How To Become An Image Editor: What It Is and Career Path

What is an image editor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Allison Harl Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an image editor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.28 an hour? That's $50,494 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -5,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to an image editor?

Allison Harl Ph.D.

Associate Professor of English English Program Coordinator, Ferrum College

Develop as many multimedia skills as possible. Writing in the 21st century is about visual rhetoric as well as just words on a page.

ScoreImage EditorUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $50,494

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 7.29%

Black or African American 3.60%

Hispanic or Latino 8.16%

Unknown 4.59%

White 76.10%

Gender

female 49.50%

male 50.50%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an image editor

Explore image editor education requirements

Most common image editor degrees

Bachelor's

59.6 %

Associate

22.8 %

High School Diploma

8.1 %

Start to develop specific image editor skills

Skills	Percentages
Adobe Photoshop	24.52%
Color Correction	17.07%
Mac	9.47%
Adobe Creative Suite	8.49%
Image Database	6.51%

Complete relevant image editor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New image editors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an image editor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real image editor resumes.

Research image editor duties and responsibilities

Manage digital marketing and online photo content for best SEO results.
Manage international man-made fiber market research/publishing company and supervise editorial content and sales of industry statistical journal.
Retouch shoe images for web and box images.
Standardize the editing and restructuring of web content pieces for SEO.

Prepare your image editor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your image editor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an image editor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable image editor resume templates

Build a professional image editor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your image editor resume.