Photo editing requires time, skill, and proper tools if you want to create flawless results that can satisfy your clients’ needs. However, it can easily get hard for photographers to cover multiple events while editing all those pictures simultaneously and delivering on time. As a result, the deadlines get delayed, which can negatively impact your photography business.

A simpler way to overcome this dilemma is to get a virtual assistant for photo editing. They can take all the hassle out of your editing work. Plus, getting an expert photo editor on board can save you a lot of time, which you can invest in learning new skills or pitching to new clients.

Let’s get into the details of how a virtual photo editing assistant can help you scale up your photography business.

Tasks That Can be Performed by a Photo Editing Virtual Assistant

With a virtual assistant, you’ll have more time to focus on photography and expanding your clientele. Instead of having to spend hours choosing, retouching, and finalizing photos, you can hire a photo editing professional to manage those tasks. 

However, it is critical to understand what such a remote resource can and can not handle. Here are all the tasks that a decent virtual assistant for photographers should be able to do.

1. Sorting Through Photos

Upon receiving the images from the photographer, the first step the editor takes is sorting through the photos and determining which ones are to be edited or which are of poor quality and should be deleted. They can help you eliminate blurred images from the list and collate a set of images according to the event or client’s requirements for better categorization.

2. Cataloging

The second task taken up by the virtual assistant is cataloging. This involves importing photos into Lightroom and Photoshop to organize them. They will also rename them, making it easier to access those files when needed. The images are also placed in folders created based on keywords or dates.

3. Photo Editing

Photo editing is the process of altering an image for enhancement. It can include color correction, cropping, and retouching. The goal is to make the photo look more professional or personalize it as per a client’s specific requirements.

A virtual assistant with photo editing experience can help you with the following:

• Cropping out unwanted parts of the frame (for instance, if people are standing behind or beside the subject)

• Color corrections

• Exposure, lighting, and shadow corrections

• Changing photo background

• Black and white color reversal

• HDR photo editing

• Image resizing

• Portrait enhancement

Benefits of Hiring Photo Editing Virtual Assistant for Photographers

Hiring a VA for photo editing is a wise decision, regardless of the state or size of your business. For instance, if you have an established photography business with hundreds of clients, a VA can help improve operational efficiency by handling photo editing tasks. You and your team will be free to focus on growth strategies and client acquisition. At the same time, your projects will get delivered on time, without any hassle. Such remote assistance also works exceptionally well for small photography businesses or standalone photographers. 

Several other benefits come with outsourcing photo editing to a virtual assistant, including the following: 

Save Time

Outsourcing photo editing to a VA is a great way to save time and get more done. If you’re like most photographers, the business is busy enough as it is—you don’t have time to edit every single photo after a long photography session. By handing over the editing process to the VA, you can focus on growing your business.

Better Productivity

You have limited time available and multiple overlapping tasks. It is reasonable that you want the images to look professional and perfect. But if you sit down to do the editing yourself, you will put the other tasks at stake. Therefore, you need an experienced photo editor so you can focus on other critical tasks and maintain your productivity. 

Improved Accuracy

Accuracy is a key part of any job. However, in the context of photo editing, ensuring accurate outcomes is a matter of being careful, choosing the right tools, and having an understanding of how they work.  

Photographers always have less time as they keep shuffling between places to cover different events. Editing images between photography events can result in low-quality edits that fail to produce accurate results. Also, you will need to stay updated with the latest tools for photo editing and understand different techniques to achieve the desired results in any photo. Hiring a skilled virtual assistant can take care of such hurdles. 

Having a photo editing virtual assistant can result in professionally edited images instead of sloppy edits where something looks off-kilter or pixelated. This will save you a lot of work and keep your clients happy.

Consistency and Quality

Quality is an important aspect of the photography business. While good-quality pictures are appreciated by your customers, a lack of quality can deter clients from opting for your services again. This is why you must find someone with expert skills and experience in editing images to ensure that you get high-quality results.

Final Thoughts

Hiring a professional can be a highly effective way to enhance your pictures. However, finding a good photo editing VA is a challenging task. You need to ensure that their skills and expertise match your requirements.

When hiring photo editing professionals, the first thing that you should notice is their expertise. Ensuring that the virtual assistant being hired can perform the desired tasks is important. In short, hiring a virtual assistant, who specializes in editing photos, can help you save money while providing clients with high-quality images.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What software and tools do photo editors use?

In the photography industry, photo editors use many software and tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Adobe Illustrator. Photo editing software helps in enhancing photos, removing defects, sharpening the image, and other editing tasks to enhance the pictures.

Q2. What can an image editing virtual assistant do for the photography business?

A virtual assistant for photographers is one of the most convenient ways to get the photography business off the ground. Having a virtual assistant for photo editing by your side can relieve stress and enable you to focus on other priorities. The VA will simultaneously edit photos and help maintain your delivery rate and quality standards. 

Q3. How much does it cost to hire photo editing professionals?

Hiring a virtual assistant is an excellent way to save money (certainly more cost-effective than hiring an in-house employee), but it’s not a cheap proposition. The hiring cost depends on the industry’s nature and the expected work volume. The experts will calculate the costs accordingly and help you with a free quote and sample to get you started.