FOR A NEW RETOUCHER :
What I learned from Natalia Taffarel (a major, super high paid retoucher) is that you have to figure out what SORT of retouching you want to do -
Natalia_Taffarel wrote:
Still life
Product still life
Editorial Fashion
Commercial fashion
Editorial Beauty
Commercial beauty
Automobile
Stock photography
Architectural
Landscape
Editorial Reportage
Event photography
Glamour
Adult content
Commercial Portrait
Editorial portrait
Corporative Portrait
Sports
Author/Fine Art photography
Just to name a few
Then what I've learned working for a few months as a retoucher is that you shouldn't base your rate off of what other people are doing individually. It varies by person. Some people are going to charge $5 per image for beauty portraits and others are going to charge $300 and up per photo. It depends on the TYPE of client you have (how much they want to spend outsourcing a retoucher) and what YOU want to charge. You just have to be honest with yourself. Everything is very personalized and self driven.
Figure out what type of retouching you want to do.
Spend some time honing your skills and learning as much as you can as a base.
Look at yourself objectively -
* How much time can I dedicate to retouching images for work?
* What are my natural strengths and weaknesses with retouching?
* What industry do I want to market myself to? What are THEY looking for?
* Where can I find the clients who are looking for me? (Not just clients for the sake of clients - but specific clients that want YOUR skill set)
* What makes you different from other retouchers? (Services, skills, educational background you can advertise, etc)
I can only give my perspective as a retoucher here and what I've learned from being on the ground here is that you shouldn't ever compete with the rates of other retouchers because you'll always get beat by someone who's willing to do your work for $1. You need to spend some time figuring out which industry you want to work for and what sort of CLIENT you want. Do you want photographers that are looking for quick, cheap, and easy work that always want to spend less and want bargain bin retouchers? Or do you want photographers that have a bit of cash on them and want to spend a good amount of money on your style opposed to just retouching? Some photographers shill out a lot of money on individual styles of retouching because it mirrors what they want for their personal projects and they have favorites they go to and others just want retouchers for work they can do themselves but choose not to because they're busy and don't need all of the bells and whistles. Nothing wrong with either of them but you can learn about how you should price your services according to the TYPE of clients you want. I learned that from lurking Natalia's posts.
So it's not really a simple answer. Every retoucher has their own unique pricing. Figure out those things above and you'll get a good idea how you can help yourself out.
* * *
As a retoucher I've been working since March and I spent a month learning the basics and spent the past few months learning as I went along from trial and error and I learned a good deal about the types of clients I wanted and my pricing according to my experiences.
My rates vary by the client type and project. I do grunt work for photographers because it's consistent income and you can get a lot of money after a while (enough to pay bills at least), good working relationships with them, and then I'm charging more because the style I have now can be marketed for photographers that don't just want grunt work and want specific stylized retouching. I do both simultaneously.
Retouching is the major avenue of income I have so I keep my options open to different industry types and clients. In the next couple of years I know I can make a good living off of it.
So as far as rates go I tailor myself to my client or we meet half way. Just depends on what your living situation is, your long term and short term goals, your motivations, the industries you want, and what type of PERSON you are really.
- KF