Photo Editing Job – How Much Photo Retouchers Make?
Nowadays many people are currently engaged in photo editing careers, which are related to design and graphic content editing. Typically, they do it on a regular basis as a part of professional activities and, thus, earn their living. These specialists are called photo editors but they often do lots of other related tasks. Generally, a photo editor prepares graphical materials for further publication in the newspapers, magazines, on the website, etc.
Thanks to the development of modern technologies, more and more people think about similar photo editing jobs, but they need to have at least a Bachelor’s Degree in Photography, Visual Arts or Digital Media to get a high-paid position. It is not obligatory but advisable to try your hand as a photographer before you apply for photo editor jobs. It means that you must know how the photo is taken and what affects its quality. If you graduated from a college and got a Master’s degree, you may even send your CV to a well-known photo editing company such as FixThePhoto and get a job.
Photo Editors’ Salary
Photo editor jobs are well paid, but these are several criteria which affect the salary:
1) Bonuses, healthcare, and retirement
2) Relevant job experience + education
3) Your supervisor
4) Number of people you manage
5) Unique skills
The retoucher salary in the US varies from $60.000 to $80.000. In most cases, it is approximately $68.000 (December 01, 2018). It is advisable to contact several companies, send your portfolio and discuss an average salary you may get. Don’t be upset if don’t earn much at the beginning of your career, be persistent and hardworking, and you’ll surely become a successful photography editor.
What Does a Photo Editor Do?
The main task of a picture editor is to turn an ordinary image into a digital masterpiece without distracting objects. He/she often has to cooperate with staff photographers and control their works as they provide him/her with the source material. A photography editor works with light, color, adjust exposure, tone, brightness and saturation of the image, cropping and correcting various defects in the photo editing software as Photoshop or Light room. Photo editors do deep face and body retouching if they work with portrait photos. If necessary, he/she can “draw something digitally” or remove it from a photo, change the background, configure with the form, make a collage, etc. All in all, a professional retoucher must be creative and have a well-trained eye.
In most cases, the main job duties are similar, but sometimes they vary depending on the type of the industry. For instance, they may participate in the discussion of pictures needed for a particular project and give assignments to the colleagues. When a photo editor gets the image, he/she evaluates it and decides what must be changed. In big companies, a retoucher has a team that takes pictures, while in small corporations a photo editor may even train new employees, check the photo equipment and order supplies for a photo department.
Photo Editing Job Requirements
First of all, if you are interested in photo retoucher jobs , you need to be really passionate about this profession and ready to face possible challenges.
Next, you can’t succeed if you have no digital skills. It isn’t a secret that the most popular graphic image editing software is Adobe Photoshop. Many editors also use Lightroom for fast cataloging and effective color correction. Bridge and Capture One Pro (which have similar functionality with Lightroom) gained considerable popularity among photographers and retouchers as well. Mac users often choose Raw Photo Processor, though this RAW converter visually differs from the previous programs, has a more complex interface. In recent years, 3D Lut Creator has becoming more and more popular among photo editors. It is designed for fine work with color (works great with both photos and videos). But this is not a complete list of programs for a photo editor.
If you are serious about this career, even the best software won’t be enough. A professional retoucher will need a few more things. Since you have to work with color, you need an appropriate device that can qualitatively render the entire color palette — a high-quality monitor with an IPS matrix (preferably with full coverage of sRGB and AdobeRGB color spaces) and a calibrator service. Depending on your needs, it may be a great idea to get a graphics tablet as well.
The main qualities of a great photo editor are a creative mindset, imaginative thinking, patience, accuracy, ability to concentrate on the task, and attentiveness to the details.
Who is Your Boss?
It all depends on the company, you work in, but typically a photographer or art director will supervise your work.
Photo Editing Job – Pros & Cons
Becoming a professional retoucher doesn’t mean only completing image retouching courses, but also getting a good hand in practice, studying various “tricks” that are not often needed in work, but are sometimes demanded by the customers. While developing professionally, you will encounter pleasant and problematic aspects of work. Of course, each person will have his/her own list, but there are some common points.
Pros
• Demanded profession
• Decent salary
• Diverse tasks with different complexity level
• Visible result of work - emotional satisfaction
• Can work remotely
Cons
• Irregular working hours
• Subjective assessment of your work, as people have different ideas about basic concepts
• To work remotely, you need quality and expensive equipment
How to Become Successful as a Photo Editor?
Photo editing jobs require deep and sincere interest in the photography sphere. You can’t simply pretend that you like your work or every new order will become a real nightmare. Besides, you need to be very flexible. Get ready that your supervisors may not like all your ideas, but you still need to deliver quality content within strict deadlines. Change your vision if you don’t want to lose your job.
How to Get a Position?
There is no another way but to create a quality and interesting portfolio with different levels of photo editing. Of course, your education matters a lot but it faster and more effective to impress your potential employers not with the words, but with your before and after photos. Demonstrate your best projects and you’ll surely get the desired photo editing job.