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With everyone carrying a camera in their pocket,\u00a0pretty much\u00a0anyone can post some pictures to Instagram or flickr and fancy themselves as a bit of a photographer.<\/p>\n
But while taking an\u00a0epic holiday sunset pic and waiting for your friends and family to give you the digital thumbs up is easy enough, making the jump from amateur snapper to professional photographer takes more skill\u00a0than slapping on a filter and adding a hashtag or two.<\/p>\n
So what skills are needed? To find out we trawled through the Adzuna\u00a0database of over 1 million live job vacancies to see what employers were looking\u00a0for.<\/p>\n
Soft Skills or\u00a0Technical Knowledge?<\/strong><\/p>\n The good news for people without extensive knowledge of editing software or a formal qualification in photography is that the employers trying to\u00a0fill 6,608 photography roles\u00a0are more likely to request soft-skills and a good attitude than technical expertise. (At the time of writing, familiarity with Instagram was not a requirement on any job ad).<\/p>\n ‘Communication’ skills were at the top of the list, with three in five job ads wanting candidates that would find it easy\u00a0putting\u00a0their\u00a0subjects at ease or directing a team to help set up the perfect picture. ‘Creativity\u2019, \u2018passion\u2019, and \u2018drive\u2019 were also key skills wanted by photography employers, each appearing in almost a third of ads (although despite the desire for ‘creativity’ in candidates,\u00a0only 19% of job ads explicitly requested to see\u00a0a portfolio).<\/p>\n On the other hand only one in 10 ads mentioned \u2018editing\u2019 or \u2018adobe\u2019, and less than a third of ads mentioned \u2018photoshop\u2019 or \u2018software\u2019. Specific skills around \u2018lighting\u2019 (2.6%), \u2018art direction\u2019 (1.7%) and \u2018composition\u2019 (0.8%) were mentioned even less.<\/p>\n That doesn’t mean studying photography isn’t useful however, with 6% of ads looking for a photography graduate. Those with a degree in marketing might also find themselves at an advantage, with over 40% of jobs looking for a candidate with experience in this area. Meanwhile there’s also good news for those that haven’t\u00a0been formally taught and are looking for their first professional photography job, with almost 1 in 20 job ads after an apprentice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While almost a third of the photography jobs were listed in London \u2013 aspiring professional photographers looking for employment don\u2019t necessarily need to move to the capital \u2013 there are opportunities in all parts of the country.<\/p>\n Click on the region to be taken directly to a selection of photographer or photography jobs in that area. \u00a0<\/em>\n\n
\n Skill<\/strong><\/td>\n % of Ads Mentioning Skill<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Communication<\/td>\n 61.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Marketing<\/td>\n 41.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Creativity<\/td>\n 29.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Passion<\/td>\n 23.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Drive<\/td>\n 22.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Technical<\/td>\n 20.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Relationship<\/td>\n 17.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Flexible<\/td>\n 17.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Software<\/td>\n 12.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Photoshop<\/td>\n 12.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Enthusiastic<\/td>\n 11.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Adobe<\/td>\n 10.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Editing<\/td>\n 10.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Collaborative<\/td>\n 7.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Graphic Design<\/td>\n 7.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Time Management<\/td>\n 6.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Interpersonal<\/td>\n 6.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Graduate<\/td>\n 5.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Lighting<\/td>\n 2.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Art Direction<\/td>\n 1.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Composition<\/td>\n 0.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Where are the jobs?<\/h3>\n
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