PhotoChop.com: You, only better

An Analy High School grad has created a Web-based photo service that is generating a buzz online - and drawing the interest of Silicon Valley investors - by using technology to make the perfect picture.

Lucas Dexter, 26, believes he has found a way to capitalize on the growing popularity of digital photography while tapping the unique skills of the digital generation, which recently began entering the work force.

"What I am doing is right on the pulse of what the Web economy is looking for," Dexter said.

On his Web site, PhotoChop.com, people upload photos they want digitally altered, often to make themselves look better by trimming down their waistline in the family Christmas photo, or removing a zit from an otherwise flawless mug shot.

The image and the customer's instructions will then be sent via the Internet to a photo editor, often a college student looking for some extra spending money. The editor will touch up the photo and send it back a couple of hours later. The editor gets a cut of the service fee, which ranges from a few dollars to about $15 for major overhauls like seamlessly removing an ex-boyfriend from a family photo.

Customers do not have to pay unless they like the work.

Dexter and most of his editors are part of the emerging generation of young people who use skills they developed for fun in their youth to make money in the online economy. The Sonoma County native says he spent more time playing with his computer than studying.

But those skills were crucial to creating the Web site, which launched in March.

The site quickly attracted the interest of Saar Gur, a 30-year-old Stanford MBA graduate and angel investor who is well connected in Silicon Valley.

Drawing on Gur's contacts, the two are interviewing with venture capital companies that might inject millions of dollars into the business. But the pair are also considering raising funds in other ways to retain greater ownership of the Web site, which recently was featured on the front page of Yahoo.com.

The company hopes to capitalize on the strengths of the online economy: low overhead and an exploding worldwide market where people are sharing millions of photos on dating sites like Match.com, on social sites like MySpace.com and on photo-hosting sites like Photobucket.com.

But the company could face big challengers if established sites like Photobucket begin providing a similar service. Also, as more people learn the basics of digital photography, more people are likely to learn how to edit photos themselves.

Dexter's business taps into a youthful and inexpensive work force that grew up with computers and developed its skills often while fooling around with basic photo editing software.

Heather Buna, a 25-year-old Boulder, Colo., resident, is a typical PhotoChop editor. She taught herself photo editing with software that came with a printer she got in high school.

"I literally would just spend hours playing around with it," Buna said. "I never took any classes."

Buna, who works full time for a Web design company, signed up with PhotoChop about a month ago and is now one of about 100 registered editors.

"I just really enjoy Photoshopping pictures," she said. "As a bonus you get paid a decent amount. And it's quick cash."

Her cut as an independent contractor ranges from $2 to $10 a photo, she said. The time it takes to edit ranges from 10 minutes to more than an hour, and the money can be deposited directly into her bank account. During the past month, most of the photos she's worked on were for people's Christmas cards. She uses the software Adobe Photoshop, but editors are free to use any program they want.

Dexter, who now lives in Napa, came up with the idea for PhotoChop last year, and by March had the Web site up and running. The site takes its name from online forums, where "photochopping" is slang for digitally manipulating a photo.

He paid a Web design company about $25,000 to build the site and shelled out another $5,000 in legal expenses, he said. He pulled the money together by selling his ATV, his DVD collection and computer parts, with savings from working for his father's landscaping company, and from family members.

His ambitions are big.

"We want to dominate the industry. Right now we do, but the industry doesn't really exist," Dexter said.

Dexter's partner, Gur, said the company has a lot of potential. The next step is finding office space in San Francisco and advertising and marketing, which the company plans to begin in early 2007. Currently Dexter runs the company from his laptop and works whereever he gets an Internet connection.

"I know I'm on that cusp," Dexter said. "Now I'm getting ready to jump."