btdsgn wrote:
I know this conversation was going on in another thread, but I decided to start a new one since we were kind of hijacking that thread.

I mentioned that I have a friend at one of the top retouching firms, he happens to be the owner as well as the main retoucher so instead of going back and forth about what high end retouchers might or might not do, I just emailed him and asked specifically "How long does it take you to retouch a beauty image"

I just walked in the house and here's his answer cut and pasted from the his reply.

"A beauty image takes a lot of time. Of course it all depends on amount of detail etc. I usually spend two hours or so on an image but it's not uncommon that I spend 5-10 hours on a beauty pic. Sometimes longer, but it's all up to the client. Congratulation for landing your latest gig it's a big thing."

Anyway that was right from the horses mouth (or his ipod at least). So I guess in a way regarding times everyone was kind of right.

Bold: Congratulations! Tell me more

Yeah that does sound about right, sometimes it's surprising where the time goes when you begin right till the very end.