Among his teachers were Léonce-Henri Burel, Eugen Schüfftan, Jean Bachelet, Joseph-Louis Mundwiller and André Dantan.
The films Petit photographed were almost continuously purely commercial productions to entertain the masses.
He worked with the directors Denys de La Patellière, Ralph Habib, Maurice Labro, Guy Lefranc, Pierre Billon and Georges Combret.
Pierre Petit worked now more frequently with the A film director Christian-Jaque, for whom he shot the sprawling historical costume drama production Emma Hamilton, and the movie star Jean Marais.
During the early 1970s, Petit largely moved back from the cinema and devoted himself to the television.