Retouching Rates

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Slime

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Hi,

My girlfriend has been offered some work doing some image retouching. Could anyone give us a rough guide as to how much she should charge? This is the first time she will be doing this on a freelance basis but her full time job is as a retoucher. Does she charge per image or per hour? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Slime :)
 
I'm not an expert on this but i think she should charge by the hour, as one image may take a lot longer than another or could be more complicated. I'm sure other peeps will have better info though.
 
Cheers for the replies, any idea on what she should be looking to charge?
 
It's pointless charging by the hour, as the customer will expect a firm price up front. She should be able to estimate the amount of work and time involved and quote a firm price on that basis.

Just be wary of quoting a price until you've seen a decent scan of the print to be restored which often reveals the true amount of work needed.
 
OK, I think charging by the hour could be the best option as from what I understand, it could become a regular thing and not just a one off job.

I don't think she's overly keen on jumping in there with a hourly rate too high as there's a risk this could fall flat on its face if she scares them off. Maybe that's the wrong mentality to have, but i've suggested she charges roughly 50% more than her hourly rate at work. I don't think that's too unreasonable as that would still a very reasonable price and if anything else comes of it then it would benefit her in the long run.

Thanks for the replies. I'll let you know if we/she run into any problems ;)
 
Slime, the realism of the situation is that everyone and his brother with a copy of Photoshop is now offering this kind of service, and people are hawking pics round looking for the best price. The problem with pro labs is that they're paying hourly paid workers as well as having to make a profit, so they're not cheap, and the vast majority of people just wont use them for that reason.

There's some pretty awful restoration work around at silly cheap prices, but if the customer doesn't know the difference from a pro job it matters not. I've been doing this work for 20 years or more during which time prices have definitely come down a lot due to the serious competition.

I find customers are always looking for a firm price up front and have often made enquiries at other places beforehand - they really don't want to pay silly money, but I find if they're shown some sample work you can make them realise they're getting exactly what they pay for.

My advice to your gf is to not get involved in the silly price cutting, don't drop her standards, but to pitch her prices realistically for the amount of time she should know how long it's likely to take.
 
Slime said:
Hi,

My girlfriend has been offered some work doing some image retouching. Could anyone give us a rough guide as to how much she should charge? This is the first time she will be doing this on a freelance basis but her full time job is as a retoucher. Does she charge per image or per hour? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Slime :)
Click to expand...

Has she checked with her employer that they don't mind her taking on this freelance work? I'd hate to see her loose her job over it.
 
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