Outsourcing retouching - recommendations.

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ryanyboy

ryanyboy

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Ryan
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Hi all,

I've got about half a dozen pictures with a bridesmaid with a HUGE tattoo on her arm which the bride has asked if I can remove. I've been honest and said it's beyond my photoshop skills and that I'll see if I can get a pro retouching firm to do it.

I've never used one before so I'm after recommendations please.

Cheers

Ryan
 
Not used them myself but somebody recommended these guys to me

http://www.retouchup.com/aboutus.php

Seem OK for the money.

Normally I just hire a freelance retoucher by the day but for simple stuff like tattoos a 'shop factory like that one would be cheaper.
 
Retouchup are OK...ish and very cheap. You get what you pay for. I don't find their skin retouching that good.

I recently used Daniel Meadows for a retouch job, and it was very good. More expensive than Retouchup, but the service is far more personal. http://www.dmd-digital-retouching.com/
 
Thanks for the tips all. I'm going to use retouchup this time.

Cheers.

Ryan
 
hi mate i dont know if this may be any good to you but my daughter used to work in a studio and one of the guys there was a bit of a wizz with photo shop if you like i could get his face book addy for you
 
hoochy1 said:
hi mate i dont know if this may be any good to you but my daughter used to work in a studio and one of the guys there was a bit of a wizz with photo shop if you like i could get his face book addy for you
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Yes please. Thanks :)
 
FlyTVR said:
Ryan, I've used them and they were OK. Good luck!

Dav
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Cheers Dav

Harvey_nikon said:
Upload them somewhere and i'll have a bash at them for you if you like :D
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That's really good of you mate. But I've now sent them to retouchup and late last night they emailed to say they are done. I've not had chance to look at them yet but will report back when I do.
 
Betty said:
Would love to see the before and afters? :)
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So would I...

If a reasonably small tattoo I would be quite happy to let content aware have a bash.. but if "full sleeves"... :nono:

I do question though, if a bride wants her day captured... blah blah blah.. why the need to mask something that everyone will see anyway....
 
Here's the pictures folks….

9996167585_d8e463c337_c.jpg


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I must admit I'm delighted with the work retouchup.com have done. It cost $5 per picture and saved me more stress than I needed :)
 
looks excellent.
I wonder what the bridesmaid thinks though. I doubt she will be pleased.
 
No doubt it's a job well done, but I'd be pretty p*ssed off if I was the bridesmaid :D
 
They could have sorted out the tan line while they were at it!
Am presuming the bride will have warned the bridesmaid she has requested this.
 
The bridesmaid hated her tattoo. I imagine it was her request to have them removed.
 
Blimin good job there Ryan. As you've said, better to pay for this than go for all the stress involved! :)
 
FlyTVR said:
Blimin good job there Ryan. As you've said, better to pay for this than go for all the stress involved! :)
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Or go through all the stress of learning how to do it so next time he doesn't need to pay someone to do it?

I guess it comes down to time but tbh anyone who's advertising their services as a wedding or any sort of professional tog IMO would benefit from learning how to do this... it would only benefit them in the long term.

Saying that I'm happy to admit the company he outsourced it to did a good job (y)
 
ajax_andy said:
Or go through all the stress of learning how to do it so next time he doesn't need to pay someone to do it?

I guess it comes down to time but tbh anyone who's advertising their services as a wedding or any sort of professional tog IMO would benefit from learning how to do this... it would only benefit them in the long term.

Saying that I'm happy to admit the company he outsourced it to did a good job (y)
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I am by no means a pp expert, and maybe this is a simple job, but I suspect not. So, even if you have the skill to do it, surely there comes a point where you'd rather pass it on to someone else.

If sitting there pp'ing multiple iterations of images floats your boat then fair enough. But for me, I have better things to do, and if the client asks for this level of service, then they can pay the small amout that is involved. It really is a no brainer.
 
ajax_andy said:
Or go through all the stress of learning how to do it so next time he doesn't need to pay someone to do it?

I guess it comes down to time but tbh anyone who's advertising their services as a wedding or any sort of professional tog IMO would benefit from learning how to do this... it would only benefit them in the long term.

Saying that I'm happy to admit the company he outsourced it to did a good job (y)
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I'm not going to bite Andy. What I will say is this - I'm a photographer, not a retoucher. And I don't want to be one.
 
ajax_andy said:
I guess it comes down to time but tbh anyone who's advertising their services as a wedding or any sort of professional tog IMO would benefit from learning how to do this... it would only benefit them in the long term.
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It's been a long day so I'll go easy on you.

1. Find the stuff you can do that nobody can do better than you - charge for that.
2. Find the stuff that others can do better than you, that you're not interested in or where they charge less than you do.

Use some of the money from #1 to pay for #2.

That's basic business.

After all, I guess I could do a law degree and learn accountancy at nightschool. That would save paying solicitors and accountants and would benefit me in the long term. But I don't.

People are prepared to do stuff I find mind numbingly tedious for less than the money that I can earn in the time it would take me to do it. I'm happy to pay them for that. Anybody not outsourcing is limiting their business.
 
JonathanRyan said:
It's been a long day so I'll go easy on you.

1. Find the stuff you can do that nobody can do better than you - charge for that.
2. Find the stuff that others can do better than you, that you're not interested in or where they charge less than you do.

Use some of the money from #1 to pay for #2.

That's basic business.

After all, I guess I could do a law degree and learn accountancy at nightschool. That would save paying solicitors and accountants and would benefit me in the long term. But I don't.

People are prepared to do stuff I find mind numbingly tedious for less than the money that I can earn in the time it would take me to do it. I'm happy to pay them for that. Anybody not outsourcing is limiting their business.
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Different school of thought to me for sure... If you don't understand PP fully and can't do certain things you will always be limiting the possible end result you can deliver purely through lack of knowledge IMO.

If you don't know how to do x, you might not even know its possible to do y and z.
 
JonathanRyan said:
I just assume anything can be done. Usually it costs less than you'd expect.
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I think you're missing the point somewhat... I'm not talking basic stuff like cloning stuff out, PP can go much much further than that. However if the end result you're getting is good enough for you and the client then I'm not going to convince you of the benefits of learning to master PP (y)
 
ajax_andy said:
Different school of thought to me for sure... If you don't understand PP fully and can't do certain things you will always be limiting the possible end result you can deliver purely through lack of knowledge IMO.

If you don't know how to do x, you might not even know its possible to do y and z.
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Andy I think most of this audience understand the A-Z of what can be done in PP (Grandma's and eggsucking spring to mind), and all the decent business people also understand the benefits of outsourcing areas of work.

I'm assuming you're not making your own frames (some do) binding your own albums (again some photographers do) building your own cameras (yep - that too) writing your own website code (I know you don't, it's getting daft now).

The moment I find myself too busy I'll be shipping my PP to the experts, I find it boring and time consuming. At the moment though it's not time I'd be busy with other things, so it's not economically viable. However, I'd definitely have shipped out this job, I'd have done nowhere near as good a job, and it's have taken me longer than it took the experts.
 
Phil V said:
Andy I think most of this audience understand the A-Z of what can be done in PP (Grandma's and eggsucking spring to mind), and all the decent business people also understand the benefits of outsourcing areas of work.

I'm assuming you're not making your own frames (some do) binding your own albums (again some photographers do) building your own cameras (yep - that too) writing your own website code (I know you don't, it's getting daft now).

The moment I find myself too busy I'll be shipping my PP to the experts, I find it boring and time consuming. At the moment though it's not time I'd be busy with other things, so it's not economically viable. However, I'd definitely have shipped out this job, I'd have done nowhere near as good a job, and it's have taken me longer than it took the experts.
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Totally different kettle of fish mate... Those examples aren't even close to learning to use photo editing software properly. I'd tbh class that job as barely more than a basic job that shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but that's by the by anyway... The point I'm making is that I find it odd a professional photographer has no more than an extremely basic grasp of editing software and that learning how to use it really isn't that big of a thing, in fact I'd say it was pretty much a given.

Clearly I'm wrong and I find that quite surprising. However if outsourcing works for some people that's fine and they can go down that route and still be successful doing so.
 
Ryan,

Looks like the retouchers did a pretty good job on that one... albeit if it took them 5 mins or 2 hours. Pretty sure bm will be happy.....

I know the images are small here, and I assume you sent them a full size file... is it "easily" spottable on that?
 
Lynton said:
Ryan,

Looks like the retouchers did a pretty good job on that one... albeit if it took them 5 mins or 2 hours. Pretty sure bm will be happy.....

I know the images are small here, and I assume you sent them a full size file... is it "easily" spottable on that?
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No, they look great close up too.
 
ajax_andy said:
Clearly I'm wrong and I find that quite surprising. However if outsourcing works for some people that's fine and they can go down that route and still be successful doing so.
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I think you'd find a high proportion of very and not so very successful photographers would outsource their PP, certainly the US/Aus superstars would anyway. It makes more sense to be doing something more productive for your business than mind numbingly boring PP'ing work.
 
ajax_andy said:
Totally different kettle of fish mate... Those examples aren't even close to learning to use photo editing software properly. I'd tbh class that job as barely more than a basic job that shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but that's by the by anyway... The point I'm making is that I find it odd a professional photographer has no more than an extremely basic grasp of editing software and that learning how to use it really isn't that big of a thing, in fact I'd say it was pretty much a given.

Clearly I'm wrong and I find that quite surprising. However if outsourcing works for some people that's fine and they can go down that route and still be successful doing so.
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You're clearly a better retoucher than most photographers I know of, because I definitely don't see that job as a few minutes work and I'm frankly gobsmacked that after 10 years of editing weddings I still only have a basic grasp of Photoshop:thinking:

Although tbh, I've shot nowhere near as many weddings as Ryan or Jonathan who presumably have similar skills:nuts: And I know at least one full time wedding pro here who outsources all his initial editing.

I have to ask though: Have you been smoking something Andy, or have you left your account open whilst your douche bag mate was left in the room? Because this looks nothing like your usual postings :thinking:
 
The economic concept is Comparative Advantage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage

Even if you were faster at retouching than the retouching service, if you had more productive things to do with the time it took you, it still makes sense to pay someone else to do it. If they're better and faster than you, then it's even more of a no-brainer.
 
This thread as usual on TP lately has turned into a bit of a farce, a simple request for advice turns into a willy waving competition, if Ryan wants to outsource images it's up to him, it's his company. Why is it many pro photographer think he/she is the best photographer since sliced bread and a "dragon" when it comes to business.

I would really like to post more on here but the constant bickering and bitching is just astonishing and worrying. Many times I have found myself swearing at myself for coming on here, as I find it really negative and of no help at all, while some (Phil V for example) I've found to be really grounded and helpful to others.

I do know Ryan and have had the pleasure of shooting with him many times, his enthusiasm is infectious and I've learnt loads. I think my photography has come on leaps and bounds because of it, but I will run my business slightly differently and my images will look different simply because I'm not Ryan, where would we be if we were all the same?
 
i too find it a little strange that a pro tog can't do a 2 minute job in photoshop...i thought we were all geeks with mad skills in this area? :D

anyway, not wanting to fuel the fire...i'll walk on :D
 
pmaccyd said:
...

I would really like to post more on here but the constant bickering and bitching is just astonishing and worrying. Many times I have found myself swearing at myself for coming on here, as I find it really negative and of no help at all, while some (Phil V for example) I've found to be really grounded and helpful to others.
...
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Just found this - and I know it's off topic, but Thanks.

But for all the thanks I get and positive comments, there's still a number of people that see my comments and think I exist purely to be confrontational or argumentative. And a fair few that would blame me for lots of threads going South.

Which just goes to show that you can't please all of the people all of the time.

As far as this small barney went - an atypical comment by a usually decent member taken personally by another normally decent bloke created fireworks. I'm glad I don't have to referee this stuff.
 
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