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

francis estanislao wrote:
wow that's really helpful im trying my luck on retouching, i got tired of doing graphic/design work (having an early midlife crisis hahaha). might as well do something related and still use some softwares i used to use for design work

thanks kami

Funny. I actually used to be a graphic designer myself but realized at a point that I prefer something more structured because I'm not a creative person. Can't do all that. Even though you're going to ultimately approach all of your photos differently, beauty retouching and basic retouching for models in studio shoots have basic formulas and when you get the formulas down your personal style begins to develop and you end up having a synthesis of different formulas and techniques that are tweaked to the way you prefer approaching things.

For software (anyone can add on here, can probably help me out as well) - I recommend Lightroom 5, Capture One, and I recommend tutorials from any retoucher that Natalia mentions or recommends / is friends with. Literally. I just went through this forum section's major threads for the past few years and found all sorts of gems :

Retouch Inspiration : https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=918356

Product Retouch Tutorials : https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=914345

Retouching Full Time Job : https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=908747

How To Make A Living Retouching : https://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=895007

Dodging And Burning (Natalia + Read everything she posts - Her tumblr, facebook, etc) : http://nataliataffarel.tumblr.com/post/4551849530/dnb

+ Find tutorials on how to extract backgrounds and mask. For example, this is what I use :

Cutting Complex Hair In Photoshop : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNzN4u3- … 15UNS08q7v

Some jobs may require some light to heavy compositing. I can't composite for shit but it might be useful for you.

Take it easy at first. What I've learned is that trying to rush to the finish line to have your work look good will blow up in your face.

Remember that "less" is more. The less it looks like it's photoshopped (even if you've spent 8 hours working on a photo) and the more natural it looks, the better it will be.

But then some retouchers like styles for beauty/fashion that look as if they're like CGI models and digital paintings. It's whatever works for you but I recommend going by the mantra that less is more and then developing that style if you like it once you know how to work all of the tools of the trade first.