[1] He is the son of Patricia Ann (née Conway) and Walter J. Pfister, Jr.[2] His grandfather was the city editor of a newspaper in Wisconsin.
Later, as an executive at ABC News, the elder Pfister worked with David Brinkley and Peter Jennings, covering political conventions, space flights and the civil rights movement.
After high school, Pfister found a job as a production assistant at a television station, WMDT-TV, in Salisbury, Maryland.
Within a couple of months, he borrowed a CP-16 news camera and began shooting films on weekends, including a visual essay about a Victorian house.
Within a few months, Pfister found a job as a cameraman for a Washington news service, which provided film for TV stations around the country.
In 1985 Pfister began a freelance career shooting documentaries for the PBS series Frontline and industrial videos for various Washington production companies.
Pfister drew on his documentary experience, and lit it darkly and stark, using a single light so the actor could play in and out of that source.
Pfister has stated that he "turned down many projects (including several Harry Potter films), in some cases just to be available for Nolan, or to stay home with my family.
He also has been nominated three times for the American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases, for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Inception, winning for the latter, in 2011.
Pfister made his directorial debut with the science fiction thriller Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp, which was released by Warner Bros. on April 18, 2014.
[6] Pfister currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his partner Loan Chabanol and has three children: Nick, actress Claire Julien, and Mia.