creative professional’s
Business Guide 2026
How to Build a Thriving Creative Career Today
By Julia Kuzmenko McKim,
RA Founder, Commercial Beauty Photographer & Retoucher
@juliakuzmenko
juliakuzmenko.com
Not long ago, building a career as a photographer, retoucher, or visual artist followed a fairly predictable path: you mastered your craft, built a portfolio, found clients, and got paid for technical execution. The better your skills and reliability, the larger your body of work and your client list, the more work you booked.
That world no longer exists in the same way.
The creative industry is now undergoing its most significant transformation since the shift from analog to digital photography. This time, the change is driven by a handful of powerful forces working together: social media, generative AI, and changing consumer behavior.
Brands today need more content than ever, but they produce their content and hire differently.
AI tools automate tasks that once took years to master.
Social platforms reward speed, relevance, and storytelling over perfection with more prospects, sales, and industry relevance, if you or someone on your team knows how to turn likes and follows into actual, tangible business results.
Marketing teams increasingly create content in-house, rely on templates, and expect faster turnaround at lower costs when outsourcing to independent creative professionals like you and me.
As a result, many highly skilled creative professionals in the visual industry are seeing fewer bookings, tighter budgets, and more competition, even as demand for visual content continues to grow.
This shift doesn’t mean creative work is disappearing. It means the definition of value has changed.
Over the past 15+ years, I’ve lived through multiple industry transitions, from film to digital, from print to social, from single-image campaigns to always-on content. Each shift changed how creatives were hired, what they were paid for, and which skills mattered most.
The pattern is always the same. Technical execution of the day becomes the baseline.
Strategic thinking, seeing trends, and the ability to drive business results become the differentiators.
This page is a living document; it maps how creative professionals are making money today, what roles are emerging in the industry, who hires freelancers, how to stay relevant as technology and trends evolve, and how you can adapt without starting over:
Index
● Foreword by Julia Kuzmenko McKim, RA Founder, Commercial Beauty Photographer & Retoucher
● Who are the creative professionals working in the Visual Industry?
● What is post-production, retouching, editing? Why are these skills valuable?
● Who are the typical retouching clients today?
● What is the market forecast for retouchers?
● What are the available retouching career paths?
● How much money do retouchers make?
● Retouching Market Survey.
The changing rules of engagement
AI won’t take your job, people using aI will
Foreword by Julia Kuzmenko McKim,
RA Founder, Commercial Beauty Photographer & Retoucher
The content creation world is evolving faster than ever. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have created an endless demand for high-quality visuals, pushing big and small businesses to produce more content, faster.
Globalization has also opened the playing field. Brands now hire talent from anywhere, which means more competition, but also more opportunity for skilled creatives who know how to make their work stand out.
At the same time, AI and automation have changed how we create. From image generation to retouching, color grading, and video editing, new tools allow faster turnaround times and more creative freedom.
This mix of tech innovation and rising demand is reshaping what it means to be a creative professional today.
After over a decade in the North American beauty industry as a commercial photographer and retoucher, through my communication with my agent and other established professionals, I am seeing significant changes in how businesses hire independent professionals today and what they expect.
The New Baseline: Multi-Skilled Creatives
Brands now expect fast, high-quality service, and often both stills and video from the same production because it saves them a lot of money on hiring talent, crew, renting a studio, lighting, and grip equipment.
Photographers who can deliver social-ready video content alongside their still images – and handle post-production themselves or through a trusted team of retouchers – have a major advantage, which is reflected in the speed and the price of their services.
Those who can offer creative direction, content, and/or campaign strategy, pre-production guidance, especially to smaller brands that don’t have designated marketing teams or any creative professionals in-house, are even more valuable. They become a true one-stop creative partner, capable of shaping the concept, strategy, and final execution of a full campaign from start to finish or even the entire Brand Content Strategy for multiple years.
This is where visual creative professionals can beat all their competition by simply adding a few skills on top of what they already know and do well – photography and retouching within a certain genre.
Times Square ad for Hourglass Cosmetics (owned by Unilever), Photography & retouching: Julia Kuzmenko McKim & @avenueretouching
So, AI won’t replace experienced creative professionals anytime soon, but it is changing how we work. Just like the shift from film to digital, the tools, pricing, and client expectations are evolving fast.
It’s really not up to us, artists. We can boycott AI tools all we want, but those who pay for content creation will continue hiring professionals who can work much faster and charge less. So, those creatives who adapt will thrive, and those who resist will eventually exit the industry.
The key is to diversify your skills around your core strengths – your unique artistic vision and a nuanced understanding of aesthetics, a keen eye for detail, technical skills in photography and retouching, knowledge of software, communication, and business skills.
Learn Fast, Grow Smart
Learning new skills has never been easier. AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, expert-led online courses, audiobooks, and YouTube tutorials give you access to world-class education on demand.
Upskilling – learning new or advanced skills on top of what you already do well – is what keeps top professionals relevant and in demand. Add adjacent skills, new, faster retouching tools, more automation to handle repetitive tasks, and smarter workflows.
As experienced creative professionals with solid visual industry skill sets (as opposed to basic technicians), we don’t get replaced but can become even more capable craft masters empowered by the new technologies and tools.
You can also expand your income beyond client work through digital products, education, or creative partnerships.
The creative economy is full of opportunity for those who evolve with it
JULIA KUZMENKO MCKIM, juliakuzmenko.com
RA Founder, Commercial Beauty Photographer & Retoucher
Los Angeles + Dallas
Photo & retouching by @juliakuzmenko
Photo & retouching by @juliakuzmenko
By 2028, the global beauty sector is forecasted to reach $590 billion, growing at 6% annually
Both the U.S. and global beauty industries are poised for steady growth over the next five years, with significant contributions from clean beauty trends, digital marketing channels, and regional market expansions in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
By 2028, the global beauty sector is forecasted to reach $590 billion, growing at 6% annually
Both the U.S. and global beauty industries are poised for steady growth over the next five years, with significant contributions from clean beauty trends, digital marketing channels, and regional market expansions in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
Freelance in the Visual Industry
Creative professionals in the Visual Industry masterfully shape the way we experience brands, stories, and ideas. Who are these magicials?
Read the article →What is photo retouching
Today, before images are seen by consumers or followers, more often than not, they are retouched to enhance their perceived visual value.
Retouching, or advanced photo editing, is a set of manipulations performed on a digital image to correct mistakes or shortcomings of the production and elevate its visual impact. Production teams, however, should always aim to minimize post-production time and costs through careful planning, preparation, and impeccable capture.
While new editing tools continue to emerge, Adobe Photoshop is considered the gold standard for professional retouching.
Basic photo editing and retouching manipulations include exposure and color corrections, removal of undesired objects and details, shape adjustments, resizing & exporting images in formats optimized for the web.
The ability to perform high-quality, more nuanced retouching has become an invaluable skill for tens of thousands of freelancers worldwide.
Photographers, retouchers, makeup artists, graphic designers, and other visual content creators can increase the value of their services by adding professional photo retouching to their skill sets.
🎁 One of the bonus practice images in our Skin Retouching course, photography & Retouching by Julia Kuzmenko McKim
