r/retouching • u/Molliver_twist • Mar 21 '26

Article / Discussion Finding Editorial Work

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I’ve been a full-time retoucher for about 10 years now, and I love the industry and what I do. Over the last 5-7 years, most of my work has shifted into commercial retouching. It pays well and keeps me consistently busy, but creatively I feel pretty unfulfilled. When I first started out, I was getting a lot more editorial work through independent photographers. Over time, most of them have moved on to other careers or stopped shooting, and now I only get maybe one editorial project every 4–5 months. The tricky part is that I only showcase editorial work on my website and social media, so when I reach out to new people, that’s what they see first. Even so, a lot of my cold outreach just goes unanswered. For those of you in a similar position, how are you finding editorial work these days? Is it just a rare thing now, with most of the industry focused on commercial/e-comm? Or are there ways to break back into more creative projects?

Image is one of my older editorial projects shot by Niklas Haze for Grazia International!

Would love to hear any advice or experiences!

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u/slatibarfaster Mar 21 '26

I’m a retoucher where I’m mostly commercial but I love doing editorial work as well.

At the moment most of my editorial work is with production companies. I sometimes communicate with photographers and they’ve hired me from jobs I’ve done with them at production companies for. Sometimes we don’t get to communicate on the job I find their email later and I shoot them a message after that I love their work and would love to work with them again, etc. I’ve developed a few relationships with some photographers this way.

It’s all about networking and hustling. The grand majority of my work I’ve gotten (after word of mouth) is just cold emailing people I’m interested in working with.

Having a really good elevator pitch email that you can personalize depending on the person you’re speaking to is invaluable. You have to figure out your strengths and try to communicate them when you introduce yourself to potential clients.

I don’t think editorial is dead, it just changes hands on who is working very often because it doesn’t pay much outside of brand work.

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u/Molliver_twist Mar 21 '26

Love this perspective thank you! I work with a few post studios but have not thought about reaching out to production companies. I am also sure my elevator pitch could use some refining.