Freelance photo editor

JMC

Hi everyone,
This is my first input on the forum. I hope I sent it to the right thread. I am a graphic artist for a commercial printer. (freelancer at the time) and would like to get into photo editing. I have experience with the CS3 suite, etc. I was asked by a photographer what my hourly rates would be to help her out with her photo editing. I don't know exactly how many photographs she will be giving me, but I'm sure the editing can't be that extensive. I know alot of people charge by the photo, but I don't want to charge her more than she actually makes on her photo shoots. Any information would help in what would be a fair rate. Thank you all in advance!

Nikolai

JMC wrote:

Hi everyone,
This is my first input on the forum. I hope I sent it to the right thread. I am a graphic artist for a commercial printer. (freelancer at the time) and would like to get into photo editing. I have experience with the CS3 suite, etc. I was asked by a photographer what my hourly rates would be to help her out with her photo editing. I don't know exactly how many photographs she will be giving me, but I'm sure the editing can't be that extensive. I know alot of people charge by the photo, but I don't want to charge her more than she actually makes on her photo shoots. Any information would help in what would be a fair rate. Thank you all in advance!

Welcome to Dgrin!
It really depends on what to you mean by "editing" (i.e. what the photographer needs) and what is the original quality (i.e. what the photographer has). Clean sharp pefectly exposed and framed images may require little-to-none work to attain a "natural look". However situation quickly gets worse as the initial image quality goes down, complications (such as skin defects, etc) arise and some graphical artistry (e.g. fantasy, or textures) is required.
The devil is in the details...

JMC

Thank you. I found some great information already on the site. Yes I totally agree that the devil is in the details. I actually have hired her twice, once for a graduation party and once for a communion party. She shoots in raw and sends me the jpeg files and I edited them myself. The only editing I really had to do was lighting, softer skin tones, etc. Nothing to dramatic. I go further because they are my personal photographs, so I put people in the photo that weren't there, clean my 15 year old son's white shirt, etc. lol. But her photos come pretty clean if all she wants is to have a minimal fix. Once she gives me the photos she wants edited, I can always tell her that some will be a little more than others, but she keeps reiterating what my hourly rate would be.

Sam

OK, this looks like an easy issue. Since you have personal relationship with her how about sitting down with her and asking her what her expectations are. Find out about her budget. This could easily change per job.

If that sounds like it's within your skill set or something you can learn pretty fast ask he for 10 sample images. Process these the way you think she wants. See how long that takes you. See what she thinks of these 10. If the processing, style, etc are to her liking all you need to do is negotiate price.

While this kinda puts you back where you are now you will both have the information you need to intelligently work on the price issue.

Sam

SKnight

To expand on what Sam said, I'd ask for a mix of best case and worst case scenario photos, least work to most work.