NOC 53110: Photographers

Photographers operate still cameras to photograph people, events, scenes, materials, products and other subjects. They are employed by photographic studios, newspapers, magazines, museums and government, or they may be self-employed.

Express Entry eligibility

• Skilled work (TEER 0 to 3): yes, TEER 3.
• Canadian Experience Class: counts as skilled Canadian work (1 year in the last 3 years).
• Federal Skilled Worker Program: counts as skilled work (1 year of continuous work in the last 10 years).
• Federal Skilled Trades Program: not one of the eligible trades.
• High-wage occupation (from November 3, 2026): no. No high-wage add-on, and a job offer in it earns no CRS points.

TEER 3: Occupations that usually need a college diploma, an apprenticeship of less than 2 years, or more than 6 months of on-the-job training. Every program has other requirements too, such as language test results and, for FSW, a points test.

Category-based draws

NOC 53110 is not on any of IRCC’s occupation category lists. You can still be invited in general, Canadian Experience Class or other program draws.

Category lists checked on canada.ca on 2026-10-17. IRCC category-based selection

CRS points for work in NOC 53110

Skilled Canadian work in this occupation earns the standard points, the same before and after November 3, 2026, with no high-wage add-on:

See Canadian work points and the median-wage rule.

Main duties

This group performs some or all of the following duties:

• Study requirements of a particular assignment and decide on type of camera, film, lighting and background accessories to be used
• Determine picture composition, make technical adjustments to equipment and photograph subject
• May operate scanners to transfer photographic images to computers
• May operate computers to manipulate photographic images
• May adapt existing photographic images and create new digitized images to be included in multimedia/new media products
• May use delicate instruments, such as optical microscopes attached to cameras
• May process exposed film
• May use airbrush, computer or other techniques to retouch negatives
• Medical photographers may work closely with medical illustrators.
• Photographers may specialize in areas such as portrait photography, commercial photography, scientific photography, forensic photography, medical photography, digitized photography, multimedia photography or photojournalism.

For Express Entry your duties must match the lead statement and most of the main duties above.

Example job titles

• aerial photographer
• commercial photographer
• forensic photographer
• industrial photographer
• photographer
• portrait photographer
• scientific photographer

Employment requirements

• A bachelor's degree in visual arts with specialization in photography or Completion of specialized training in photography in high school, college or specialized training schools or Extensive on-the-job training under the supervision of a photographer is required.
• Experience in, or knowledge of computerized photography or digital imaging may be required.
• Creative and technical ability, as demonstrated by a portfolio of work, are required.

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