How much to Charge for photo corrections, I didn't take photos.

Hey everyone,

 

Basic background: My friend's sister-in-law was recently married. My friend had told her to hire me for the

wedding, I had quoted her a price (a cheap price). She decided to go with someone cheaper (another family friend,

not a pro). No problem, I wished her the best.

 

Well, it turns out bride doesn't like the pictures. She showed them to me, I agree, the photos are poor quality.

I felt very sad for her. So, now they have asked me to look through the photos, pick out certain ones: 1)bride

alone, 2)bride and groom, and 3)bride's family shots. They want me to "fix/correct" them. In fact, I might have

to correct faces (do face/eye replacements) due to eyes being closed, I'll see if this is even possible. Also, it

looks like some lens flare, and exposure issues. I suggested they speak with the photographer, the bride did tell

the photographer that she was not pleased. But she is too upset, and doesn't want to deal with her anymore. (I

don't blame her)

 

Anyway, they have offered to pay me to do this work. I think, they are thinking somewhere from $50-$100. They

want 8x10's of the 3 shots mentioned above. So, I'm not sure how much I should be charging? Taking into account

digital corrections, and photo prints (8x10s, and maybe some 4x6's), just wondering what people think?

 

Oh, and to make matters worst, the photographer shot using film. So, I will be working off scanned images. I hope

the CD scans are high resolution, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

How much should I charge for this type of work (Exposure corrections, color enhancement, lens flare, closed eyes!

!)? Keeping in mind that some of these things may not be fixable (which I already warned the bride). Remember,

I'm fixing another photographer's mistakes, not mine (I do that for free, when I shoot! And I don't often make

big mistakes like these)

 

 

Thanks

It's hard for anyone else to answer this for you but if someone calls me and says they want something fixed I charge $25.00 per 15

min for digital art work and I give them an estimate of what I think it will cost but the final price may be more.

 

You should have a price for this on your price list already so when people ask you can just point them to your published price list.

 

When you sell prints you can include this if you charge enough for your prints which is what I do.

 

You can get hi res scans from the film, I'd get them done by a lab and tack on 30%.

Maybe you should see the scan results before fully committing yourself. If the scans ended up low in quality, the blame might be shifted onto you eventually. Sometimes people have to pay for their mistakes.

Amol:

 

"But she is too upset, and doesn't want to deal with her anymore. (I don't blame her)"

 

Unfortunately, dealing with problems is a fact of life.

 

Unless your bride has a copyright release from the photographer that covers making changes to the

pictures, you are putting yourself in legal hot water by modifying photographs that belong to somebody

else.

 

I would decline the work myself.

 

You already know the bride doesn't value photography. She went with the cheapest bidder, so to

speak.

 

You already know the bride is not good at directly resolving a problem. She's running away from the

original photographer and coming to you.

 

If she has a problem with you, do you think she'll be direct or do you think she'll bad mouth you to

others?

 

 

Eric

Eric makes a good point (including the bride's refusal to not communicate), although I'd guess copyright won't be an issue because I ASSUME this very low price she got came with few restrictions, especially since the results are dissatisfactory.

 

Since friendship is involved, you probably feel reluctant to charge $25 per 15 minutes, but $50 to $100 doesn't seem like it'll be fair to you. Come up with a price/rate (after you've seen the scans) and tell her you'll discount it by...............but she had her chance to get your better service earlier.

i had someone come to me with the same thing once.

 

my experience was that the "friend" obviously didn't charge much, if at all, so doesn't really have a lot of ground if they

were to get upset at my modifications. also, the couple isn't going to be reselling or even displaying the photos except

maybe in the living room or bedroom, so it's not a distribution problem.

 

the main reason to want to do it is so that when that bride starts talking about her negative experience with the

photographer but then subsequently how you "saved" her photos, it's going to turn into a recommendation for you and

who knows what kind of business you could get from that.

 

and i'll have to disagree with eric in saying the bride is running away from the problem. she may be to a degree but you

can only beat a dead horse for so long and expect results. the original photographer obviously had some quality issues.

if they can't take a good photograph and if they can't hand over a better retouched version to begin with, then they

obviously don't know what they're doing. why not go to someone more experienced?

 

i think i charged a flat $100 to retouch a handful of photos. maybe 20 or so, can't remember exact number (note: this

family was a multiple repeat customer so i wasn't worried about charging on the lower end of things). i didn't do anything

crazy, just added some contrast, color correction, face retouching here and there. the photos were still inherently terrible,

but they were thrilled! you do what you can....

If this was shot on film you *really* want to work from good scans of the original negatives, not a lab-done photo CD of unknown quality, or even worse, badly processed images from a photo CD of questionable quality.

 

With negative film that's reasonably well exposed you get a lot of latitude to correct color shift and even exposure problems. If you don't have a decent film scanner I'd get the bride to pay for any 3rd party's costs, get her to borrow/purchase the negatives from the original photographer and pay you a fixed price depending on the number of images and state that they are in.

 

I wouldn't do face/eye replacements as it will be hard to do it realistically, takes time and isn't truly an image that appeared on the wedding day. I'd rather reshoot a few portraits after the fact- it's no more or less real than that.

My bet would be that the cd scans were done at the time of processing, and assuming from your description of the

images, it was done at a low-cost lab. This means low res and hard to work with. You'll have to count on

getting a high-res lab to rescan the negatives (assuming they are available) then work from there. Get a quote

from a pro place before you even think about quoting them a price to work on them. It can be a lot more than you

think it would be.

 

From a retouchers perspective, doing that kind of adjustments can be a b$&^*. Reshoot if you can. Extreme

adjustments can be very hard to get right, even if you do it everyday. Slight changes in the perspective of the

face or eyes can bring on a world of hurt.

 

I'm not trying to discourage you, but be sure you're aware of how much work and cost it is actually going to take

to get not even pro, but acceptable results.

 

Good luck!

"Unless your bride has a copyright release from the photographer that covers making changes to the pictures, you are putting yourself in legal hot water by modifying photographs that belong to somebody else. "

 

Keep reading that until it sinks in. This is important. The bride is potentially in a conflict with the original photographer and if a loose cannon could easily and to your detriment tell the original pro, "I've taken your crummy pictures to somebody else and he fixed them so I'm not buying any prints from you." This isn't a single wedding snap being fixed for a reunion 25-50 years later. No clear authority to work on them? Don't.

Irrespective of copyright issues, friendships, and feeling sad for the Bride, I would charge $0, because I would not do the work.

 

Politely I would refuse, explaining that whilst I have taken on the odd restoration job, my expertise in the Darkroom (or on the computer), addresses my work only, exposed to my settings and also working on my RAW files or negatives.

 

Primarily, I am a Photographer: that said I have learnt Darkroom, Stage Lighting, some Cine etc . . and more recently, Digital Post Production. But I learnt those ancillary skills to enhance my photographic work, which is a different function to setting up business for and having the Primary skills of a Professional Photo Finisher (Digital or Otherwise).

 

That is the way I would address this situation.

 

WW

Hey,

 

Thanks for the responses. Quick question about the "copyright issue". There is not official contract between the

bride and photographer. Currently, the bride does not have the negatives. If the photographer gives the

negatives to the bride, now, doesn't this imply the photographer is giving the photos to the bride to be able to

edit/print as necessary. How would this work? If I gave my photos on a CD, doesn't this imply the customer can

edit them as they see fit? Does the bride need to ask permission, if the negatives are given to her? How do I

handle this?

 

Also, I'm not sure is the "eye" switch. I have done it in the past, with burst-shots, so the angle was the same,

just a split second eye-close. I have seen 4x6 prints, the shots/angles look close. I know, this sounds like

craziness.

 

Also, there is a good point about, whether I can actually "deliver" decent photos, depending on what resolutions

look like. I did mention to the bride, the possibility having the negatives re-scanned for high-res, if needed.

 

I actually, "saved" a photo for my friend (erased a person from the background), which is why he referred me to

the sister-in-law for the wedding and to ALSO fix the pictures.

 

 

Thanks for the advice/input,

Amol

If the bride gets the negatives from the photographer that sounds to me like a license to print, scan, etc. As it's an amateur photographer she might even be flattered by having a few good prints come out of her work.

Regardless of whether the bride gets hold of the negs the original photographer retains the copyright. I wouldn't touch

this with a bargepole - politely say no and suggest that the bride sort this out with her original photographer - it

seems all too complicated to me and a little bit cheeky of the bride given that she turned you down the first time.

Why should you have to step in and sort this problem out for a pittance anyway? Don't you have enough of your own

work to do without sorting out this other stuff?

 

You could always offer to shoot some post-wedding portraits to ensure that the bride and groom have some nice

shots of themselves in their wedding outfits, and then offer them online for extra print sales to the family and guests.

Ownership of the physical object, the book, the file or negative, etc., does not mean one owns the copyright. Copyright ownership vests in the artist/originator when the work is created (fixed in tangible form). Unless there is defined "work for hire" situation which is almost always confirmed by clear contracts, the photographers passing of files, prints, copies, etc., doesn't transfer copyright and that shouldn't be inferred or implied. Copyright ownership is documented by a written transfer document of some sort.

 

It's critical that someone dealing in the creative arts needs to be familiar with the copyright laws and the Library of Congress website is a great place to start.