How To Get Started As A Photo Editor for Professional Photographers

I’m guessing you’ve been bitten by the bug of curiosity and are wondering if becoming a photo editor is for you.

“Is it worth taking on this new income stream?”

“How much work will it take?”

And “Is it actually profitable?”

These are the same questions I had when I ventured into editing 4 years ago. We had just set it stone that we would be moving for the 4th time in 6 years, and you can bet that the idea of transitioning my photography business to a new location for the 5th time was not appealing. I wanted to try something new that didn’t have to start over if we moved again.

Becoming an editor was the perfect solution. No more worrying about finding new clients in a new location. No more stressing over rescheduling photo shoots and having to give up those good weather days to work rather than enjoying them at home with my family.

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through the steps I took to become an editor. You’ll learn:

How to determine if you’re ready to edit for others
The importance of deciding what you will offer and how to price yourself
4 ways to promote yourself as an editor to get your first client

Read on to learn more…

Is Editing For You?

So first of all, before diving into the photo editing business, you want to make sure you enjoy editing. I have found that generally people either love or hate the editing part of photography. You definitely don’t want to make this your primary job if it’s the part you hate.

A few other questions to ask yourself:

Do you feel you can match a photographer’s editing style?
Do you feel efficient and consistent with your editing?
Are you quick in Lightroom? (Dive into the Lightroom Tips here for help with your speed!)

Determine Your Price Point & What You Will Edit

In the photo editing industry, it is typical to charge per image rather than per hour.

This is beneficial to you since you can increase your hourly rate by becoming faster with your editing. But to start out, time your editing to see how many image you can get done in an hour.

And in determining your speed, consider what type of editing you are doing. Your editing speed will be drastically different from simple color correcting a wedding photo to full retouching of a newborn photo.

Once you have a handle on your editing speed, choose your desired minimum hourly rate and divide by the image/hour rate to find your price/image rate.

Play around with these number until you have a price point you are satisfied with. Simple color correction will be easier than the retouching edit pricing.

4 Ways to Promote Yourself as an Private Photo Editor

Consider any photography friends or acquaintances you may have that would benefit from outsourcing their editing.
Create a Website – Shortly after I began editing for a friend, I added a page on my website about my editing services and I completely lucked out with an inquiry just a few weeks later from a Google Search, so you never know! There are so many easy & cheap ways to make a website these days, so it definitely doesn’t hurt to whip one up.
Interact with potential photographers you would highly enjoy working with on social media. Build a relationship with them so they think of you when outsourcing their editing comes to mind.
A listing as a photo editor on a site like Outsourcebar.com that you are an editor looking for new clients. A listing may cost a bit of money up front, so it may not be your first choice but a good option if you’re still struggling to find your first few clients.

So, to recap, to get started as a photo editor, start with these 3 steps: