HuggleMistress wrote:
I don't really want to sell myself short, but I don't want someone coming by my profile and seeing my prices, and then dying of laughter when they see my portfolio. XD

I sure would smile. You are not ready at all. You have some skill and traces of talent.

But good news is there is an online market for any/everyone to exploit and you sure can get a share.

Make sure to feed the talented beast inside you while you are trying to earn some coins. Else you will disappear soon.

Good luck.

Koray wrote:
I sure would smile. You are not ready at all. You have no skill but traces of talent.

But good news is there is an online market for any/everyone to exploit and you sure can get a share.

Make sure to feed the talented beast inside you while you are trying to earn some coins. Else you will disappear soon.

Good luck.

So uh, what do you think would be a more fair/practical rate then?  Like....HALF of what I'm charging?  10 instead of 20?  I wouldn't want to go lower then that.....but I really just feel silly all of a sudden because I'm realizing...isn't 20 an image on the higher end of the scale? XD  What the heck am I doing?  Hahaha.

While there may be people "easy to exploit"....that's not really what I want to do.  I'm glad you think I have some talent, but I agree with you that I don't have "skill."  Sigh, frustrating....how does one develop that?  Does that simply come with time?  Any other advise you can give me?

HuggleMistress wrote:
This question is inspired by another thread.

Anyway....so what do you think?  ((rates are on my profile)) I mean, I AM new at this.  While I've been doing manipulations for about 2 years, I've only been doing retouching for about several months.  And I know I'm not the greatest, still a total noob.  So because of that, do you think my rates might be too high? 

I don't really want to sell myself short, but I don't want someone coming by my profile and seeing my prices, and then dying of laughter when they see my portfolio. XD

FWIW I'm thrilled to see you have before and after sets in your portfolio.
That is a must [for me] to be able to judge the quality of work a retoucher does.

Price is whatever your able to get.


PS, I agree with Koray's analogy (except the easy part).

Craig Allen Studio wrote:
Price is whatever your able to get.

+1

Also bear in mind the images. I don't like flat rates for that reason. But it is a MIND FIELD! (Nearly wrote another F word there in my hungover state!) One image may just need 6 hours of d&B so prices should reflect (to a point) the amount of effort involved.

Koray wrote:
I fixed the skill part sorry about that.

Your goal should be to make amazing amazing images retouching and/or composing, manipulating while staying alive.

As I always say retouching is easy, its just an approach.
Soon everybody will be able to retouch close to what we call high end now.

Some retouchers out there are getting paid $1000 an image if not more.

Haha, thanks! 

Ni Anluain wrote:

+1

Also bear in mind the images. I don't like flat rates for that reason. But it is a MIND FIELD! (Nearly wrote another F word there in my hungover state!) One image may just need 6 hours of d&B so prices should reflect (to a point) the amount of effort involved.

Yeah, I just figured flat rates would be the easiest for me in the stage I'm at.  Some images can take me 3-4 hours for the whole thing....then there's other images where it will take me that long just to do the skin!   I figure it's because I'm still a noob?  Haha, so I don't want to make people pay for that.

Also, how do you charge by the hour?  Does the person just pay how ever much they're willing to pay for, lets say 4 hours of work...and then that's all the work you do is what you can finish in 4 hours?  Or do you just time yourself, and however long it takes you will be what you charge?  Have you just been doing this so long that you can pretty much guess how long it will take you to finish?

Peano wrote:
Koray is out to lunch on this one. There's no way he is qualified to say what you should charge. The "right" amount is what you're willing to accept and a client is willing to pay for a specific job.

By all means, experiment with different rates. If you can charge more without scaring off customers, do it. If you're getting trashy requests that you don't want, raise your fee to keep them out.

Another factor is how much work you want to do. If you want to work full time and make a living at retouching, that's one thing. If, like me, you definitely do not want to do retouching full time, your fees should reflect that.

I started off charging $40 an hour. I was getting more work than I wanted, so I raised it to $60 an hour. At that rate, I get about the right amount of work.

Bottom line: There are no rules or formulas that can tell you whether you're charging too much or too little. If Koray thinks there are, Koray is mistaken.

EDIT: Yet another factor is the market you're aiming to get into. Many on this forum seem to define success as editing images for the covers of slick magazines aimed at women's vanity. That's fine if it's what you're after, but there are many other markets for people with retouching skills. If you're grappling with the question of how much to charge, think carefully about the market you want to get into.

Haha, aww I really do appreciate that type of feedback though.  I need that kind of input where someone can just give it to me straight rather than sugar coating things. XD

Overall, everyone's input has been rather helpful.  I don't think I'll be changing my rates at the moment, though I am keeping an open mind to different systems.  I was just curious to get others opinions. ^_^

Wow, so is it hard to charge by the hour?  I mean, the more I think of it, the more difficult it seems to be.  Though people like you are probably skilled enough to where it won't take you forever to finish something? 

As far as what market I want to get into?  Well, I don't know if "fashion" is my thing.  I don't like editing THAT much to the point where you're actually changing the model.  However, I do like trying to do that style because I think it's great just for practicing and building skill.  Really, I'll take any type of project that I think is artistic, tasteful, and interesting.

HuggleMistress wrote:
Wow, so is it hard to charge by the hour?  I mean, the more I think of it, the more difficult it seems to be.

Well, I don't just run the clock. I find out what the client wants done, then estimate the time it'll take me, and offer them a flat rate based on $60/hour. If it takes me less than the estimated time, I'll cut the fee accordingly; if it takes longer, the flat rate holds.

If they have a list of wants (fix color, adjust clothing, remove shadows, replace background), we sometimes trim that down according to how much the client wants to spend.

I can't see setting prices according to specific tasks, such as $X for color correction. On some images, I can fix the color in 30 seconds. Others might take an hour.

NYC  Studios wrote:
If I send you a face shot of a model with great skin and I used a great MUA would it take you the same time as a photo of a pimply faced kid who did their own make up? Would you put the same time into each and send them back to me as is?

Well they would both have the same amount of effort, though there's no way they'd take the same amount of time.  Good make up, model, and lighting goes a long way which is why that would never take as much TIME as someone with pimples. 

I think this is why I feel most uncomfortable charging by the hour.  I'd rather just do a flat rate and however much work it takes me, is what it will take.  I'd still give the best result possible of course. XD  This works for me NOW I think since I'm still rather new to this.

Peano wrote:
Well, I don't just run the clock. I find out what the client wants done, then estimate the time it'll take me, and offer them a flat rate based on $60/hour. If it takes me less than the estimated time, I'll cut the fee accordingly; if it takes longer, the flat rate holds.

That makes sense.  Also, lets say an image took a bit longer than expected, you don't ask for a bigger payment or do you?  And if you request deposits, that percentage is based on the estimated price of course?  Haha, sorry to ask so many questions. 

Peano wrote:
If they have a list of wants (fix color, adjust clothing, remove shadows, replace background), we sometimes trim that down according to how much the client wants to spend.

I can't see setting prices according to specific tasks, such as $X for color correction. On some images, I can fix the color in 30 seconds. Others might take an hour.

Also makes sense. 

HuggleMistress wrote:
Also, lets say an image took a bit longer than expected, you don't ask for a bigger payment or do you?

No. If it takes longer, "the flat rate holds." If I estimate the time at half an hour and quote a price of $30 for that job, that's the max. If I can do the work in 20 minutes, I charge $20. If it takes 50 minutes, I still charge $30.

The quoted flat rate is my guarantee that the work won't cost any more than that. I've had jobs that took more than twice as long as I estimated. But I get it right, and I charge only what I stated at the outset. It's very simple: I treat clients the way I'd like to be treated if I were in their shoes.