Why Do Photographers Hire Photo Editors in 2024

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While some aspiring photographers mistakenly believe that they should be good at everything they do, it might be better to outsource some tasks and find a professional photo editor for hire to save some time. It will allow you to spend more time developing your photography skills and mastering new techniques.

If you still aren’t sure that outsourcing is a good idea, in this article, I will tell you about the main advantages of this step and provide you with useful tips that will help you get better results. Below, you will find the most important reasons for hiring a retoucher. You can benefit from outsourcing regardless of your photography experience.

1. Saving Your Time

photo editor for hire before after

To retouch a photo at a professional level, you need to spend at least one hour. More complex tasks require about two hours. When editing images for fashion magazines, you might need to use advanced highend retouching techniques that require even more time. If you don’t have pro-level skills, it might be impossible for you to cope with these tasks on time.

Beginner photographers often need to meet tight deadlines to expand their client base. To find new clients, you need to be good at networking, launching marketing campaigns, blogging, managing social media for photographers and using professional SEO software. All these tasks require a lot of time, so it makes sense to outsource some of them to spend more time on shooting.

To optimize your workflow, you can hire a professional post production service that will help you meet your clients’ requirements. By outsourcing some tedious and time-consuming tasks, you will be able to spend more time taking photos, using photography marketing techniques that might help you increase your online visibility, and implementing creative photography ideas to make your portfolio look more professional.

2. Retouching Requires Experience and Expertise

photo editor for hire studio photoshoot

High-level enhancement requires professional skills. Professional photographers follow recent trends to see what techniques are used now. At the moment, natural skin retouching is quite popular. When looking at a professionally edited photo, you might not notice that it was enhanced. You may even ask yourself, “Is this image Photoshopped or not?”

Some photographers also use such advanced techniques as frequency separation that enable them to deliver stunning results. Experienced retouchers can implement the most complex photo manipulation ideas to make your images more eye-catching. If you decide to hire photo editor, you will be able to engage new clients by posting high-quality images on your portfolio.

fixthephoto photo retouching before after fixthephoto photo retouching before after

Not many photographers have enough money to outsource editing at the start of their careers. However, thanks to our affordable photo editing prices, you won’t need to shell out your money on expensive services. Our experts specialize in color correction and high end retouching. Besides, they use the best product retouching and photo restoration techniques. Before ordering our services, you can also take a look at before and after retouching examples.

3. Producing Professional Results Even When You’re a Beginner

photo editor for hire before after double exposure

If you have never used Photoshop or are just starting to master its features, you can hugely benefit from hiring a professional. It will help you avoid bad Photoshop mistakes that might put off your clients. Poorly edited photos look worse than pictures with some exposure or contrast issues.

To avoid possible Photoshop fails, it might be better to hire a retoucher who will edit your images at a professional level. If you have ever seen ridiculous photoshopped Instagram photos, you may realize that it’s important to entrust editing to experts at the beginning of your career.

It will help you develop your business and get loyal clients right from the start. You can continue practicing until you will get similar results, however, keep in mind that it might take years to become an expert photo retoucher.

4. Ensuring Continuity and Consistency

photo editor for hire

When editing photos, you need to ensure that they will have a consistent look. A professional retoucher knows how to edit images in the same style. By using similar editing techniques and colors, you can develop your signature style and attract the attention of your potential clients.

It might be impossible to promote your photography portfolio unless you edit your images in a consistent style. Maintaining continuity is crucial for any professional photographer. It might be difficult to develop a consistent editing style unless you spend a lot of time enhancing your photos. If your editing skills are pretty basic, it’s better to contact professionals.

5. Making Turnaround Faster

photo editor for hire

By outsourcing your editing work, you can save loads of time and save tons of time. If you make the turnaround time shorter, it will ensure your clients’ satisfaction. When editing all photos by yourself, you might fail to meet tight deadlines and lose long-term clients.

If your clients need to wait for days for their photos, they might be less interested in using your services in the future. However, by sending your photos to professional retouchers, you can receive edited images back more quickly.

Thanks to the fast turnaround time, you can find more loyal clients. When you need to perform many tasks at once, it might affect image quality. Besides, you might feel stressed and fail to solve all the tasks quickly.

4 Tips Before Hiring Someone to Edit Photos

To ensure that your communication with retouchers will be more effective, you need to pay attention to several moments.

1. Provide a Great Base Image

photo editor for hire before after

By outsourcing editing, you can fully transform even the bleakest shots. However, it’s better to send high-quality photos to a retoucher. When capturing images, make sure to set up lighting, create a well-balanced photography composition and use flattering model poses to get better results. This way, it will be easier for professional retouchers to enhance your images afterward.

You might need to use different camera modes and learn how to quickly select the best camera settings for portraits and photos in other genres. Select the best time of day to take pictures to ensure that lighting will be maximally flattering for your model.

2. Communicate Your Style or Wishes

photo editor for hire collaboration

After contacting a photo retoucher, make sure to discuss your requirements regarding the style and color treatment. If you decide to pay someone to edit photos, you can send them a sample and ask them to edit your photos in a similar style.

The key thing is to describe your wishes as clearly as possible. When providing a sample, make sure to clarify which areas of the photo you want to edit. You can also specify whether you want to turn your photo black and white or give it an orange-and-teal look. If you need to make more nuanced edits, make sure to mention this as well.

Even well-established agencies use Lightroom presets to edit images in a consistent style. You can create them by yourself to optimize your workflow. If you need to edit your photos at a professional level, you can contact an experienced retoucher. Regardless of your needs, make sure to describe everything in detail.

3. Learn the Editing Basics

If you have some money, it’s a great idea to outsource some tasks to professionals. However, you can also master some simple enhancement techniques. Even if you don’t have much experience, you can experiment with basic tools to see what works for you best.

After learning a thing or two about editing, it will be easier for you to explain to other professionals what results you want to get.

If you don’t know how to explain everything clearly, it will be impossible for you to get the desired results. This is why you need to learn how to enhance a photo by yourself.

4. Decide What You Need to Outsource

photo editor for hire

To save money, you can make basic edits by yourself and find a photo editor for hire who can perform more advanced tasks. You can quickly adjust contrast, tweak colors, and increase saturation, however, complex tasks will take more time. Keep in mind that it might take several hours to delete a logo or watermark from your photo.

Some professionals prefer doing everything by themselves, but they still outsource time-consuming tasks during the high season. If you take many stock photos, you might often need to process and upload your photos more quickly. When you need to meet tight deadlines, it’s a great idea to find an experienced photo editor to save time.

F.A.Q.

  • • Is it expensive to outsource editing?

Most professionals charge $45-100 per hour, which means that you will need to pay them $2-5 to enhance one photo. However, when it comes to advanced editing tasks, the rate could be much higher. Occasionally, an hourly rate reaches $500, or $20 per photo.

  • • How can I earn more money to hire a professional editor?

You can charge more for your services. When creating your price list, make sure to include the price for editing in your fees. This 3-5% increase will be hardly noticeable for your clients, but it will save you a lot of time.

Even if you are on a tight budget and want to start a photography business with no money, you should always include the price of editing into your fee.

  • • Is it ethical to hire a photo editor?

Even if you are a professional photographer, you can still hire a freelance photo editor to save time. It allows you to allocate your time and resources wisely. Almost all famous photographers hire retouchers to speed up their workflow and spend more time on the things that they like.

  • • What professional software should a photo editor use?

Experienced retouchers use popular photo editing software with extensive sets of tools. If you don’t know which software to choose, make sure to compare Lightroom vs Photoshop and select an option that suits your needs best. After contacting a photo retoucher, ask them which software they are going to use to process your photos. Otherwise, someone might process your photos using free photo editing apps.

BONUS Tools

bonus tools for editing photos

If you decide to process your photos without using third-party services, you can speed up your workflow by using these professional Photoshop tools. In this collection, you will find over 200 actions that can be used for editing eyes, making the skin texture look more natural, adding digital makeup, editing the contour of the lips, and fully transforming the atmosphere in your photo.

Use them to make subtle changes by emphasizing specific details. These effects allow you to quickly adjust brightness, contrast, lighting and other settings. If you have never used them before, you might need to learn how to install Photoshop actions to enhance your photos in a few clicks.

Tata Rossi

Content Editor

Tata Rossi is a photographer-advisor, key contributor at FixThePhoto, sharing her expertise about photography and 55% of photos you see at our blog are taken by her. She is a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

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Tetiana Kostylieva

Head Editor

Tetiana Kostylieva is the Head Editor and Content Creator of all FixThePhoto blog articles, bringing years of creativity and expertise to the team. Her career started in 2013 as a caricature artist at events in New York, where she honed her eye for detail and her ability to connect with people. Now, she leads our editorial team, testing new ideas and ensuring every piece of content is both helpful and engaging.

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