CiC    wrote:
Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Here is the situation: I've retouched wedding photos for my own wedding photography business for a number of years (not posted on MM) and it has always been included into the pricing. I'm now trying to go into just retouching and have been contacted by another photographer to do their editing. The bride is asking for double chin and back fat removal as well as basic skin tone adjusting on 35 images. (Not going to post sample for client privacy).

As an amateur retoucher working with a *low-budget*, established photographer, what should my going rate be? How/what would you recommend to charge? The photographer has recommended using Fiverr in the past, but she wants to establish a regular retoucher (in I come). Pretty convinced we can change her low-budget attitude to valuing her services more since she Does have a lot of traffic and referrals.

I am leaning towards doing an edit on one of the photos to find an average time, but also think that's an odd approach. What are your thoughts? I'd like to take the job and need to get back to the couple with a quote soon, otherwise the photographer will recommend Fiverr =

I know I should value the time and effort it takes to do these images and not to under-value my work, but I'd also like to get started.

Thoughts?

There are people on this website who can give pricing per image for anything, without having seen any of the content they are going to work on. But personally I find that quite irresponsible and unprofessional, also disrespectful to the client.

So your approach of trying with one image to get an example estimate of timing is not odd - it is quite correct for anyone who just starts with retouching and/or has difficulty to assess the necessary work. Then simply look at the other images and you will know - some will need more, some less. Make a list, sum the hours and using your own hourly rate - send the price to the client. Simple stuff.

anchev wrote:
There are people on this website who can give pricing per image for anything, without having seen any of the content they are going to work on. But personally I find that quite irresponsible and unprofessional, also disrespectful to the client.

So your approach of trying with one image to get an example estimate of timing is not odd - it is quite correct for anyone who just starts with retouching and/or has difficulty to assess the necessary work. Then simply look at the other images and you will know - some will need more, some less. Make a list, sum the hours and using your own hourly rate - send the price to the client. Simple stuff.

Thank you very much for your response. I went ahead and did just that with what I noticed was the hardest image and timed taking about 35 minutes, so of the others, I'm guessing ~25.

I will do just what you advise. Thank you, again! I greatly appreciate your time and help.