Photo Retoucher Rates!?

[CMS]

Originally Posted by Bianca Carosio

CMS,


I emailed you but you never responded...lol

You must have a wrong adress

cristianstudio@yahoo.co.uk
office@cristianmihai.ro

[pixelzombie]

Originally Posted by CMS

I know for sure that there will always be people asking for to much money than they deserve.But who decides what deserves each.I am one of the best photographers in Romania.I am not making more than 30-35 K a year.For me (learning 15 years and spending more than 100k for equipment ) watching you talking about 80k beeing not so much.WAKE UP people.There are many much more dificult jobs than retouching and earning much less.I see that everyone compares with New York, Los Angeles, London,,,,what about rest of the world??? I need also a retoucher but i live in Bucharest.That means i'm already dead???????

my wifes friend makes 65K as the EA to a head surgeon and that doesn't include a bonus, i'm sure it's stressful job and i've heard that doctors are worse than corporate types but i'd say it's an easier job to do than retouching...

[Bianca Carosio]

Should I try resending?? CMS?

[PatrickB]

Originally Posted by CMS

I know for sure that there will always be people asking for to much money than they deserve.But who decides what deserves each.I am one of the best photographers in Romania.I am not making more than 30-35 K a year.For me (learning 15 years and spending more than 100k for equipment ) watching you talking about 80k beeing not so much.WAKE UP people.There are many much more dificult jobs than retouching and earning much less.I see that everyone compares with New York, Los Angeles, London,,,,what about rest of the world??? I need also a retoucher but i live in Bucharest.That means i'm already dead???????

CMS, don't think this is all about locations, whether NY, LA or whereever. This is an online-business, it simply doesn't matter, where on this planet you are. Companies have their products built and assembled in China or Africa for less than $5 man/hour and shipped back to their own country. So why on earth should anybody hire a guy in London if they can get exactly the same product in less time for less money?

Anyway, people asking for those charges have probably never ever had a single job in this business.

People tend to forget the very basic things it needs to become one of the 80k guys:

1. There's more to this business than just removing blemishes and applying filters. Good retouchers have skills that go far beyond the stuff a photographer can do by himself. And even if the photographer has the same skills, the professional will be able to do it in less time.

2. The elite has a decent base to build on. They exactly know about color-correction and pre-print stuff. None of them will ever even think about messing up CMYK conversion.

3. Of course, they have spent years and years practicing to become so super-good everybody admires them. It's nothing you get by reading tutorials and using pre-written actions.

And of course, the business part itself:

4. You need customers and compete the market. Sounds simple, but there are already a bunch of excellent people out there, so what makes you so special? What can you give the customer, nobody else can give them? And even if you have that special thing, how do you make your potential customer paying attention to your work? Photographers and magazines get a load of spam every day, why should somebody read your email?

5. You need to be 100% pro. This means a customer calling at 5pm wants the job to be done by 8am next morning, not "I am sorry, but I need two days more as I can't keep up with my homework" or "Sorry, my kids are sick". Everything needs to be pro, from first order to the last invoice.

6. Consider a long-term career. Things won't come overnight. Nobody started by earning 80k in two months or so. You start off by doing a bit of restauration for the local photo-shop, then you ask to put an ad in the window and so on...

7. and last: You need the money to start off. Until you earn enough to make a living (which needs some time, see above), there's no chance to be a fulltime freelancer unless you have enough savings to live from.

Maybe people should think that over before they ask for rates...

[Bianca Carosio]

Good/general info. for people that don't know much about the subject! thanks

[LPB]

I work as a retoucher for a firm servicing clients across the Country as well as Internationally and our rates do not vary at all across clients.
As far as obtaining "per-publication" royalties from major publishers, I have not experienced this at all; our fee is pre-determined and flat. It stops at final image delivery.
Working at a firm, we focus on high-volume production. So a major restoration job which might take me 6 hours in a freelance environment would take me 2 at work. Of course, in the freelance case, I might charge $60.00 as opposed to $20.00 at a firm.
Clients who work with our firm expect a pre-determined price per basic retouch/face whereas if done freelance, the price may be determined on an hourly basis (i.e. $60/hour). However, in freelance work, there is never a guarantee that the work will be there, and so the salary would most likely be much less.
What gets me is the restorations that are "sub-contracted" to us from pro photo studios. We may charge the studio $20.00, but the studio passes on a $60.00 bill to their customer. It's just the reality of working in this type of environment.
To make a long story short, I think if you are a freelance retoucher working with a major firm, you should bill hourly and at a high rate (in my opinion,$60.00/hour) - and don't expect any further publication royalties. If you are with a firm, go with your businesses posted rates.

[ftp-Jeff]

I do not do peoples folio work for free.... If they are serious or any good, they will pay.

My charges have gone down over the years, I now charge between £100 - £150 per hour.

I work 5 full days a week. If they want weekend or overnight, I will do it, but I charge more.

How many times have I quoted on a job, only to hear the words " Oh, I know someone who works from home, he can do that job for £50, Why should I pay you £750?

I tell em to go for it.

How many times do they call back a couple of days later, in a panic?

Asking if I can re do it... I do it, and I charge em more.

[CMS]

Just wanted to add something

You thing i charge every client the same price????

NO NO NO No photographer will do that ever.I will charge more for clients with big accounts because the spreading of my work will be bigger.And i charge less smaller client who does not have the financial power.Every photographer does that.

Why you do not do that!!! Not everybody has the same money.If i would have it probably i would move somewhere else.

And i am glad to talk about this because i think that is one of the purposes here at retouchpro

[ftp-Jeff]

Sorry, was that aimed at me? Not to sure.

[AFrazier]

I may not have known what I was talking about in my initial response, but it turned out to be beneficial nonetheless. There have been a lot of good replies that have taught me a great deal about the business end of things.
As it happens ... I charge $60.00 per hour as a freelance anyway, so it was interesting to know that I was doing the right thing in that respect.
From another perspective, knowing some of the salaries that come with this work (which was more than a little surprising to learn), it makes me wonder if I might consider pursuing a career with a professional firm. I have the skills, knowledge, and experience to do so (at least from the artistic point of view if not necessarily all the specifics of the business end). I had no idea they made that much, or that it was such a wide field.
Believe it or not, before finding this forum, I felt pretty isolated at my desk. While I knew there were people who did this for a living, I had no clue it was such a huge trade.

[ftp-Jeff]

Back in the good old days.... I was getting $600 per hour!

[Bianca Carosio]

Originally Posted by ftp-Jeff

Back in the good old days.... I was getting $600 per hour!

[marlaau]

I live in North Carolina outside of Greensboro.

I worked almost 10 years for prepress company that did work for Hearst Publication and National Geographics. At that time I earned 21.00 an hour plus benefits. That company has since gone out of business. Oh I never got any royalties shucks. Oh one more thing, DO NOT REMOVE THE SCAR FROM HARRISON FORD'S CHIN.

I now work for printing company and do not do any retouching just trapping and stepping films for offset and flexo presses. Not as much fun but it pays the bills

My freelance fee for retouching is $45 per hour working for local ad agencies and photographers. No hard proofs.

[Bianca Carosio]

Very cool..thanks for writing that..

"DO NOT REMOVE THE SCAR FROM HARRISON FORD'S CHIN."
lol you want to go into detail what happened?


Your hourly rate is good but I'm guessing that is for portfolio use images only or it is more then that? Any links to your work?

Originally Posted by marlaau

I live in North Carolina outside of Greensboro.

I worked almost 10 years for prepress company that did work for Hearst Publication and National Geographics. At that time I earned 21.00 an hour plus benefits. That company has since gone out of business. Oh I never got any royalties shucks. Oh one more thing, DO NOT REMOVE THE SCAR FROM HARRISON FORD'S CHIN.

I now work for printing company and do not do any retouching just trapping and stepping films for offset and flexo presses. Not as much fun but it pays the bills

My freelance fee for retouching is $45 per hour working for local ad agencies and photographers. No hard proofs.

[marlaau]

Sorry it took so long to get back but I've been busy.

As far as Harrison Ford's scar if you take it off (magazine cover & article) you have to put it back on. I think it was for Redbook in the late 1990's.

You can see some of my retouching at marlaau.com