Anybody here have good, bad, or any other experiences with retouching services?

I'm strongly considering outsourcing my retouching to a local service. It's about $15/photo and they do a fantastic job (they gave me a freebie demo of one of my RAW files).

If you use a retouching service, do you just add that to your fee or do you tell the client what the fee is for? Do clients understand what they're getting for an extra $15/photo?

Now just to be clear, I'm no slouch on retouching but it takes a lot of time and I'm quite backlogged at the moment and I'm seriously questioning whether I'd be better off spending that time marketing or whatever rather than grinding away nightly on the computer.

Bump!

I have no first hand experience with this but I've read multiple articles about successful photographers doing this because their time is much more valuable being behind the camera or creating new business oportunities rather than being in front of the computer.

If I was doing this for my primary income I would strongly consider this.
One: I hate doing the editing part of photography
Two: Would allow to network and market more
Three: Allow more time to improve in camera and lighting techniques
Four: Allow more time to develop more poses to prevent being in a rut
Five: The company should do better editing than you since it is their specialty.

A couple negative parts of this is that they may not edit as creatively as you would like or the exact opposite. In some ways you may limit your growth as a photographer since someone else would be doing the editing and fixing your mistakes rather than you doing it.

It is a tough call for sure-

Can you post their freebie demo?

Originally Posted by dogwood Anybody here have good, bad, or any other experiences with retouching services? I'm strongly considering outsourcing my retouching to a local service. It's about $15/photo and they do a fantastic job (they gave me a freebie demo of one of my RAW files). If you use a retouching service, do you just add that to your fee or do you tell the client what the fee is for? Do clients understand what they're getting for an extra $15/photo? Now just to be clear, I'm no slouch on retouching but it takes a lot of time and I'm quite backlogged at the moment and I'm seriously questioning whether I'd be better off spending that time marketing or whatever rather than grinding away nightly on the computer.

$15/photo seems cheap to me. is there a minimum for this price?