Christian Bela wrote:
I will try to help.
I saw your casting calls. What the High End means to you Corey? This is important.
Also have you any 25$/hour photo in your portfolio?

$25 dollars is not high end.

The Invisible Touch wrote:
$25 dollars is not high end.

Depends on where you live.
I know some retouchers and few of them offer REAL high end/magazine/top quality work for 25-50$ per photo or hour because in those countries (like mid EU) that money is good.
I asked him what the High End means to him because it could be anything. To help him we should know his expectations and what he thinks about his own work.

Corey Schroeder wrote:
.

@Christian Bela - I would say my most recent upload (the first (pink) image in my portfolio) would fall in the $25/hr spectrum.

At the time of writing, there are only three images in your portfolio: one uploaded on April 6th, 2015, and the other two on April 3rd, 2015 (i.e. all within a week of of joining MM), and none of which of are obviously pink, unless you are referring to the shade of lipstick.

Nevertheless, your central problem remains that you are competing with retouchers from eastern europe and third world countries, for whom $5 or $10 is a lot of money.

Rob Photosby wrote:
Nevertheless, your central problem remains that you are competing with retouchers from eastern europe and third world countries, for whom $5 or $10 is a lot of money.

You're only competing against them if you choose to compete against them, any half decent restaurant isn't loosing sleep over McDonald's selling $2 'burgers', they're both offering very different products & services to very different target markets.   

It's pretty simple - Don't waste your time on photographers with $10/per image budgets, focus on collaborating/portfolio building with the right clients and place yourself in the actual market you want to be in.

Corey Schroeder wrote:
*EDIT - I deleted my reply to @Ivancoart - I remembered that it solves nothing to argue with people like this guy...

hohoho, you don't like honest and straightforward people? your problems
I'm not going to argue as well, just expressed my opinion

Christian Bela wrote:
Depends on where you live.
I know some retouchers and few of them offer REAL high end/magazine/top quality work for 25-50$ per photo or hour because in those countries (like mid EU) that money is good.
I asked him what the High End means to him because it could be anything. To help him we should know his expectations and what he thinks about his own work.

Location has nothing to do with having the access to work with High End clients. One think is the value of $25 in your country and another thing is how much money you can get paid if you really get to work with the big high end clients, which trust me is far more substantial than those $25. My point is that you don't set the budget, they do.. big campaigns normally don't ask how much you get paid, they have a budget for retouching which you either work with or not (trust me Huge budgets).

$25 retouching is low end regardless where you live, I understand that this amount would make such a big difference in live depending where you live and that's great but don't set that rate as high end because simply is not.

High End clients:

Editorial in Vogue you can get up to €1000 for the whole job normally being about 8/10 images, the same goes or even more sometimes for any other big magazine.

Advertising work for any high end campaign prices could start at €150 and from there it goes up depending the client/budget but imagine working for Prada, this could convert into €1000 per image.

Box Top Photography wrote:
In the real world of hi end retouching rates can go from the mid 30s to 75-100$ an hr. I personally think 25$ is on the low side BUT most photographers on MM are not expecting to pay that kind of money.

I agree! But you have to remember that most of the photographers in MM aren't high end photographers.

Corey Schroeder wrote:
you say to dress for the job you want...  Are none of my photos worthy of $25/hr?

Unfortunately not in my opinion! :-)

Corey Schroeder wrote:
If they are all garbage, I would like to know what I can do to bring up my skill level.
I feel that there are many mediocre retouchers floating around the web - excessive blurring / sharpening, and unrealistic contrast with d/b.
I've spent many years studying the human form, muscle groups, lighting, etc.  I feel that I have a fairly solid understanding of how all of these elements work together.  If you disagree, I would love to know what I can do to take my work to the next level.

Learn how to work without using FS, learn about lighting an image, D&B properly and the most important and difficult thing.. colour

Corey Schroeder wrote:
And $25/hr may not seem high-end to you... But what I'm asking is - what IS a fair price to charge for "high end".
I live in the United States - $25/hr is a very livable wage.   Sure, I'm not going to be a millionaire any time soon, but I will certainly be able to pay my bills and save a little cash in the meantime.

One thing is paying your bills and think that $25 dollars is a decent amount of money and another one is talking about professional retouching... if you get there, trust me, you will get paid at least $150 per image.

The Invisible Touch wrote:
Location has nothing to do with having the access to work with High End clients. One think is the value of $25 in your country and another thing is how much money you can get paid if you really get to work with the big high end clients, which trust me is far more substantial than those $25. My point is that you don't set the budget, they do.. big campaigns normally don't ask how much you get paid, they have a budget for retouching which you either work with or not (trust me Huge budgets).

$25 retouching is low end regardless where you live, I understand that this amount would make such a big difference in live depending where you live and that's great but don't set that rate as high end because simply is not.

High End clients:

Editorial in Vogue you can get up to €1000 for the whole job normally being about 8/10 images, the same goes or even more sometimes for any other big magazine.

Advertising work for any high end campaign prices could start at €150 and from there it goes up depending the client/budget but imagine working for Prada, this could convert into €1000 per image.

I agree that geographic location means nothing in serious job.

For example if you play NBA league and  if you are from from eastern Europe or third world it doesn't mean that you play for $6000 /per year, you play for millions per year if you can score 30 points in match.

In photography and retouching job I know many photographers and retouchers from eastern Europe who charge serious industry rates and who work serious campaigns.

High end clients are not magazines , shooting and  retouching for magazines is nothing , rates are low .

High end clients are companies, brands, serious AD agencies and rates are much more than you wrote.

Industry retouching rates are from $150- $600 per hour ( average rate is $300/hour ) .

Average campaign within 6-8 files costs from $10000- $20000 per campaign , just for retouching.
Serious campaigns cost a lot ,tens and hundreds of thousands dollars , photographers, team, retouchers, locations. models. model releases. property releases , commercial licenses etc, it depends , if companies use famous faces or famous photographers which cost a lot.

If we speak about serious files ( not basic fashion files) which need much more than skin clean-up and color correction/grading, files where top highly skilled retouching agencies  and teams provide including matte painting, composite work, CGI work , rates are much more expensive.
Rates per file are up to $10000 even more if agencies ask for licenses for commercial purposes.

Or for example 3D retouching for serious video games where just one serious 3d character costs around $5000 with rigging, or when one 3D complex background with a lot of elements and complex rendering costs $20000 per file.

Rates above are rates which established agencies charge.

If you are highly skilled freelance retoucher with a lot of experience and knowledge you can work as a freelance retoucher for other agencies , rates are $60-$120 per hour , it depends on your skill, agency, clients etc.

Best
ST