3 Things to Look for When Choosing a Photo Editor | Private Editor For Portrait and Wedding Photographers | Professional Outsource Editor
Taking the leap to outsource your editing as a photographer can be one of the most intimidating and nerve-wracking steps in your business. It’s absolutely essential to make sure you’re choosing the right editor, because the results and experience are going to be vastly different editor to editor. Below you’ll find 3 key things to look for to make sure you’re choosing the right editor for your portrait or wedding photography business.
1. What kind of editor are they: Lightroom, Photoshop, or both?
Professional editors usually choose to focus on either just Lightroom or Photoshop editing, so it’s important you inquire with editors who align with how you currently edit. Just because you have a friend of a friend who does bulk Lightroom editing, doesn’t mean you should try to change your editing entire workflow so you can work with them if Photoshop is a huge part of your current editing process!
2. Does the editor require a minimum number of galleries be sent to them in order to book?
This is SO important to find out when inquiring with different editors! Many wedding editors require a certain number of weddings be sent to them to even book you as a client, so unless you’re absolutely certain your photography business can follow through with that requirement, you might be better off working with an editor who doesn’t have a minimum gallery requirement. Personally I choose to not have require minimums from my editing clients, because how fickle the photography industry is. It’s quite difficult to know as a photographer exactly how many galleries you will have to outsource, so as an editor I structured my business around being able to be as flexible as my photographers need me to be, in order for us all to succeed together in this industry.
3. Is the editor adjusting every single image for consistency, or are they just syncing anchors to the rest of the images and calling it a day?
Unfortunately, you will find many bulk Lightroom editors simply apply a preset to a whole gallery or sync anchors without individually editing each image for consistency. In this case, you’ll always be having to essentially re-edit and adjust every gallery that you get back from your editor to achieve the true consistency and quality you need. Many of my long term editing clients started out working with other editors and weren’t happy with the results because of this, and weren’t even sure at that point if it would be possible to outsource their editing! This is why it’s so important to do a test gallery with any editor you’re inquiring with, so you can see the actual results you would be getting by working with them, and be on the lookout for major inconsistencies from image to image.