Photographic Assistant

On a photographic assistant apprenticeship course, you’ll help generate original imagery or produce prints from customer-supplied digital imagery.

You might work as an assistant photographer as an apprentice, producing one-of-a-kind pictures.

You may work in several contexts, such as social, commercial, government, scientific, or specialised divisions. You’ll work in indoor and outdoor studios, using digital or film cameras to take still and video pictures for various purposes.

As a photographic technician, you’d often work for a commercial image finishing business, a high-street minilab, or an in-house processing centre. Printing from digital pictures supplied by clients would be part of your work.

If you work in a specialised area, you may be in charge of processing and reproducing pictures from photographic films using non-digital technology.

You will be able to continue further and higher education after finishing this apprenticeship, or you will be able to find employment in the appropriate sector of the photography industry.

What you’ll learn

On a photographic assistant apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Comply with all relevant rules and standards in your workplace, especially those concerning health, safety, COSHH, PPE, and the environment.
• Comply with the legal and copyright issues outlined in the job description.
• Obtain all necessary image use permissions and confirm all agreements in writing.
• Make sure that any rights to use one’s work are written down.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the many sub-sectors of the photo imaging industry and the career opportunities they provide.
• Keep up to date on technological and professional advancements in picture imaging and the consequences for industrial practice.
• Establish and maintain positive client/customer relationships.
• Use the proper procedures to start and stop imaging hardware.
• Guarantee that system security, virus protection, and file security are all in place and follow workplace security standards.
• Recognise any problems with the imaging system and do your utmost to resolve them.
• Ascertain that the digital imaging software is set up to work optimally.
• Make sure that procedures are in place to keep track of all image files.
• Ascertain that the security and access procedures of the system are correctly set up.
• Check that the maintenance and service procedures are set up correctly.
• Ensure all paperwork is completed properly and fully, copies are maintained, and accurate records are kept.
• Determine the approach to be followed in retouching the picture in cooperation with the client (s).
• Create retouched images that clearly and accurately meet the requirements of the client.
• Compare the altered images’ quality to the client’s requirements and workplace norms.
• Save the retouched image files in the format you choose to use for output or storage.
• Assign keywords to images to categorise them based on their content, topic, and concept.
• Ensure that essential information is preserved at all times throughout the procedure.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and Maths, for an advanced apprenticeship.
• Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this before taking the end-point assessment.

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises three distinct assessment methods: 

• Multiple Choice Question Test 
• Workplace Observation
• Professional Discussion 

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 3 Photographic Assistant Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.