How to Use Your Photo Editing Skills to Earn Extra Income

experimental-calendar-puffy June 6th, 2011
With the digital era having a firm foothold in the industry of photography, it is not surprising that most photographers are dabbling in photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop to be used as their digital darkroom. Aside from photo editing software being pricey, it can also be quite tedious to master and learn but it can do wonders in creating effects and improving images.
You will need determination and the willingness to learn the many technical aspects of any software to make full use of its advantages. But with all your effort, the rewards can be fruitful. It can provide many profitable opportunities that you haven’t even thought possible in the field of photography. Mastering any photo manipulation software coupled with your photography business can prove to reap a decent income. Learning the various photo editing techniques can prove to be a valuable skill to add to your talent in photography. Here are some tips on how to make money from photograph editing:
Pursue photo editing and restoration services – Digital picture editing and restoration services is a much sought after niche. More and more people and families want to restore old photographs that have been stored in old photo albums. This is a way of preserving family lineage and genealogy to pass on from one generation to the next. Historical societies and museums always have a need for this particular service.
It is a relatively simple way of retouching water damaged or faded images to make it near perfect again. With technology, it is much simpler to store old photographs in your computer’s hard drive and it won’t be subjected to time and the elements. Even minor photography errors such as over or underexposure can easily be fixed. Altering the background, enlarging an image, and adjusting color contrasts can also be easily done. You can easily correct the color in an image, remove other people in a scene and even just copy old photographs that need no repairing.
Share your knowledge – Once you’ve mastered photo editing techniques you can now share your knowledge and earn from it by offering tutorials or write articles on how to tackle a certain area in photo restoration. There are many online sites that may be interested in buying your articles as long as the content is in demand, your writing is clear and concise, and most of all, helpful. Make sure you have a step by step screenshot for visual illustrations for the readers to be able to follow your instructions and base the ‘before’ and ‘after’ outcome of each endeavor.
Create your own tutorial sites and be open for advertising- the internet is a great source of income. As long as you follow through with your initiative and work hard on improving your site and giving potential and your existing clients fresh material periodically, it will always make them keep coming back for more. Just make sure the content is useful and know what your readers are looking for. Stay abreast with all the latest techniques of all the more popular software available in the market. Most of them perform the same editing features but periodically some companies issue updates or release better and more advanced software that can do other things previous versions can’t.
In creating your own tutorial site, you can also earn extra by using banner advertising network in your site such as Adsense. You can even include a forum or a blog in your site where you share your ideas with other people. This creates a community that shares the same interests and can generate an influx of income.
Create stock photos that have been hyped up by image software – With all the unique techniques a software can do to manipulate an image to make it look out of this world, you can tap into a market that makes conventional images totally unconventional. This is a great way to hone your skills in photo editing, not to mention show it off to the world and earn from it.
Have an option for video tutorials – Since the popularity of YouTube hit the internet, video has reached internet mainstream. People who use the internet have become more interactive and expect visual content and text content in whatever they do online. Having the option of offering video tutorials would give you further reach in a possible client base.

Kristine Hojilla

Kristine Hojilla

PhotoEventplus - Photographer

Kristine is an avid photographer from the tropical Philippine islands. She always tries to capture the extraordinary in mundane objects and scenes.