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Question from Katie: “I have a question when it comes to editing…I just recently charged $100 for 15 fully edited photos photos of a 5 person family and editing took 25 hours of my time from start to finish. There are local portrait photographers (family, children, babies, seniors) in my area offering 50-70 edited photos for $175 (!?!?!) HOW does one do that ?? Am I missing something?”
Anna: That seems like a VERY long time for editing. I’d take a look at your workflow and see if you can find ways to cut it down.
Bianca: Are they any good? My eyes would fall out of my head if I clean edited 70 photos and only charges $175
Tralisa: I use Pure Actions for Photographers and it rarely takes me more than 4 minutes per photo to edit. I think it all depends on how much your editing and what you want to change. In my opinion editing shouldn’t be changing a photo but rather enhancing it.
Anna: Also, try to avoid the comparing with others… Other photogs may have no idea how to price either, find yourself a good pricing guide, or read some articles and blog posts to make sure your pricing is working for you!
Janel: It took me a long time when I first started to edit pics. Now I have a specific workflow for indoor and outdoor shots and can do a pic in about five minutes. That being said I would never do 50 to 70 pictures for a client at that price! You are an artist, value yourself and the work you do!
Heather: I think the best thing is making sure everything is great SOOC so the only thing you have to do if anything is enhance it a bit. I spend on average 4 minutes on an image unless it’s a composite or a special edit.
Grace: If I’m not doing major beauty retouching my editing only takes me about 5 min per image
Carol: Even at your rate you worked for $4 an hour. You could earn more than double that flipping burgers at Mc Donald’s. The question I always try to ask myself is, is this amount of money worth being away from my children for.
Ashley: Did you mean to say 2-5 hours? I edit very quickly, and try to make sure that my shots are as good as I can get coming out of my camera.
Sondra: I only touch up if it really needs it. Most times I just adjust brightness and contrast , then convert to raw. It takes about 3-4 min per photo. If they want touch up (blemish and wrinkle removal) it take my and extra 5 minutes and not all shots need it, just the close ups. My guess is may be editing what you don’t have to. I did a complete edited disc once with 10 poses and made 3 alternate poses for each shot (b/w, filtered, color filtered and the original and it still only took 3 hours from start to finish. I would suggest that maybe not all shots need a huge amount of editing, or maybe try some different camera settings to get better photo SOOC, that will reduce edit time by a lot.
Gem: When I first started, I would take a ridiculous amount of shots and try to edit each and every one. It’s easy to get caught up in editing but like the others have said. Slow down, make sure every shot is great coming out of the camera and limit how many shots you take for the hours you work.
Reva: solid sooc will help with editing. charge more if you’re ready and avoid comparing. 🙂
Charity: Work on your SOOC to reduce edit time as well as your work flow. Don’t compare yourself to other photographers. I am working on making my photography business full time and because of that I am in the process of changing all my prices. You need to decide how much you want to make a year and how many sessions you plan on doing a month. Then do the math and figure out how much you need to charge for each session to reach your yearly goal. How many sessions you do a month should depend on how much you want to be away from home and how much time you want to put into each client. Also think about your target market. The clients who truly value your work will be willing to pay. Go check out Elizabeth Halford’s blog!!! She has GREAT blog posts that will help you on the business aspect of things!
Patricia: Please take this in the gentle manner intended, but honestly, both of those price points are serving to undervalue the entire photography industry. All we are telling the masses is that professional, custom photography is not worth $500, $800, $1200. If you are new to the industry, research your market and develop a business plan that allows your fees to compensate you for your work. Then, if you need to, you can discount your rate while building your portfolio.
Jamie: You’re both under charging.
Cristen: I agree…unless my subject has a lot of facial flaws that I MUST fix, I’m spending 3 – 4 minutes max/image. If I provide a disk, it has 15 – 30 images for $400.
Cortney: Just like Patricia said, the value of good photography has gone down considerably since the availability of high quality cameras has gone skyrocketing. I charge $100/hr. Period.
Savannah: haha I charge $60 for about 60 edited images on a disc. I am the ultimate under charger/
Shanyn: 25 hours?! That is insane. It takes me about an hour to edit 20 pictures.
Savannah: but I’ve been building and i am now comfortable enough to up my rates
Sasha: 15 photos took you 25 hours?! I edit a photo for a max of ten minutes. Practice trying to get it right in the camera. Love lynda.com if you’re learning. 🙂
Jen: It takes me the same amount of time to edit and drives me nuts when people under charge – I FULLY edit my images not batch process them. It takes me about 30-40 minutes per photo. That’s cleaning up the photo- doesn’t mean you need to “take ” better pictures it means you take your time making sure they are perfect. It takes me 10 mins alone to correct all the imperfections on skin sometimes- and I don’t use actions I create my own so that adds to how long you take editing .. I could go on. Lol
Stephanie: Wow!!! That is a long time!!! Do you use actions, if not – INVEST! At 15 photos in 25 hours you are not making anything! I know it takes time to develop your practice and style, but you still need to eat!
Adriana: The other person probably doesn’t edit every single image. No one shouldn’t have to spend more then 5 minutes on each image. Getting it right sooc is the best way to go and editing really should only be done to enhance an image, not make it look overdone. You need to decide how much you believe you are worth. Take into consideration how long is the session, travel times to/from location, time spent editing, and delivering cds. You decide how much you would like to get paid per hour and balance it out with what others in your area charge only if they offer the same service. In reality you can charge 500 but you need to prove you are worth charging that much otherwise people will go to the photographer who charges less. Ps I charge less not because I want tons of clients but because I am not shooting for the money but for the love of photography.
Desiree: Once you get more familiar with your camera and get decent lenses, the editing time decreases. I spend more time doing special edits now. I’ve also have a special rate for family/group rates due the patience and editing time.
Katie: Hi! I’m the “Katie” that asked the question..Thank you so much for your responses and input! I love that Brooke has given every level of photographer a place to ask questions and receive answers 🙂 I do feel like I need to defend myself a bit… The price I gave was not an advertised price that I would expect professionally. My daughter’s best friend’s family wanted some photos for their Christmas card. The shoot took 20 minutes in a park that is 3 minutes away from my house. I thought $100 seemed reasonable. I know that the art of photography should be properly compensated, but this was my first “go” at a PAID shoot for someone other than family. After the shoot, Mom explained to me that she had 4 other families interested in having photos taken. I felt that I needed to do some fast research into what my competition is. That’s when I found out photographers in my area were offering 50-70 “edited” photos. I was SHOCKED. I have to believe their edits are quick edits and not full edits.. Yes, 25 hours on one shoot is a little bit nuts but I pay great attention to detail without anyone looking “overdone, plastic or crazy-eyed” I also don’t use actions. Simply because I haven’t found actions that make it easier. I have been doing photography for my own happiness for 3 years and I have had multiple photos featured on websites and even won some photo contests… So I can’t be too terrible, right? Again, THANK YOU for your input !!! I have learned to NEVER undercharge! <3
Sarah: This may sound silly coming from a photographer who has been professionally shooting weddings for 3 years and portraits for 1 (in Kenya) – but what is the difference between a quick edit and a full edit? We edit our photos to make them look the best they can – colour tweaks, B&W, vintage, some background clean up etc (and we are in an industry where other photographers take the photos and many deliver SOOC, especially the studios). We rarely do any touch-ups as most of our clients who have obvious blemishes have actually told us NOT to. Would love to know according to the photography industry what kind of edits we are doing:)
Katie: In my area, as portraits go, “quick edits” simply remove color cast and sharpen…and maybe crop
Howard: I would bet they do not do as good a job as you.
Veronica: I sometimes get lost in editing, and pay so much attention to detail that it feels like my eyeballs are going to pop out! But mathematically, if you want to make a living and support yourself off of your photography income, spending 25 hours editing even 100 images isn’t profitable. Even if you charged $625 for that one job that would work out to be around $25/hour…. And if it was around $300 that would work out to be less than $13/hour!!! Also, consider all that time you spend editing that could be spent on more photoshoots!!!!
Jennifer: It takes me two to three hours to edit 20 to 30 shots, but I’m usually interrupted a dozen times so it seems like longer. I am getting faster and would like to get it under an hour. I can’t see taking 25 hours editing.
Amber: Hi Katie! I used to be you… up until not that long ago even! It would take me a full day or more to edit 20-25 images. I felt like I was getting swamped and overwhelmed very quickly. I was using Lightroom and Photoshop but not effectively and getting lost in “Action Overload”. I wasn’t sure of my style and found I’d spend an hour on 1 image, just trying different actions to see what I liked and what wouldn’t work. Once my friend showed me how to cull and “sync” in Lightroom I could get a whole session 75% done in about 20 mins, and then just export into PS for the final details (another couple hours). It may just be that you haven’t quite got your style down. I have hundreds of actions but use about 4 or 5 on a regular basis now. I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders! We have the same kinds of offers happening here in my area and I’ve seen some of the work posted on their Facebook pages, etc. Believe me, if you’re taking 25 hours to love and work each image, you can be certain they are not and it shows in their work. It will show in their quality and their effort. Most likely they’re just shooting everything and hoping to get lucky and how is that much different that what their customer does at home? I think you should be pleased with the care and time you’re taking with your clients memories and once you find your editing style, you’ll see your post processing time drop dramatically!
Carolins’ Photography: I have to agree with most of the others, I do not spend more than roughly 5 mins per photo unless there is an area that needs alot of attention.
Carolins’ Photography: Katie, I do agree with you comments about not having to defend yourself on pricing. I have long suffered the “you don’t charge enough, don’t you value your work” yes, I do value my work and I have been at this long enough that I know what the competition charges. But I also know that most growing families just do not have $175 laying around to spend on nice quality photo’s. I charge less because I want my friends, family and previous clients to all know that they can have beautiful family, baby, maternity pictures and not break that bank. Go with your heart on pricing. I have one young lady, I did her belly shots and 1st year of baby no charge…why because that is what my heart told me was in her budget. She is now a college graduate with a growing family and I hope a life long client. Katie, do what makes your heart feel right! do it because you love it.
Blue Milkshake Photography: Its not about the price its about the love that goes into the photos 🙂
Blue Milkshake Photography: Also, the only photographer you should compare yourself to is the one you used to be 🙂
DeeDee: I think a lot of photographers have gotten into over editing. I agree that editing should be done to enhance a beautifully taken photograph, not change it. Imagine what film photographers did before there was the ability to edit digital photos. It’s a craft. So I “tweak” photos in basic editing, and that’s about it. Therefore I can give my customer more photographs for a better price and not have as much post production time tied up in the work. There are some photographers in my area that charge literally thousands for a shoot. I guess there is a photographer for every price range, but I’m more realistic.
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