clearly specify which type(s) of photography you excel at. Even if your photography resume summary or objective and experience section already mention it. 

Do you work on weddings, pre-wedding shoots, and portraits, or do you prefer outdoor shoots or working with children?

An “other” or extra section in your resume is a great chance to include information like this. 

You can choose to include whatever details you think are a good fit, but be sure to keep them relevant. 

Show your prowess with the help of things like awards, certifications, and more. Maybe you have some other photography related hobbies and interests that you can include, like camera restoration, or photography blogging.

If some of your qualifications–photography courses like Udemy and Coursera, for example– don’t fit elsewhere on your resume, you can include them here. 

🌟Featured Content: A beginner photographer resume will often benefit the most from an “other” section. Extra information takes the focus off your lack of experience and shines a light on your willingness to learn and grow, especially if you’re applying for an entry-level position or trying to acquire shadowing hours.

Photographer Resume Sample Extra Sections

Here’s an example of how extra information in an “other” section might appear in your resume:

A “Specializations” section is a good one to include because it quickly communicates your  expertise in various types of photography. This makes it easier for potential employers to determine if you are a good fit for a job. 

The “Awards & Recognition” section showcases your talent and success in the field of photography, providing further evidence of your skills and potential value to a company.

Other extra sections that’ll may fit well into your photographer resume include:

• Volunteer work and experiences
• Certifications
• Personal interests and hobbies
• Online courses

Putting together a concise and complete resume is tough. Even with the help of all the photographer resume examples in the world. 

Here are some key points to remember from this professional photographer resume guide to keep you on the right track:

• A standard photographer resume template should include a resume summary or resume objective, academic qualifications, relevant experience, and extra sections to highlight certifications, courses, and specializations.
• Keep your resume down to one or two pages.
• An entry-level photographer resume will benefit from a well-written objective and robust extra relevant sections.
• Including keywords from the job description and showing you’re knowledgeable about things like equipment and software will give you an upper hand. 

Additionally, don’t be afraid to use our professional resume templates to cut down on resume writing time and boost your chances of scoring an interview!

Are you interested in other visual arts to persue a career in? If so, be sure to check out our 3D Artist resume too.