How does Photo Editing Outsourcing Work?

Photo editing outsourcing is a great way for photographers to save time and improve their client experience. However, it can be daunting to give up such a personal part of your photography business! As a private photo editor, I’m here to fill you in on the entire process for photo editing services to make this process less scary!

What is a Private Photo Editor?

A private photo editor edits images for professional photographers. The editing process can be lengthy and tedious, so photographers often need to outsource editing during their busy season. Wedding photographers often use private photo editors because they deliver so many images from each job.

A good private photo editor is knowledgable in photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom and can match or emulate the photographer’s unique editing style.

Why Should Photographers Outsource their Editing?

There are numerous reasons to use photo editing services as a photographer, including:

• Decrease your turnaround time. Outsourcing to an editor will allow you to turn your photo catalogs around faster. In turn, this improves your clients’ experience. Who doesn’t want to get their photos faster?!
• Increase your consistency. A good private photo editor will be able to emulate and interpret your style and apply it to your images. This can improve your photo editing consistency and help maintain your signature style.
• Improve your work/life balance. The cost of outsourcing your photo editing is minimal for saving you hours of work! You can typically project the costs fairly easily and could work this into your pricing.

Photo Editing Outsourcing Process

So how does it work? Every photo editor for photographers will have a slightly different process, but they are all similar at their root. Here are the steps for photo editing outsourcing:

1. Create a new catalog in Adobe Lightroom
2. Import your images and be sure to build Smart Previews.
3. Edit example images. These are often referred to as anchor images. This is the most important step! Your editor will use these anchor images as a guide to edit the rest of the catalog. I ask my clients to edit roughly 10% of the full catalog to their editing style and specifications.
4. Select all the images in the catalog you want to deliver to the client. You can filter out unflagged or discarded images at this step if you’ve culled the catalog down any further.
5. Go to File > Export as Catalog
6. Give the catalog a name and be sure the Build/Include Smart Previews option is checked.
7. Upload the catalog to your editor according to their specifications.

Advice for Photo Editing Outsourcing

Nervous about giving up control of your editing? There are ways to make it less daunting!

• First and foremost, edit your anchor images carefully! The more time you spend editing quality anchor images, the better your final results.
• Be sure to edit anchor images in a variety of lighting scenarios. If you only give your editor anchors in natural even light, they won’t know how you would handle a backlit scenario. To ensure you are happy with the final results, give your editor as much information to work with as possible!
• Clarify what your editor will and won’t do for you. Most editors will crop and straighten your images for you, but they won’t do detailed editing like spot removal. Know what you’re paying for so you can know what work is still expected of you!

Hiring a photo editor shouldn’t be scary, and there are plenty of reputable ones you can trust! If you’re interested in my photo editing services for photographers, inquire now!