Colour Correct

[Nanls]

How long does it take to color correct photo, mask out white background and replace with black background. It took me eleven minutes (used the red channel as a mask).. maybe I'm slow and need to refine my technique, client wants to pay $1 to have this done to 300 photos....think not!
~Nancy~

[Nanls]

forgot to upload the "after" file.

[leuallen]

Slow! That's a lot faster than me, but then I hate extractions. 15-20 minutes for me.

I would charge $1.00 just to open the files and look at them. That would net you about $60 an hour, cause that alone would be about a minute a file.

If the lighting is consisitent, you can color correct one file and save the corrections and batch correct them. That alone would eat up the $1.00.

If the client knew what the end result was going to be, why did they use a white background with a white suit? The suit blends in with the background in a few places which will require some special hand work. If all the subjects were in white, it was a big mistake. If different colors, its a different matter. It is their mistake and they have to pay for it, not you.

Larry

[Nanls]

I soooooooooo agree with you! In this global market he'll find someone to do it for his price; not me! ;-)
~Nancy~

[Kraellin]

tell him for his $300 you'll give him an estimate of the work. $1 per image on that sort of image is a rip.

that particular image is amateurish. there are several things wrong with it and it tends to be true that the worse the photography, the less they want to pay to touch it up, but the more it actually needs to be touched up. and like leuallen said, not only is it a white suit on a white background, but he blew out the whites on the suit making it that much harder to correct with a mask or fill. it's lit wrong in several other places as well.

if the other pictures arent any worse than this one and you could do that one in eleven minutes, i'd say something more along the lines of $10 per image would be a better rate, but that's saying it blind without seeing the other images.

Craig

[Caitlin]

Well I think you could possible speed the process a little - have to admit I just used the magic wand for his, and other than the sleeve and hat it worked pretty well. But $1 would be a joke. To do a good job it would take you about 15 minutes I would think once you had dealt with fiddly bits like the shine on the hat. A rough job maybe 5. So if you really wanted to work like a slave I guess $5-$10 per image would be reasonable.

Also, do they really want a matt black background, or do they want a black backdrop? It would look a lot more realistic to have something with a bit of texture I think.

[RooB]

About six minutes, include time to open Photoshop, save the file, and write this message.

Of course-- I wasn't being careful, hence the shoulder. :P

[RooB]

Is that $1 per photo? :P

Here's a muse.....

At my current rate (which will be changing when I bring my business online) is $8.50/hr, and I could do a careful cut and color fix of each one of these in 5-6 minutes (above was excessive rush, color adjust took 1 min, cut took about 1 minute, the rest was Photoshop loading :P). Roughly, 10 photos/hour-- so, at my current rate I would have been doing it $0.85 per photo. (and that's CAD).

Sad, sad, sad.

I need to stop rushing my examples-- but at $8.50/hr I can't afford to do examples for too long.

[Caitlin]

You've kept the earring there RooB - well spotted - I was a bit slack and removed it . The edges are a bit soft though - I think you'll find that to get a cleaner edge will equal more time.

Originally Posted by RooB

Roughly, 10 photos/hour-- so, at my current rate I would have been doing it $0.85 per photo. (and that's CAD).

But I think we've already established that that is not even close to a professional rate. You could do them for free if you wanted to too!

[RooB]

Aye, you get what you pay for, eh?

Honestly, I am much more careful with paid work-- I have to be, since I have a "If you don't like it you don't buy it" policy. Luckily, I haven't had anyone who hasn't liked it yet. :P

Of course, I also refuse commercial work-- too much slavery, too many deadlines-- to me, it isn't only business, it's relaxation, so why make it into work?

[Kraellin]

Roob,

you may want to adjust your rates. when i first thought of the possibility of doing restoration/retouching, i googled some sites and the first one i looked at was in england. their rate was 40 pounds per hour. that, at the time, would have been the equivalent of about $60 u.s. now, i'm not sure how that currently translates to canadien, but i'm fairly sure it's more than $8.50 per

if you've got a decent photographer to work with it's one thing to give a lower rate per print; you dont have to do as much work. but if you're working with someone who doesnt know his photography that well, that's a whole other story. you get more into photo-manipulation rather than retouching.

there's all sorts of considerations on this sort of thing. maybe you're just doing a friend a favor, or building a portfolio, or giving consideration for bulk work and we've seen this discussion before and we'll see it again. the only real advice i could give would be, dont sell yourself short. if you do professional work, you shld get professional pay.

Craig

[Kraellin]

we just posted at the same time, Roob.

Of course, I also refuse commercial work-- too much slavery, too many deadlines-- to me, it isn't only business, it's relaxation, so why make it into work?

and yup, that's one of those considerations

Craig

[RooB]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

if you do professional work, you shld get professional pay.

I'm doing just that, actually.

I'm in the process of working on new rate plans-- instead of one basic rate, I'll be offering service packages (some flat rate per photo, some rated per hour) depending on what kind of work that needs to be done. I'll still have some substantially good deals for the average joe photographer such as basic color correction for $2.50/photo as long as there's 15 or more, but for more complicated processes like alteration, retouching, or restoration, it'll be closer to $20 / hr. And with a per hour rate I've added a new policy for estimation-- it's basically my cap. If I say to you a photo will take 3 hours to do, yet it takes me 5, I'll only charge for three. And I still have to maintain quality because I also have my policy that states, "If you don't like it, you don't buy it."

And still, I will be refusing to work with commercial businesses.

[Nanls]

Well my base price is $40 per hour. I had a studio for 10 years and the last year I was in business (1999) I charged $50 per hour, but now I work in a home office without the overhead. When I worked as Communication Specialist for a group whose catered to the philanthropic sector, we charged $85 per hour- my salary came to about $40 per hour- of course on some annual reports and RFPs we made much more! I feel the price is fair, however, if I need the work, and someone has a large order, my bottom price is $25 per hour. I really watch my time. If there is something I get "stupid" about and waste time, I don't charge the client.

[Nanls]

Originally Posted by RooB

"If you don't like it, you don't buy it."

Actually I have changed my guarantee to "If you don't like it, I'll rework it until you do." That way I get paid.