Photographic training and the display of finished photographs may also be accommodated in a photographic studio. Accordingly, the workspace may possess a darkroom, storage space, a studio proper, where photographs are taken, and a display room, as well as space for other related work.

As a corporate entity, a photographic studio is a business owned and represented by one or more photographers, possibly accompanied by assistants and pupils, who create and sell their own and sometimes others’ photographs. Since the early years of the 20th century the corporate functions of a photographic studio have increasingly been called a photographic agency, leaving the term photographic studio to refer almost exclusively to the work space.

A darkroom is a workspace, usually a separate area in a building or a vehicle, made dark to allow photographers to use light sensitive materials to develop film and photographic paper to make photographic prints. Darkrooms have been used since the late 19th century for black and white photography. Using black and white film, photographers could control every step of the photographic process. Due to the complexity of processing color film and printing color photographs, and to the rise, first of Polaroid technology and later digital photography, darkrooms are decreasing in popularity.

Digital photography, as opposed to film photography, uses electronic devices to record the image as binary data. This facilitates storage and editing of the images on personal computers, and also the ability to show and delete unsuccessful images immediately on the camera itself. Digital cameras now outsell film cameras and include features not found in film cameras such as the ability to shoot video and record audio. Some other devices, such as mobile phones, now include digital photography features.