Employment fluctuates somewhat over the course of the year. Typically, employment peaks during school graduation and summer vacation periods, and again during the winter holiday season. New employees gradually learn to use the machines and chemicals that develop and print film. Employers prefer applicants who are high school graduates or those who have some experience in the field. Such courses are available through high schools, vocational-technical institutes, private trade schools, and colleges and universities.
Some workers attend periodic training seminars to maintain a high level of skill.
Manual dexterity, good hand-eye coordination, and good vision, including normal color perception, are important qualifications for precision photographic process workers. They must also be comfortable with computers and able to adapt to technological advances. Photographic process machine workers can sometimes advance from jobs as machine operators to supervisory positions in laboratories or to management positions within retail stores. Most openings will result from replacement needs, which tend to be higher for machine operators than for precision process workers. In recent years, the use of digital cameras, which use electronic memory rather than film to record images, has grown rapidly among professional photographers and advanced amateurs.