mignonette_dooley_johnson Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Hi, I'm a DC based photog/retoucher asked to do some post production for a wedding/mitzvah photog. I'm curious to know how (per image or per hour) & how much folks are charging. Thanks a bunch. -Mig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosteaM Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 I had the same dilemma after I finished a restoration job on 50 negs 6x6 size that took me way longer than I anticipated. Mind you the negs were 40-45 years old and never cared for, I had to remove in PS scratches, finger prints, dots, you name it after scanning all of them. I went to a specialized lab to have an idea what they are charging and I was told a specialist comes two-three times a week to look at the restoration jobs and issues quotations based on the volume of work. Not really informative but it gave me the idea of how to calculate. I decided to charge my client the average pay/ hour in our province, a flat rate for scanning plus the cost of prints made on-line at Wal-Mart. Customer was happy with the result as I saved their precious memories on a CD-Rom (the files restored), they got to see the prints (B/W as all negs were B/W) and found the total cost reasonable. Knowing your client helps too. Wish you good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_glass1 Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Mihai, Thanks for your story, but...what did you charge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwcombs Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 PS work I do bills at $150/hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosteaM Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 $150/ hour? wow, lucky you what can I say, I'm ashamed to tell what I'm charging. I'm pretty sure where I live one cannot get away with such rates. Remember I don't do this for a living, so I figured I can charge $2/ scan plus $15/ hour for retouching and restoring the digital files in PS, that turned into a total of $280.00 which I think is pretty decent and can bring me more customers through word of mouth. for prints the customer paid the Wal-Mart bill. I hope you understand that I'm far from making any profits since I spent thousands in equipment (camera, scanner, PS software). All I can do is keep myself involved in this hobby that I like, have fund and partially recover some of the investments I made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosteaM Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 correction: please read: "hobby that I like, have fun and partially recover...". sorry for the typo. Having fun is the key word, isn't it? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_Ingold Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 The going rate for event photography in my neighborhood (Chicago) is about 75/hour with a 2 hour minimum. This stuff does not require a lot of post work - just to publication quality. If you are good, and have an high thoughput and fast turn-around, $150 would not be a bad price for retouching. Your quality would have to be as good or better than what your photographer/client would do had they the time. For serious commercial or model photography, $1500 would not be a bad price. Getting the work is another matter. It takes time, consistency, a good portfolio and word of mouth. You are, after all, competing with dilitantes who charge $15 ;-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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