What should I charge for a basic retouch?

[RachelHall]

I am trying to finally start my own photography business. What is the normal cost for a basic portrait retouch. I don't even know where to begin!

[carl.freedom@nt]

Are you a photographer or retoucher?

[jessibelle15]

You should be looking at the rates of other portrait shops in your area and charge a competitive rate.

[RachelHall]

Both, I guess. I did retouch for a photographer for over a year and I am now trying to start my own photography business. He included a basic retouch with all print purchases so, I don't even know how he calculated the cost...I'm lost.

[carl.freedom@nt]

I would work out your cost for the portrait shoot and then include basic retouching in that cost. Ideally spend about one hour max on colour, cleaning up skin and eyes etc.

[HuBBa]

I would rather look at what expenses you have, how many hours you plan on working, divide those two so you know your BASE cost / hour to cover all your expenses. Remember to add in your expected profit, marketing and THEN look at what that number looks in comparison to the competition. If its lower, then raise it to match. If it's higher, re-evaluate your expenses and see if you can get additional income from other areas.

And then make sure your retouching are up and possibly beyond the level of the competition. And also look hard at what you will include in different retouches. A portrait session is not expecting a high end fashion retouch and will not pay for it.

To just blindly look at what others take and not knowing your own costs is a sure way to go out of business while being swamped with work

And good luck in your business.

[RachelHall]

Originally Posted by HuBBa

I would rather look at what expenses you have, how many hours you plan on working, divide those two so you know your BASE cost / hour to cover all your expenses. Remember to add in your expected profit, marketing and THEN look at what that number looks in comparison to the competition. If its lower, then raise it to match. If it's higher, re-evaluate your expenses and see if you can get additional income from other areas.

And then make sure your retouching are up and possibly beyond the level of the competition. And also look hard at what you will include in different retouches. A portrait session is not expecting a high end fashion retouch and will not pay for it.

To just blindly look at what others take and not knowing your own costs is a sure way to go out of business while being swamped with work

And good luck in your business.

That is very very good advice. This takes a lot more thinking than I thought. *goes to work*

[garibaldi]

I charge $250 per thought if that helps, then I have an hourly on top of that

[sergio2263]

Originally Posted by HuBBa

I would rather look at what expenses you have, how many hours you plan on working, divide those two so you know your BASE cost / hour to cover all your expenses. Remember to add in your expected profit, marketing and THEN look at what that number looks in comparison to the competition. If its lower, then raise it to match. If it's higher, re-evaluate your expenses and see if you can get additional income from other areas.

And then make sure your retouching are up and possibly beyond the level of the competition. And also look hard at what you will include in different retouches. A portrait session is not expecting a high end fashion retouch and will not pay for it.

To just blindly look at what others take and not knowing your own costs is a sure way to go out of business while being swamped with work

And good luck in your business.

Also a customer will only pay what he/she can afford, so whilst you are running your own business, the ball is not always in your court, if the money is reasonable and you provide very good services, your business will flourish. I see many people think because they own their own business they can charge whatever price they fancy, it is not always the case, also make sure you have other income to support yourself, whilst you are starting your new business, otherwise you'll find yourself in hot water, which in turn will put you under immense pressure, thus making your business suffer.


hope this help


helen

[Alfred]

I would go with what HuBBa said, for example my expenses are about $1500 per day and I plan on working about .5 hours per day, so very simply my fee is $3000.- )

[HuBBa]

And if you can find the customer base that will let you bring in $7500 (if based on 5 days a week) per week then that is a great setup.

If your customer base are only used to paying $10 / week however, i would say cut your expenses... very fast... or take extra jobs for the remaining 37.5 hours (calculating with a 40 hour work-week since you were only going to work for 30 min / day with retouching ;D

Jokes aside.. helen brings up a point. If your costs demand a higher hour cost than what your customers want to pay then you need to cut costs, exapand your markets, find alternative ways of income or such. Making money with a business is about juggling the money. Most of the time you need to be businessman first, artist second. And unfortunately it's too often the other way around =)