Pixiq

Have you noticed we are in a global economy? The world of photography is a prime example in many ways. Postproduction retouching is just one facet. Outsourcing is not new, it's just done in a new way. Here are some suggestions how to beat 'em by joining 'em, and just maybe save your job as a photographer at the same time.

The days of charging $125 per hour for simple, garden variety retouching are over! Restating this another way, maybe it’s possible to charge that much, but with today's postproduction tools, you should be so quick that easy work takes just 3-5 minutes. 

There are numerous technical levels of portrait retouching. Simple blemish removal. Skin smoothing, “rounding” and glow. Clothing smoothing and enhancements like changing color of unfortunate shirt choice. Background modification, blurring and vignetting. You can think of others.

There are also several visual approaches ranging from just improving a snapshot to popular special effects like high pass filter grunge or angel glow.

I laud the job description of one commenter to a previous column. He mentioned multi-step retouching work that can take many hours and more that 10 iterations. My training is similar, and I'll post later on some of my internationally award winning work that did - just as this commenter noted - take many hours, and repeated changes. But I’ve learned that this man’s talents, and mine, should now concentrate on a different client. We must find new routes to take, because our industry has changed. Maybe more commercial or high fashion? To this commenter: if your current employer were to outsource the easier, more repetitive jobs, they would have more budget to spend on you for art that matters more to them. The projects you get would also be more individual and exciting.

Lest you (and I) think we are irreplaceable, think again. We have to think differently and re-discover what our niche may be. The new tools don't make our skills obsolete, but they do give us both new capabilities and competition. What no one can take away from our past experience is the vision and good taste to see what can be done and also how we work diligently to achieve an artistic look. Perhaps this man who wrote in, decrying how jobs in general are moving off shore, should be in movies. A wealth of new possibilities lie there, but would require learning new skills.

It is not possible or profitable to call down the outsource companies. Yes, their main thrust is of course the daily, somewhat less complicated jobs, often ones which nobody else is really wanting to do, because they are repetitive and possibly boring. Many of my friends produce 400-500 senior portraits during the few short months of the season. What a relief to be able to send out this work and get back reliable results! Didn’t we all used to do this in film days when we all were forced to deal with labs? The great labs that remain morphed their services to include current techniques at reasonable prices. 

Having someone else do postproduction jobs at a fair price (fair for NOW) is often the difference between being profitable as an independent photo studio and having to sell your cameras.

The people at ReadyRetouch do not consider this work boring. And they're looking to improve their skills and challenge their art with very detailed projects. Why wouldn't they? They're human competitors and are interested in pushing the limits of their abilities, just like anyone else. 

Another point is that retouching firms do a huge service to less experienced photographers - certainly this is the majority of people who currently make photos for money. There's so much to learn! Newcomers don't yet know what is possible, and by using a service they will gain both in their own skills and also keep up standards of photography in the face of the public. This is of major importance. We have certainly seen a decline in the quality of portrait photography and therefore in the value the public places on it. We all need to work toward elevating what we do in the marketplace. Thus quality retouching can be seen as a benefit to the industry as a whole.

Here are some of my suggestions of a hybrid method for portrait photographers working with a retouching outsource, while still keeping one’s own hand in the mix.

• Decide on the motivation, the story behind the portrait, and do the original styling of the image yourself.
• Think about the eventual image use and sizing before you hand over any job.
• Work toward a relationship with a provider, and give good instructions.
• When very special jobs come up, be prepared to discuss in detail what is needed. Making a map or proof with corrections noted can be a real time saver.
• Plan to tweak, or al least check over, the final result, adding vignettes to multiple sizes for instance.
• If you have a really savvy client who will appreciate the art of enhancements, it can be fun to show a before and after. This is also a way you can subtly increase the perceived value of what you do. Magic is worth at lot more $$!

So keep up the good work of beautiful postproduction enhancements- both ReadyRetouch and other similar services that can offer such a real benefit. AND my hat’s off to the special enhancement artisans who have built extraordinary works over years, trained and sweated to create unusual and extraordinary pieces!