Outsourcing Photo Editing
With an active increase in demand for quality photography, outsourcing photo editing became more popular, because often for the photographer addressing photography editing services is very time consuming and completely unprofitable. Professional photographers redirect this task to professional photo retouchers, freelancers, online services who cope with image editing quickly and efficiently. The statistics shows that photographers who are outsourcing to photography editing companies get 40% more profit from their business than those engaged in editing photos themselves.
This article is an overview of the most popular and professional photography editing services in the web now.
How to choose outsourcing photo editing service?
Inspired by Leslie Flores, a professional wedding photographer, who tells about outsource photography editing as an inalienable part of every photographer`s business. I have read her blog and I am impressed by her detailing writing about all specifics in outsourcing photo editing services. Thus, I want to share with you my opinions about this article and Leslie`s experience in finding photo editing companies for photographers and its advantages and disadvantages on the example of portrait beauty portrait.
But before proceeding to review the most popular photography post production services, I would like to highlight those features that we, as photographers, pay attention to when choosing a reliable service for ourselves.
In order to help you in your choice, I made a comprehensive assessment of 10 photographers outsource editing companies on the most important aspects.
The quality of the retouched photo. According to the standard scheme, the quality of photo retouching, color correction, small blemishes and defects removal were assessed. It is important to preserve the style you ask and the style you get after outsourcing.
The time spent on photo retouching is very crucial for the photographer’s workflow, so I evaluated it separately. The less they do your image retouching, the better.
The customer service implied in my case the convenience of using the site and the platform itself, payment, quality of customer support.
The cost of image retouching is different for everyone, so I analyzed it in the same way.
Available types of image retouching are important in order for you to understand what type of photos can be entrusted to the retouchers of a particular company.
I sent the same photo from one of my last photoshoots to all the photography editing services. This is not the easiest picture, which requires sufficient skill to get rid of small, insignificant lighting mistakes and blemishes. Let’s see who coped with this task its best.
FixThePhoto
The quality of the retouched photo. It is worth saying how beautifully the retoucher coped with professional photo color correction, adding softness to the image. Excellent face retouching without a single drawback, perfect white balance. The only small drawback is that when the blouse was painted, the photo retoucher forgot to add polka dots.
The time spent on photo retouching — Took a little more than one day.
The customers service — Is very convenient and easy to use. In addition to the cheap photo fixing service, convenient order field and communication with the customer support service 24/7, you can see a number of examples of before and after photos in full resolution. Get acquainted with additional FixThePhoto services: there is a full price list of services, a blog with interesting materials, additional materials for working with Lightroom and Photoshop (presets, brushes, templates, textures, overlays).
The cost of photo retouching is 5$ per photo for portrait retouching.
Available types of image retouching. FixThePhoto is the best photo editing service in its category on this parameter, as it provides high-quality retouching in any kind of photography. For example, FixThePhoto has a service for the restoration of damaged photos, as well as a service for car retouching. Over 18 types of retouching are presented by the professionals of this photo retouching service.
WeEdit.photos
The quality of the retouched photo — I was very surprised with the incredible level of image retouching they provided. High-quality color correction, successful work with skin retouch. My retoucher, Ann, got rid of a mole and other minor imperfections, excellent work with hair. The only thing I notice is not perfect eyebrows.
The time spent on photo retouching — 2 days.
The customers service — I really like the WeEdit.photos website, it is easy to use, easy to understand, there was little additional information that could be distracting, but there is an excellent and concise price list, as well as a page with a portfolio where a large number of different photo examples are displayed. WeEdit.photos has a blog and offer photo retouching jobs.
The cost of photo retouching is $5.
Available types of image retouching — This is one of those photography editing companies that edit all photography genres: wedding, lifestyle, portrait, product, commerce, etc. WeEdit.photos retouches the photo in 4 forms — color correction, basic, pro and extra levels.
Wedding-retouching
The quality of the retouched photo — Delicate color correction, excellent white balance, as well as successful image editing of skin and removing stray hair. I was confused only by an additional shadow on her right eye, as well as a noticeable retouch of the blouse in the decollete zone.
The time spent on photo retouching — 2 days.
The customers service — One of the most convenient websites, I should ask what website building system Wedding-retouching service has! Great! Good design, everything at hand. I like their chat support. When I asked many clarifying questions, a very friendly manager told me everything understandable. The payment service is clear.
The cost of photo retouching is $5.
Available types of image retouching — The main task of this photo post processing service is editing wedding and family photos. There is a possibility of ordering the wedding packs with a discount on volume orders. In addition, Wedding-retouching provides services on 8 different types of portrait photography.
Nuderetouching
The quality of the retouched photo — I really like how the light adjustment on the skin was made, the color gamut of the image was perfectly adjusted, and the excellent work on skin retouching was done. Retoucher left a mole, from which I would like to get rid of.
The time spent on photo retouching — 1 day.
The customers service — A simple but very comfortable website for use. Simple functionality, everything is available and at hand. Easy payment system and instant communication with technical support in case of any questions. Brilliant examples of outsource Photoshop editing.
The cost of photo retouching — $5.
Available types of image retouching — This Nuderetouching service specializes in boudoir and portrait retouching. The basic price list is built on three levels — Standard, Complete, Compete +.
HighEndBeautyRetouching
The quality of the retouched photo — Perfect portrait retouching with great color correction. The only small defect is not enough retouched eyebrows.
The time spent on photo retouching — 2 days.
The customers service — Well-designed site, convenient and functional. Everything is described in detail, there are many example of the photos, the blog. Technical support works quickly and efficiently. Especially nice HighEndBeautyRetouching web design looks.
The cost of photo retouching — $10.
Available types of image retouching — This photo editing service deals with high-quality photo editing, prices differ from other services, but they provide specific services — High-End retouch plus Ultra High-End. This service works primarily with printed materials and fashion brands, magazines, advertisement.
Photofix
The quality of the retouched photo — And again I got an absolutely incredible attempt to correct the frank cutout of the blouse, the breast looks flattened and unnatural. As for the photo color correction service, it seems to me that it almost doesn’t differ from the original version of the photo. The photo looks very pale. Eyebrows remained as in the original photo.
The time spent on photo retouching — 4 days.
The customers service — The PhotoFix site is completely uncomfortable and looks incredibly old. I wouldn’t trust my photos to those retouchers who made before-after examples on the pricing page. The payment system is difficult to understand, it offers credits — 5 credits equal to almost $8. This complicates the payment process.
The cost of photo retouching is $7,95.
Available types of retouching — PhotoFix provides several types of image retouching — Basic, Advanced, Photo-art and Premium editing, which is presented as photo restoration and custom photo fix.
TheImageSalon
The quality of the retouched photo — The first thing I noticed was aggressive color correction of the model’s face, see the dark spot on the chin. Insufficient hair retouching on her eyebrows and eyelashes. The attempt to cover up the chest turned to the blouse doesn’t look natural.
The time spent on photo retouching — 5 days.
The customers service — TheImageSalon’s website is modern and complete, there is all the necessary information. To my taste, it is a bit overloaded with video inserts on the main page and requires a lot of scrolling when opening some sections.
The cost of photo retouching is $7.
Available types of image retouching — The list of services is rather meager, TheImageSalon company offers photo culling service, express editing, and two basic levels.
PhotographersEdit
The quality of the retouched photo — Here I also came across the problem that the retoucher made a number of mistakes with an attempt to fix a too straight neckline, where the blouse again looks strange and cartoonish. I was also not very satisfied with the white balance adjustment. When retouching her skin, which in general was successful, the retoucher forgot to remove the birthmark. Poor hair editing.
The time spent on photo retouching — 4 days.
The customers service — PhotographersEdit website is quite convenient. Easy to use. The only drawback I encountered was the lack of online support. Before placing an order, I had a question about pricing — for image retouching they don’t have fixed prices, everything is calculated individually — and couldn’t receive an answer immediately. There is a paid membership with the payment for the period of use, rather than piecework, which can be very convenient for photographers who constantly use such photography post production services.
The cost of photo retouching is $6.
Available types of retouching — The basis of this photo retouching service is culling and color correction. There is also a photo retouching service, and the type of this work will depend on the price of your order.
Tucia
The quality of the retouched photo — The photo was not accepted. I waited for the answer for 4 days and didn’t get it.
The time spent on photo retouching — 1 day (it is mentioned on their website).
The customers service — I liked the Tucia website, easy to use, understandable, with an abundance of photo examples.
The cost of photo retouching — $8.
Available types of retouching — The main specialization of Tucia service is photo manipulation service. They make portrait retouching, but still specialize in drawing photo collages and stylized images in a very specific Asian style.
Picsera
The quality of the retouched photo — No replies during 5 days.
The time spent on photo retouching — 3 days (it is mentioned on their website).
The customers service — I don’t like the level of customer service, the manager isn’t ready to answer any questions. The prices are calculated individually. However, I don’t like Picsera site. Photo examples has very poor quality.
The cost of photo retouching — $7.
Available types of retouching — This photo fixing service has a slightly wider range of services that they provide. There is a possibility of retouching photos of real estate, commercial photos and the basic retouching of portraits.
RetouchUp
The quality of the retouched photo — The photo was not sent, I failed to place an order from the fifth attempt. Nobody answered me.
The time spent on photo retouching — 1 day (it is mentioned on their website).
The customers service — Pleasant design of the site, but it hasn’t enough examples of work, and those samples are in additional galleries, which is not very convenient to view. Quite a complicated registration process to make an order.
The cost of photo retouching — $5.
Available types of retouching — RetouchUp service doesn’t have a certain specialization, it is engaged in outsource culling, retouching and photo restoration.
ColorexpertBD
The quality of the retouched photo — Failed to download my .raw format photo.
The time spent on photo retouching — 1 day. (it is mentioned on their website).
The customers service — An overloaded site with a huge amount of information on the homepage, which needs long scrolling. I spent some time to understand how to make an order but ColorexpertBD uploading system lags. No customer support online, only emailing.
The cost of photo retouching — $7.
Available types of retouching — This site provides a huge number of various types of retouching including retouching food, cars, clothes and other commercial stuff.
Outsourcing photo editing rating
For the purity of the experiment, and also for the rating of the photography editing companies to be presented as fair as possible, I evaluated each of the parameters on a five-point scale.
In the context:
· 5 points is the highest score, I like the level of service provided.
· 1 point is the lowest score, I was completely dissatisfied with the service provided.
· Some services received 0 points for not providing the service at all, as some companies that failed to fulfill my order for one reason or another.
Focusing on this rating, you can independently draw conclusions on the quality of retouching of certain photographers outsource editing companies, but I also give some recommendations below.
Conclusion
Sites I recommend cooperation with, if you want to contact outsourcing companies:
FixThePhoto
WeEdit.photos
Wedding-retouching
Nuderetouching
HighEndBeautyRetouching
Each of these best photo retouching services has the same lowest cost of performing works, while the quality is the highest. By redirecting to these services photo retouching work, you will receive a quick order execution (up to three days), a quality customer support, as well as a simple and easy-to-use order payment system without credits, subscriptions or membership.
I don’t recommend cooperation with these companies:
Retouchup
ColorexpertBD
Tucia
Theimagesalon
Photographersedit
Picsera
Photofix
To each of these services I have a number of comments. Many of these comments concern the quality of performing image retouching, because it is, in general, the main thing on which such photography post processing services should be evaluated. The price often doesn’t coincide with the quality, the services are very unruly in use and not customer-oriented. Some services need to replace outdated website designs or add relevant picture retouching examples to the main page, because their before-after photos look like edited ten years ago.
I hope my little journalistic investigation will help you make the right choice when you need to use the services of photo editing companies for photographers.
