Quick pricing question

veryrandom

I was asked to photoshop/retouch 'about 100' make-up headshots from a recent event for one of the organisers and how much would this cost. I do a lot of retouching and photoshop on my own work so have no problem with this but 100 pictures is more then i usually deal with and i was just wondering what would people recommend i charge for this service? Any kind of a rough estimate or info would be great!

magicbastarder

depends on how long it takes to do the retouching.
charge them based on how long it would take you to do the job; if it'd take a week, a grand would be reasonable.

Arciphel

Price either by shot or per hour? I'd be guessing €25 to €50 per hour for retouching. I would of course expect good quality retouching for that kind of price, are you in a position to supply that? Also what do they mean by retouching, is it blemish removal, whiten eyes and teeth, soft focus, skin smoothing, dodging and burning, correcting light balance, recovering blown highlights, selective sharpening around eyes/lips etc? I'd make sure you nail them down on their definition of retouching before you quote them. Good luck!

veryrandom

Right, bit of an update, took your advice and clarified with her what exactly she was looking for, sounds like she wants quite a detailed job, used the above posters comment as an example and was told this sounded perfect. I was also given this picture http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/20335817 as a reference for the amount of retouching etc required.
So going on that new bit of information what would be the recommended asking price? Am useless at pricing to be honest, and charging per hour doesn't appeal to me as i couldn't say how long it would take all together (i could through out a rough guess but that doesn't the best option...). If i charged per shot for that amount of retouching for 100 shots what would be a fair recommended asking price?

Thanks so much for all help and info!

ditpaintball

A 100 images, jesus good luck with that. I can barely manage to edit 10 photos from a shoot let along 100.

So you want to price up a job.
How much do you want to make an hour?
Are you able to do the job and to a good quality to justify the price?
Will you be getting money up front or even a deposit? It would be a shame to spend a week editing photos only to have the client not pay up or not want the images any more
Do you have time to complete the job on time?


Find out what size the output images will be needed at. If they are just for the web, then you may get away with quicker edits in less detail. But if they are for large size printing, then you will need them to be fairly perfect, which takes more time.

For example, the shot below took me about 90 mins to complete. It was my own work, so i spend more time on it. Will you be spending 10 mins a photo or an hour etc.


Orla 19 by Richie Buttle, on Flickr

veryrandom

I know, i would be very much in the same boat, i do all my own retouching and do it quite well i believe. This person has seen my work so i presume they are comfortable with the amount of expertise i have (im by no means an expert but i am adept and confident i can i give her what she wants).
My only problem is that yes, this will take a good amount of time judging by the quality of the retouching she wants and the amount of shots.
So going on the information i have - detailed retouching, 100 shots etc. Am just looking for a rough estimate from people on what they think i should charge? I realise theres a whole lotta other things to take into consideration but for the moment going on that info what are your thoughts?
I would prefer to charge per shot just because i would find it difficult to pin point how long it would take me, i havnt done 100 shots before so...yeah i really couldnt say!
Thanks again for any info any of y'all have to offer! I really appriciate it!

oshead

You could always outsource some of the job, standard practice IMO. This will help with the load and the time needed to complete it. With 3 or 4 photoshoppers on board and after giving a price to yer wan you could make a nice little percentage.

PopeBuckfastXVI

FWIW: Just got a friend request on modelmayhem from a retouching service, this was their rates quoted:

Rates:

(Quick lighting & colour corrections - $5)

Basic ($10 per image): skin touch-ups, removing imperfections such as acne, scars, wrinkles, harsh lines, lighting & colour correction, body shaping and make-up enhancements.

Advanced/Fantasy ($30 per image): All of the basics, background changes, special effects/designs and creative work that will take me a lot more time.


Photo Editing Lessons
Online lessons or training one on one in my area



Rates for Bulk work (Per set):

50 images: $7/per image for basic touch-ups
100 + images: $5/per image for basic touch-ups