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How to make money online with freelance photo editing
Freelance photo editing is a great way to make a living. This is low-stress, creative work that you can complete while having the TV on in the background. Freelance photo editing also lends itself perfectly to working from home. This is ideal in the current situation we find ourselves in!
Despite all this, freelance photo editing is in high-demand and can pay well. In this post, we will look at how to become a freelance photo editor, or simply use this skill to earn a little extra cash on the side.
What does freelance photo editing involve?
As a photo editor, your job will be to beautify photos and images on behalf of companies and other clients. This is achieved via the use of digital tools. Often, this will amount to airbrushing, cropping, color correction, color grading, or enhancing. However, you may also be given more creative tasks depending on the project.
- Airbrushing – Removing imperfections, often to make subjects’ skin appear smoother.
- Cropping – Removing objects from a scene, so they can be inserted into other scenes. For example, you might want to remove a person from a photograph against a green-screen in order to place them on the cover of a box.
- Color correction – This means fixing imperfections as they relate to the colors in an image. For example, if a photo was over-exposed then it might look washed out and require more contrast.
- Color grading – This means you will be altering the way colors appear in the image, perhaps creating a warmer or cooler tone for example.
That said, some extremely talented photo editors are capable of creating entirely new images using a variety of techniques and effects. In other cases, they might use filters and other strategies to create exciting, dynamic visuals.
Why companies need freelance photo editing
To understand why this is needed, it can be useful to consider the perspective of the client. Companies require high-quality images as a way to market their products, services, and brands. You are far more likely to trust a company website if it uses high-quality images that don’t look like they were taken on a smartphone.
See also: How to become a video editor online
Unfortunately, even with the best cameras in the world, photography alone can only achieve so much. To really reach that professional standard, photo editing is almost always required.
Companies also often need to create unique images using photography: whether that’s an album or book cover, packaging for a product, or a piece of advertising.
And of course, there are scenarios where members of the public need freelance photo editing. This may be to restore old photos, to perfect those wedding snapshots, or just for a bit of fun.
What skills do photo editors need?
So, what skills should you develop for freelance photo editing?
The industry standard when it comes to photo editing is Adobe Photoshop. This is an extremely powerful piece of software, that provides countless tools for all the processes we discussed earlier. Photoshop is so broadly used in fact, that the term “photoshopping” is often used generically to refer to editing!
See also: What is the gig economy? Why the future of work is online (and how to prepare)
That said, Photoshop can be expensive. If you are looking for a cheaper option, alternatives like Corel PaintShop Pro will provide an excellent starting point to learn the ropes (note that the UIs are very different, which can make transitioning between tools somewhat jarring). Adobe Lightroom is useful for quick touch-ups. GiMP is perhaps the best piece of free software.
Other software for freelance photo editing
While Photoshop will provide almost all the features you need for pure photo-editing, it can be useful to master additional skills. Specifically, you can benefit from learning design and illustration tools such as Adobe Illustrator or even something like ProCreate. This way, you will be able to combine your photo editing and image-creation skills to create a wider range of different final products.
See also: How to become a digital artist
Similarly, if you can combine photo editing with web design, video editing, or even 3D modeling. This lets you offer more features to clients, thereby standing out from the competition. Additionally, it’s useful to sign up for a stock photography website such as Shutterstock or Envato Elements. This will give you access to a range of royalty-free images you can utilize in your edits.
Training and certifications
The good news is that you don’t need any specific qualifications or certifications in order to become a freelance photo editor. With that said, Adobe Certification and other similar certifications can only help when it comes to finding freelance photo editing jobs.
See also: What is Adobe certification?
More important is your portfolio and list of clients. That means you need to develop the right skills to promote yourself. Taking a number of online courses can help you to develop these skills. Android Authority readers can access a number of heavily discounted online courses that will teach you the basic skills you need and take you all the way up to professional level.
For example, beginners can get Photoshop for Beginners for just $ This course, usually valued at $, provides 7+ hours of content and teaches all the fundamental skills you need to start editing photos professionally.
Those wanting to take their skills further should check out Adobe Photoshop & Editing Mastery Bundle. This bundle of 5 courses would normally cost $ but you can get it for just $ Here, you’ll learn a number of specific skills, including how to work with black and white photography!
How to find photo editing jobs
Now you have the skills you need, all that is left is to find the work. You can do this in a number of ways. The easiest way to find freelance photo editing jobs is by looking at freelance sites like UpWork and www.oldyorkcellars.com
It can take a while to gain traction on these sites and there is undoubtedly an “art” to it. However, with a little work, you’ll find this to be a powerful and simple way to find paying clients. Check our guide to find other great freelancing sites.
Remember: you will often be able to find more work if you are able to branch out and offer a combination of creative skills.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to work as a “gun for hire” but can “productize” your service. For example, sites like Fiverr will allow you to post services with set specifications and prices. For example:
- Airbrushing for wedding photography
- Color grading for holiday photos
- Cropping one detailed subject
- [Insert fun effect]ify any photo!
This is a great way to focus on the types of work you enjoy/are good at. At the same time, this lets you more easily predict the amount of time you will spend on a given project.
Photo editors can also find work through a personal website if they are able to promote themselves through social media or a blog. Or why not contact a company directly with an example of your work and what you can do for them?
Whatever the case, there are a lot of ways to make money from freelance photo editing. If this is something you have a knack for, why not turn that skill into a hustle?
How To Make Money As A Photo Editor
The appeal of setting your own hours, working from home, and having your own business sounds pretty darn appealing. If you already love editing pictures in your free time, you&#;re now left wondering how you can make money from your skills. If you&#;ve browsed around social media, you&#;ll find a heap of individuals and companies who offer photo editing services, and guess what, some are making a killing doing it. If you want your piece of the pie, there&#;s no reason why you can&#;t get it. If you already have the experience and skills, then the tips in this post will help you start to monetize your photo editing services.
Photo editors can make money in a variety of ways. Many professional photographers will hire a photo editor to organize, edit, and export all their photos from a shoot. This not only saves them a ton of time but lessens their workload, making you a valuable asset. As an editor, you&#;ll make money from retouching images, color grading, removing objects, and cutting out backgrounds to make life easier for your clients.
If all that sounds up your alley, then let&#;s get into the first step of the process: learning how to monetize your skills. With the 8 tips in this post, you&#;ll learn a variety of actionable ways to make money editing photos.
Although some are more time committing than others, this, like any business venture, takes time to grow. However, over time, you&#;ll build a vast network of loyal clients who constantly bring you new work.
8 Ways To Make Money Through Photo Editing
I&#;ve listed these options from fastest to slowest in terms of how quickly you&#;ll see the dollar bills line your bank account. Depending on how committed you are to making money editing pictures, some of these methods prove to be more lucrative than others. Let&#;s jump in!
1. Post Your Services On Fiverr
Assuming you&#;re starting from square one, Fiverr is a great place to start. In a nutshell, Fiverr bridges the gap between client and artist by putting everything in one place. Rather than having to search high and low for a competent editor, individuals and companies can use Fiverr to find hundreds of great photo editors to work with.
What that means for you is an easy way to get instant access to work. On Fiverr, you&#;ll find tons of job postings requiring your editing services. You can go through and bid on the ones you&#;re most interested in to start making a few extra bucks.
As it tends to go in the world of photo editing, it&#;s a numbers game. If you want to make big money editing pictures, you&#;ll have to bid on a lot of different jobs on Fiverr. Although each one may not pay a lot, it quickly adds up over time.
To be successful on Fiverr, make sure to have a solid portfolio and well-written gig description. At the end of the day, it&#;s all about the customer. You want to make it immediately clear that you&#;re a skilled professional and you can do anything they need.
After getting your first few jobs, make sure to get ratings and reviews from all of your clients. These become crucial to help build your reputation and trust with prospective clients in the future. With a long list of great reviews and satisfied customers, you&#;re guaranteed to start getting more and more work as a photo editor.
You can sign up for Fiverr and post your services here.
2. Write Tutorials For Websites
As you&#;ve already seen, there are thousands of tutorials covering every topic of photo editing. From youtube to websites, there&#;s an overwhelming amount of content. So who exactly created all those written articles about how to do x,y, and z in Lightroom?
The truth is, a lot of tutorial websites hire out experienced photo editors to write detailed tutorials for their website. When taking on writing gigs like this, you&#;ll end up getting paid per word you write rather than per article. In most cases, you can expect anywhere from $ to $ per word. This might not sound like much but adds up quickly as you start to write word articles about a certain topic.
Just think, $ a word at words is $. Especially if you&#;re well versed in a particular editing program, you could finish the whole thing in just a day or two.
That&#;s some pretty good money just for sharing your knowledge with the internet!
If you enjoy writing and like to teach others, then this is a perfect way to make money as a photo editor. You can find job postings for tutorial writers on sites like UpWork or Freelancer. In some cases, larger websites will have a dedicated writers page where you can apply to begin creating content on their website.
Just try searching &#;(example website) writing&#; and their writer hiring page will usually appear if they have one.
3. Reach Out To Photographers Who May Want To Lighten Their Workloads
As a photo editor, your best bet of making a regular income is by teaming up with different photographers. Try reaching out to photographers you know, or have mutual connections with so it&#;s a less awkward first encounter. Mentioning your services and rates for photo editing, and how you can help make life easier for them.
With that said, don&#;t reach out to just anyone who takes pictures. Only reach out to photographers who you know shoot in bulk and are dealing with thousands of photos from each job. People who shoot weddings, events, sports, or headshots are your perfect candidates. By taking the editing workload off of them, the rate you charge is a small price to pay for any busy photographer to win back some free time.
You can reach out to photographers in a number of ways. Since you want to talk to people you already are familiar with (or are familiar with you), start with social media. Look on Instagram or Facebook and see what people are up to. If someone is running a photography business, they&#;re often pretty easy to spot. Check out their websites to see what types of photos they take and how your photo editing services might fit into the mix.
From there, shoot them an email with links to your portfolio and past experience. Just like Fiverr, you need to convince them why you&#;re the perfect person to work with. As you start to build trust with one or two photographers, word of mouth travels fast, and soon enough, you&#;ll have more and more photographers knocking on your door. With an established set of clients, you can start to make a good amount of money editing photos.
4. Create A Youtube Channel To Share Your Skills
If you&#;re not interested in working for someone else, creating a youtube channel can be a profitable idea. Just remember, this will take some time to get going. After some dedication, your ad revenue and subscriber count will quickly snowball.
On youtube, you need to have a minimum of subscribers and hours of total watch time accumulated over the past year. Once you check those boxes, you&#;re able to start earning income from the ads on your video.
There are a lot of beginners out there who are desperate to learn the exact skills you already have. Even if you aren&#;t the best in the world, you still have knowledge that someone else will appreciate. By sharing these tips in well-made youtube videos, you&#;ll slowly start to build a decent chunk of revenue each month.
Youtube may not be something to spend full-time on at the start. Once you start to grow, begin spending more time with your channel to just add gas to the fire. Before you know it, your rents paid for just from making videos about photo editing.
Score!
To help give you an example, check out my youtube channel all about photo editing and photography.
5. Make A Photo Retouching Company
If you&#;re serious about making money editing photos, consider making a formal retouching company. There are a handful of companies just like this online such as Fix The Photo. These companies will have a website highlighting the services they offer and price ranges to choose from. The beauty of this is that you can easily scale this business model by hiring remote employees all over the world. Rather than doing all the work for yourself, you can take on more jobs with the help of others.
Building your own company takes time but can be advantageous in the long run. This should only be considered if you want to turn photo editing into a full-time career path rather than a lucrative side hustle.
6. Tell People You Know About The Services And Skills You Offer
One of the easiest ways to get some work to come your way is by telling absolutely everyone you know about what you do. If it comes up in conversation, mention your new photo editing endeavors and ask if they might know anyone interested. Whether they do or not, this plants a seed that makes people think of you when something does come up.
To give you an example, a lot of my own retouching work has come from friends or friends of friends who know what I do. They liked my work, knew I would be able to help, and hired me for the job. You can do the exact same thing for yourself.
This method does take longer to come to fruition, but it is a simple way you can line yourself up for success in the future. Just like anything in life, just ask for it, and you&#;ll be surprised what comes your way. Even if it comes in a few months from now.
7. Create Your Own Photo Editing Courses
I&#;m willing to bet you have some type of social media presence where you share your photos or photo manipulations.
And if you don&#;t, it&#;s time to get on it.
Having an audience of people who like your work is an amazing feeling, but it can be used to help sell your skills. Just like youtube, you can create video tutorials bundled together to creating editing courses on specific topics—things such as how to learn photo editing or how to create a certain image manipulation. When people love your work and want to know your tricks, they&#;ll pay money to learn from the best.
Before you start making courses, make sure you have an established audience. Otherwise, you&#;ll waste a lot of time having nobody to sell to. If you&#;re completely fresh to this, start by creating free value for your audience.
You could make daily editing tutorials on your Instagram story, start a newsletter, or try building a youtube channel. Eventually, your audience will be full of adoring fans that would jump at the chance to buy your exclusive premium tutorials.
8. Sell Your Work As Prints Or Stock Images
Odds are, if you&#;re editing photos, you probably take them as well. Rather than working with clients, you can sell the images you already have. Especially if you create unique composite images, this creates a perfect opportunity to sell photos. Rather than just regular prints, you&#;re selling art pieces that people will love.
Alternatively, you can upload your edits to stock photo sites and see who bites. With stock photo sites, you need to make a lot of sales before making any proper coin. That&#;s why it&#;s important to have a large stockpile of edits to post before you start.
If you have a unique editing style and are able to make images appear larger than life, people will fall in love with it like any art piece. Before you know it, you&#;ll be making money from your unique editing style and have your photos hanging in people&#;s houses.
How Much Should You Charge For Photo Editing Services?
When you start editing photos for clients, the hard part is figuring out how much to charge. Before you choose, make sure to browse other editors of similar size to see their rates. Depending on where you live and what types of services you offer, you can justify charging more or less. At the end of the day, it needs to be reasonable enough for people to pay while still making it worthwhile for you.
Most photo editors will break down their services into different types of editing. For example, you might have culling, basic color and exposure adjustments, custom edits, and retouching rates. Since culling doesn&#;t require as much time or expertise, something like $ &#; $ a photo becomes a reasonable price.
On the other hand, for something like retouching that requires advanced skills and more time, you could charge a higher hourly rate. The rates I&#;ve typically seen from editors is $50 &#; $ per hour but varies depending on the country and currency.
Ultimately, break down all the services you want to offer and how much they will cost on a per photo basis. Instead of hourly rates, most basic editing services are more easily done when charging per photo. That way, both you and your client know exactly how much it will cost before the work even begins. With your prices set, all that&#;s left is to start editing!
Do Photo Editors Make Good Money?
Although it varies, many full-time photo editors can easily make $30, &#; $50, a year with a full roster of clients. As you start to get more and more photos to edit, it all adds up very quickly. Some editors can make far more than this when working on multiple weddings a week, all containing tens of thousands of pictures.
As I mentioned earlier, making money editing photos comes down to numbers. The only way you can make a ton of money editing pictures is by editing a ton of photos. If you&#;re willing to spend the time and energy to sort through hundreds of thousands of photos every month, the reward is oh so sweet.
Required Skills And Experience To Become A Freelance Photo Editor
There might not be a required education background or first aid course to become a photo editor, but there are some requirements that are expected. After all, people will only hire an editor they think will do a good job. If you don&#;t have the portfolio to showcase your skills, then you&#;re going to struggle to find work. In summary, here&#;s what you need:
Besides having a lot of experience with editing photos, there&#;s not much more to it. If you can make an image look beautiful with some post-processing magic, your clients aren&#;t going to care about your job history. As an editor, you&#;re getting paid for the result. As long as you can deliver what someone wants, you&#;re ready for action.
Now that you have an idea of how to make money by photo editing, all that&#;s left is to get started. Create your pricing list, contact some photographers, and start putting your skills to work. Before you know it, you&#;ll end up with a lucrative side-hustle, or better yet, a full-time income.
Happy editing!
&#; Brendan 🙂
Freelance Photoshop jobs
Are you a photo editor? Do you do know how to do Photoshop? Then if the answer is yes, you have the opportunity to make money online by editing photos here at millionformula. We are looking for qualified and experienced photo editors. We have many clients who want their photos edited and this creates the opportunity for you. You should choose the photos you like and edit them as instructed by the client. After you are done with the editing, submit the photo and you will get paid.
We will pay you for each and every photo that you edit. Don't worry about what needs to be done because the client will guide you on all you need to do. The client will inform you each and every detail of the photo that you need to edit it. Moreover, you will have a direct anonymous line of communication with the client so that you can have a smooth time editing the photo.
You will be able to edit the photos from wherever you are since this is a freelance job. Millionformula is not employing you to sit in some offices or some premises editing the photos. All you need is a computer, your Photoshop skills, your millionformula account and internet access. Note that you can edit the photos either online or offline. For online, you will do it here at millionformula logged in to your account through your editors profile. On your editors profile, you will find a graphics designing/Photoshop software that you can use to edit the photos. On the other hand, for offline editing you can use your own computer and your own Photoshop software to edit the photos. For this you will edit the photos on your own computer offline. After you finish upload the finished photo on your online editors profile for the client to access it.
How to get started with photoshop.
To Photoshop here at millionformula, you need to be a qualified graphics designer or a qualified photo editor. All the clients who hire us to edit the photos for them expect that only qualified editors will edit their photos. Therefore we only allow qualified editors for the job. This means that for you to join the program you will have to provide us with any certificates you have. These certificates are for graphics designing, Photoshop or any other related studies. In addition to that, if you have been editing with any other online website, provide us with a link to your profile. We use these certificates and the profile to certify that you are a qualified photo editor and you have some experience with the job.
However if you are a qualified photo editor but you don't have any certificates or online profiles, don't worry because you can still edit photos with us. What you will need to do is take a test with us. Our team will provide you with some test photos to edit and after that we will evaluate your work. If successful you will be free to edit photos with us. To get started just register a millionformula account for free on your registration page.
After that sign in to your new millionformula account. Then head over to millionformula Photoshop program and join for free. We will prompt you to upload the certificates scan copies. Upload them and you will start seeing Photoshop orders right away. These are the photos that require to be edited for our clients. You need to choose the photos you want and start editing them at your own convenience. We will pay you for each and every photo you edit.
THIS IS NOT A SCAM
make money online by editing photos
Are you up for it? Have you tried Mendr? How does it compare with other micro-job photography sites out there?
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About The Author
Saikat Basu is the Deputy Editor for Internet, Windows, and Productivity. After removing the grime of an MBA and a ten year long marketing career, he is now passionate about helping others improve their storytelling skills. He looks out for the missing Oxford comma and hates bad screenshots. But Photography, Photoshop, and Productivity ideas soothe his soul.
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