Photographer Assistant Salary

For those of you interested in working as a photographer's assistant you will find that this job will ensure that you learn all of the intricate details of the photography world.  As a photographer's assistant  you will learn about specific genres of photography and much more that will help you to grow as a photographer and prepare you for the professional world.  This is a job where you will be learning valuable knowledge through everything that you are doing, experiencing and helping with.  This job is more interesting and hands on then anything that any school can offer you.  Some individuals who apply for photographer assistant jobs actually go into it as a form of apprenticeship, which is actually the best thing for you to do. You will gain real work experience, knowledge and know what to do and what not to do.  If you get hired as a photography assistant it is smart of you to attack this job in the right manner so that you can help advance your own professional photography career in many ways.  It helps to have a broad background in in photography, in production and post-production, image editing will also help and much more.  In this article I will discuss a photographer assistant salary, along with all of the aspects of the job and what this can do for you. 

Types Of Photographer Assistants

There are many different types of photographer assistants depending on the speciality of photography and the experience of the photographer that you are trying to assist.  If you choose to apply for a more high end, commercial photographer you will find that the experiences you gain through this experience can help catapult your job in the high end commercial world of photography, if that is what you are interested in.  The more high end photographers will typically higher a slew of assistants to help him or her with things such as lighting, post production, second shooting and more.  If you decide to go for a relatively new photographer, you may receive more hands on training and be able to assist him or her on formal portrait sessions, help them to manage the scenery, the people involved in the shoot, the lighting and even the angles. Whoever you work for, no matter where they are in the professional world of photography, you will gain knowledge and experience that cannot be rivaled.  Being proficient at your job and the duties asked of you is extremely important.  You will become a valuable asset to your photographer and this will help to further your career in and of itself. 

Training

There is no formal training required for a photographers assistant to get the job but a basic knowledge and familiarity about photography is necessary and will allow the photographer to feel much more comfortable hiring you.  Each photographer will have a different requirements that they will want to see for their assistants, which makes getting a job as a photographers assistant that much harder.  This is why ensuring that you have a background in photography, have a basic knowledge of photography along with a certain degree of experience will help ensure you a job with a photographer out there.  Some photographers will only want their assistants to do a few little things whereas other photographers may want their assistants to do a slew of things from photographing subjects, handing digital images, editing, and much more.  It may help for those of you interested in this job to have some experience or background from taking classes at a community college or university. 

Duties

As I stated earlier, depending on the photographer and what he or she wants, will ultimately depend on the duties that will be asked of you.  Many assistants will be responsible for cleaning equipment, setting up and testing the lights, equipment, coordinating the models, loading film in cameras, editing, archiving digital images and in some cases you will be shooting as the back up photographer.  Some other basic errands will be required of you such as getting coffee, food, mail, balancing accounts, calling clients, scheduling appointments, intercepting emails and much more. 

Once you have worked as a photographers assistant you will find that you will gain so much knowledge and experience. You will understand what looks good, what to use during certain shoots, you will learn about lighting, and much more. All of this knowledge and skills that you will obtain during this job will help to advance you further into what you want to do. You will also meet so many people, perspective clients, employers and much more.  Career advancement as a photographer's assistant can almost be ensured, if you do your job properly. Some photographer assistants end up doing so well at their jobs that the photographer that they work for, will hire them to become a photographer for their company. 

Photographer Assistant Salary

A photographer assistant's salary varies depending on who they work for, what experience they have and how much your employer is wiling to pay. Since a photographer assistant salary varies widely it makes it a bit difficult to pin down a salary amount.  Typically you will find that freelance photographers will pay whatever the market dictates.  Freelancers often can be found paying more then others depending on their client list, location and how often they are working.  According to recent data you will find that a photographer assistant, on average, makes around twenty six thousand a year.  The highest ten percent of photographers brought in around almost sixty thousand a year.  The median salary that was recorded was around thirty three thousand a year.