How to Make Money with Adobe Photoshop
Are you looking for a good way to increase your current income by using Adobe Photoshop? If you have solid experience in the area of editing photos with Photoshop,or in graphic design, then you may want to consider posting a profile on a modeling networking site. You should have legitimate experience doing advanced editing, and you need to have photos representing your own work to post on your profile. Advanced editing does not include using programs like Photoscape and Picasa. Advanced editing means you are highly skilled and knowledgeable, relative to using Adobe Photoshop or a comparable program.
Ask yourself if you are highly skilled with Photoshop? Based off of your current schedule, do you have time to get clients edited photos back to them promptly? If you can answer "yes" to both of these questions, then you can potentially increase your income on modeling networking sites.
Two great sites to join are ModelMayhem.com and OneModelPlace.com. These two sites will allow you to connect with models, photographers, and other professionals in the industry. On average many "Photoshop Wizards" on ModelMayhem.com may charge $10-40+ per photo that they edit. Of course, the people charging $40 are industry professionals, who have legitimate tear sheets demonstrating that their work is superior, which means they have visual proof (in their online portfolio), that they have been published.
Tips
You should be highly skilled at adding makeup to photos, correcting visible flaws, and correcting lighting in a photo. When you correct flaws it is typically not desirable on modeling networking sites to use "blur" when you edit. This is normally indicative of a person, who is not highly skilled relative to Photoshop. Some models may want backgrounds altered for their photos, so it is beneficial if you are skilled in this area as well, but not a necessity. You should figure out what your specialty is meaning beauty, fashion, editorial, glamour, advertising, portrait or all of the above. If you are not proficient in an area, do not say that you are, just focus on providing quality work in your specific area of expertise.
Getting Started
If you do not already have one you will need to setup a Paypal account. Next, join ModelMayhem.com and create a profile. In the very beginning, it is best to just start out as a member of one site.
Your online profile should detail your areas of expertise, and what you can provide your clients with relative to your retouching skills. State a turnaround time on your retouching. Some retouchers will post rates on their profiles, but you do not have to do this. Others will have clients send them the photos first, and then they will quote prices based off of what they see and the amount of labor involved. Make sure you list an outside email address on your Model Mayhem profile, so clients can contact you outside of the site to send you their photos. Gmail is a good provider to have an account with because they allow you to send fairly large attachments. Or you can have models and photographers send photos to you via FTP client.
If you feel comfortable doing so, peruse some of the photographers profile pages on ModelMayhem.com, and contact a photographer you would like to work with on the site. Offer to edit a photo for them free of charge. If they like your editing you can both use the photo or finished product in your portfolios. If others like what they see, you will get contacts based off of this, and this also helps the photographer to get increased interest from models. Or you can contact models on the site and offer to edit their photos for free to help build your own portfolio. This will help them too because they will not have to pay someone to edit their photos.
Often models and photographers on these sites feel better sending money, after they have seen their finished photo via a proof. The proof is not something they can use because it has your details across it or a label saying "proof", but a model or photographer can see what the finished product will look like, before sending money via Paypal to a stranger.
It is always a great idea to stay up to date on Photoshop, by improving your skills via classes, or even partnering up with other professionals to learn their techniques. Not only will joining a modeling networking site help you to make money, it will also allow you to network with others who share your passion for Adobe Photoshop.