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How Much Do Freelance Photo Editors Make?
The simple answer is that a picture editor earns an average of £58,550 a year. The actual solution, however, is much more complex. You can learn industry-standard photo editing and graphics design through Blue Sky Graphics online graphics design course.
Let us go through this in detail.
How much should you charge for picture editing?
First, let us define the term “editing.” There are many methods to edit a photograph, each requiring a different amount of time, talent, and expertise.
Simple picture editing: This kind of editing involves basic adjustments such as colour correction and horizon levelling.
Photo retouching: Then there is retouching, which adds additional detail such as eliminating glare from glass or expanding the image’s backdrop.
Special picture editing: Finally, there is special photo editing. This may involve things like altering the colour of an object, smoothing out wrinkles, or even changing the backdrop. This degree of editing may take 10 minutes to hours – each picture!
For the sake of this post, suppose we are talking about the midway — more than simply exposure and cropping changes, but not complete beauty retouching. Also, we will presume you are paying just the editing, not the session or the usage of the pictures themselves.
Various ways for calculating your rates
When it comes to pricing your editing, there are a few options available. Some photographers and editors employ complex formulas, but for the most part, establishing editing rates comes down to three options: by the hour, by the project, and by the picture. Each technique has advantages and disadvantages.
Setting hourly fees for picture editing
Setting your charges by the hour is the simplest method to price your editing, but it is not always the best. Sure, you will have a decent notion of what you need to produce and how long you need to work to be profitable, but chances are, your view of how long an edit should take and your client’s opinion of how long the same job should take are quite different.
When you reach the end of the first hour and realise you have only produced eight pictures, you may need to return to the customer and adjust their expectations about how much the whole project will cost them. That is never a pleasant topic to discuss.
On the other side, you may breeze through editing the whole session and not be able to quickly make up the income you have lost due to being too excellent at your job. You should not be penalised for being efficient, do you? Because of these difficulties, establishing your editing rates by the hour usually works best when you have a collection of comparable pictures, a clear workflow, and a solid sense of how long each image will take you.
How much time does it take to edit a product photo? For 25% of editors, it takes between 5 and 10 minutes each shot, while 20% spend more than a half hour.
Choosing picture editing fees based on the project
Then there is the project-by-project approach. This is a simple way to market since customers know what to anticipate from the start. You will offer them X number of pictures for Y amount of money, no matter how long it takes.
This may sometimes work nicely for both parties. However, you may wind yourself spending much more time than you anticipated simply attempting to get the pictures to appear perfect.
This technique, like the by-the-hour method, works best if you can correctly estimate how long it will take to finish the job. If you are just beginning started and do not know how long it takes you to finish an edit, time yourself as you go through a few sessions and establish a baseline so you know what you are getting yourself into.
Choosing picture editing prices based on image
Finally, there is the image-by-image approach. This technique is very simple – if you charge £1 each picture, the customer will get ten images for £10. Because it is a straightforward method of charging, this may be advantageous to all parties involved. It also makes budgeting easier for your customer – and revenue forecasting easier for you.
On the other hand, it may be perplexing, particularly if you provide various degrees of editing. If you do not have a minimum order requirement, this may be irritating for you, the editor, since there will always be customers who believe they can hire you one picture at a time. You risk wasting a lot of time and money if you spend time talking with them as well as altering their single picture.
If you opt to take the by-the-image route, try packaging your service in increments of 20, 40, and 60 pictures, for example. Your customers will still understand the price, and you will save time by not changing just one or two pictures.
Whatever technique you pick, keep in mind that your price may and should be proportional to your expertise. After all, it seems to reason that a senior editor with skill and a track record should be compensated more than someone who is new to the field.
How much should you charge for picture editing?
Now that you have considered everything, it is time to put some figures on paper. Begin by calculating the amount of time it takes you to alter one picture. Then determine how long it takes to edit a typical picture collection. If you have chosen to provide several levels of editing, repeat this process for each one.
Decide how much time you have to devote to picture editing and how much money you need to earn overall after you know how long it takes you to edit photos. When you have these numbers, you may split the money you need to earn by the time it takes to complete a session.
Let us simplify the arithmetic and assume you need £1,000 per week, you want to remain part-time so you can work ten hours per week, and each session lasts approximately an hour.
