Key to Making Money With Adobe Photoshop
While Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular imaging software packages around, it comes with a price! Here is a compilation of five ways you can generate money using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, as a business endeavor, for some extra money, or just to regain your investment.
1. Offer a Photo Restoration Service. I’m sure just about everyone has a photo or two that hasn’t stood the test of time all that well, especially really old ones. Using the Healing Brush, Spot Healing Brush, and Patch tools, you can make old or damaged photos look like new again.
2. Become a Photograph Doctor. Whether it’s “red eye”, “pet eye”, poor exposure, or “finger over the lens syndrome” Photoshop can transform a ruined image into a pristine one. You can also use Photoshop to make a colour photograph look like a black and white one, or colour tint a black and white one to make it colour. Not everyone is a good photographer, so you need never be short of “patients”.
3. Design Greetings Cards. With the photo enhancement and graphic design qualities of Photoshop, designing greetings cards has never been easier. You can enhance photos, make them into drawings or paintings, combine photos for humorous cards, the possibilities are endless. Birthday cards, get well soon cards, condolence cards, Christmas cards or cards for other holidays like Mothers’ Day, the list goes on and on. You can easily find card blanks and envelopes from specialist suppliers.
4) Design T-shirts - How many times have you seen something that you thought would make a great t-shirt? It can be hanging in your closet thanks to Photoshop. Transfers can be found at stationery shops or craft stores and plain cotton t-shirt can be purchased from low cost suppliers or even found in bulk online.
5) Web Design - This is a skill always in high demand. From designing full websites, to a few buttons or banners, you can capitalize on this need. Charge for web site personalization, or design generic templates that can be bought and downloaded for customers to customize themselves.
Of course, you may need to get some extra equipment — like a colour printer, scanner, and digital camera — but you can usually pick this type of equipment up inexpensively on eBay or other websites. A DVD of royalty free images is also a must — although check the terms and conditions to make sure you’re allowed to sell products derived from them.
The best advertisement comes from people. Ask friends and relatives, work associates and other connections if they or anyone they might know are in need of your services. Another option is to approach retailers with a portfolio of your work, and offer them commissions on any work they send your way.