After several years working as assistant to William Lubtchansky, Caroline Champetier debuted as lighting camerawoman on Chantal Akerman's All Night Long in 1981. In 1985 she was lighting camerawoman on Soigne ta droite (1985), the first of seven films she has made with Jean-Luc Godard. She went on to work with Jacques Doillon, Jacques Rivette, Philippe Garrel, Benoît Jacquot, André Téchiné, Barbet Schroeder, and Claude Lanzmann. She has also lent her skills to a new generation of French filmmakers, including Arnaud Desplechin, Christophe Loizillon, Laëtitia Masson, Pascal Rambert, Xavier Beauvois, and Patricia Mazuy. Internationally, she has worked with Nobuhiro Suwa, Amos Gitaï and the Palestinian director Tawfik Abu Wael.

In 2011 she directed the photography for Holy Motors, by Leos Carax, designed the images for an installation by Sophie Calle, Pour la première et la dernière fois, and was behind the camera for Margarethe Von Trotta's film about Hannah Arendt. In July 2012 she began shooting with Claude Lanzmann.