It’s that time of year again – photography students have finished their degree courses and are looking around for work experience and jobs, and like most other advertising photographers, I’m getting a lot of emails from prospective assistants. I thought it might be worth posting a few tips to maximise the chance of getting somewhere with the people you contact.

Be prepared for it to be difficult. I’m happy to have people along for work experience on editorial shoots or when doing personal work, where I or other assistants have the opportunity to take time to show them how equipment works and assess how much they know, but on a big advertising shoot it’s rarely practical to have someone around who doesn’t know what they’re doing. There are lots of good assistants out there, and unfortunately if you’re not completely confident shooting tethered with medium format backs and using a wide variety of lighting equipment, particularly Profoto, which is the standard brand for many hire shops worldwide, you’re probably not going to be able to get any paid work straight away.

So, how can you get started?

First thing: increase your skill set. Make sure you know CaptureOne inside out. This is standard software for shooting tethered with Phase One backs / DSLRs and for managing RAW files shot on card. You can download a free trial from Phase One which’ll give you 30 days to learn how to use it. Tethering is not complicated, but there are basic skills (focus checking, creating sessions in CaptureOne, file naming and processing, sharpening, overlaying layouts) that are absolutely essential.

I shoot with a Hasselblad back using Phocus. This is Hasselblad’s proprietary tethering / processing / image management software, but unlike CaptureOne it is completely free. Get it from Hasselblad’s site, and you can use it not only for Hasselblad files, but also for Canon, Nikon etc. Its features are restricted if not used with Hasselblad files and cameras, but as it’s free, it’s a no-brainer to make sure you know how to use it. Most of the features are similar to CaptureOne, but some of the shortcuts are different, and there are user-defined capture and process folders rather than a session system.

Most graduates have a basic knowledge of Photoshop, but make sure you’re up to date with CS5/6 and that you are comfortable using layers and curves and cutting elements out to trial rough layouts. It’s expensive software, but again, you can always download a trial version from Adobe.

When you go on a shoot, be honest about what you know and what you don’t. Don’t risk breaking equipment by forcing cables into sockets they’re not designed for!

Email rather than phoning. You’re more likely to get a positive response if you don’t ring someone in the middle of a shoot. Personalise your email. Everyone knows you’ll be contacting lots of photographers, but BCC-ing the whole of the AOP members list on a single message addressed to ‘Dear Photographer’ isn’t a great plan. If you want to come across as reliable and careful (both important qualities in assistants), take the trouble to spell your email properly.

Buy yourself a Leatherman. They’re amazing tools and I rarely shoot without using mine. You’ll make friends fast if you’ve got good improvised DIY skills. Assisting is not just about knowing how equipment works but also about common sense and attention to detail – making sure no-one is getting too cold on a location shoot; spotting stray cables; keeping an eye on the flashes to make sure they’re all firing on every shot; noting all the equipment that comes out of the bags and making sure it all goes back in at the end of the day.

Working in a hire studio can be a great way to increase your skills very fast. You might have to get an unpaid internship for a month or two until you know enough to be useful, but you are likely to work with a wide variety of equipment and photographic styles, and you might meet photographers who are looking for assistants.

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but hopefully it might be of some use to some recent graduates. Here are some links to hire studios:

Factory
Hasselblad studio
Holborn studios
Little Yellow Jacket
Plough studio
The Worx
Hire studio directory