Photo Retouching: An Expense That Will Eventually Pay You
Potential employers are browsing your social media accounts. That's no secret. They are looking to match up items from your resume or job application to postings on your various accounts. Also, they can obtain little snapshots of your personality traits just by observing your content.
More than those two things, however, hiring managers are also judging you by the quality of your photographs. This is especially true on professional networking sights like LinkedIn. However, since it's likely that employers are also checking your accounts on other social media sites if your profile is public, you want professional-looking profile pictures on those sites as well.
If that's the game, you have to play if you want the job. Have your photos retouched to improve the color quality, smooth blemishes or irregularities, and create more eye-catching contrast.
The Basics of Image Retouching
The process starts when you give high-resolution digital copies of your images to a photo editor. Next, they may begin by asking what qualities you want each edited photo to have. Plus, they'll need to know the resolution sizes that you want each finished image to be.
In terms of effects, you will have lots of options:
- enhance or streamline the shape of your body
- make your skin look smoother and free of blemishes
- create contrast between certain features in the photograph
- remove unwanted objects
- make colors within the image more vibrant
This is just a small list of all the possibilities that digital painting/photo editing software allows. If you feel overwhelmed, leave it to the artistic eye of the image editor. Do make sure to know what sort of feeling you want the image to create.
Most image editors charge for each photo that they retouch for you. However, the more extensive the editing required is, the price will increase to reflect this. They may also have packages available if you have a lot of photos that you want to be edited.
To get an idea of what you will be receiving, you can look at the sample pages on most image editor's webpages. Or, simply email them. Also, if you're meeting with an editor in real life, you can also ask for hard copy samples.
Your Personal Brand
The consistency of your images across social media platforms is important for establishing your personal brand. It's basic marketing. The better your brand association, whether personal or professional, the more opportunities that you will have. These opportunities will quickly dwarf the cost of having your photos edited. There's no reason to skimp when creating your image.