How To Become A News Photographer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a news photographer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Michael Neal Ph.D.

News photographers, otherwise known as photojournalists, take photos of live events using high-tech cameras. They may work for newspapers, journals, magazines, or websites or work as freelancers. They take pictures of breaking news, sports events, investigative features, or political news stories. Furthermore, they use software to add sound, crop pictures to fit certain media or edit pictures to accompany stories. Also, they maintain their photography equipment. Oftentimes, they attend meetings with reporters, editors, and other staff members.

Most news photographers hold an associate's or a bachelor's degree in journalism, photography, or a related field. You must have at least two years of relevant work experience. You need communication, attention to detail, time management, creativity, collaboration, technical, and organization skills to succeed in this job. Also, you must be able to use photography equipment and editing software. Your salary will vary from $27,000 to $89,000, with an average annual salary of $49,445.

What general advice would you give to a News Photographer?

Michael Neal Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Director, Rhetoric & Composition, Florida State University

The advice can be tricky, especially since our graduates go into a number of fields. My hope for them is that they continue to build upon what they learned in our program and apply it to new situations and contexts outside of school. I often tell students that editing, writing, and media aren't skills you master and then apply universally across contexts. Instead, we encourage students to keep growing and stretching themselves, since they will most likely face new genres, audiences, and contexts that they didn't see in college. Therefore, we teach them to be flexible, to be close readers, and analyze each rhetorical situation to determine how to best communicate within that context. Good writing isn't one-size-fits-all. Instead, it's a complex, negotiated relationship between writers, texts, contexts, audiences, media, modalities, etc.

ScoreNews PhotographerUS Average

Salary

5.9

Avg. Salary $76,014

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.5

Growth Rate 9%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 7.02%

Black or African American 6.32%

Hispanic or Latino 15.15%

Unknown 5.46%

White 65.83%

Gender

female 17.62%

male 82.38%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress Level

4.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.5

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

1.9

Work Life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a news photographer

Explore news photographer education requirements

Most common news photographer degrees

Bachelor's

74.4 %

Associate

16.8 %

Master's

3.7 %

Start to develop specific news photographer skills

Skills	Percentages
HD	17.05%
Video Cameras	14.61%
General Assignment	13.13%
News Stories	7.33%
Edit Video	6.83%

Complete relevant news photographer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New news photographers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a news photographer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real news photographer resumes.

Research news photographer duties and responsibilities

Coordinate and manage providing and dressing the customers with old western costumes in preparation of taking their photos.
FTP video through camera back to news station.
Receive FTP transmissions and live streaming from the field.
Take pictures for both men and women's soccer games

Prepare your news photographer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your news photographer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a news photographer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable News Photographer Resume templates

Build a professional News Photographer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your News Photographer resume.

Apply for news photographer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a news photographer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do news photographers rate their job?