Posted by Kate Silvia on November 15, 2010 at 7:14 PM
Hey Gang,
Just had somebody ask me to do some photo editing for them...just family photos, Jpegs mostly. I've never been asked to do this before and they want to pay me for my time...what's the going rate for editing other people's photos? A "per-photo" or "per-hour" rate??
Just curious if others do this sort of thing.
Thanks a bunch.
Kate
Posted by Luke Ormand on November 15, 2010 at 9:53 PM
I don't have any experience in charging people for this service - but I will tell you: CHARGE by the HOUR. Some photos might take 2 seconds, others might take 10 minutes. Depending on what you are doing, it could easily be an hour... you don't want to make that mistake. I think one of the Alaskans (Hank P maybe?) did restoration on some old photos and it took him ages to do some, while just a few minutes to do others.
We charge an hourly rate, in fact half our shooting rate, billed in 15-minute increments. That's for post-processing our own work or for processing the work of others. We always inspect their work and give them a realistic assessment of what can (and can't) be done, as well as an estimate of the time required. They can pay us to play, or they can take the work elsewhere. Commercial clients are happy to pay us, but private individuals are usually scared off by our estimate. They're mostly looking for us to make "art" out of their shooting in any case, and they don't really want to hear us explain the shortcomings of their work and what it will cost to "fix it," if it's possible at all.
Posted by Jim Bullard on November 16, 2010 at 8:28 AM
I've seen web sites that do this by the type of edit (example: http://wolfe-photo-editing.com/. I'm considering offering this service locally but I think, like Hank, that I'd go with an hourly rate. Tracking overall time is much easier than such a complex list of services some of which appear to involve time keeping as well.
Be sure to clarify what "editing" means to your client. If it's real basic, little more than normal photo processing, you could easily charge a per-photo fee that's fair to both of you. I'm talking something so basic that you could virtually batch process them with actions. If you have to spend 15-30 minutes per photo, that's in the realm of hourly wages based on some rate that's comfortable to you both.
Discussion
4 repliesJust had somebody ask me to do some photo editing for them...just family photos, Jpegs mostly. I've never been asked to do this before and they want to pay me for my time...what's the going rate for editing other people's photos? A "per-photo" or "per-hour" rate??
Just curious if others do this sort of thing.
Thanks a bunch.
Kate
- Luke
Be sure to clarify what "editing" means to your client. If it's real basic, little more than normal photo processing, you could easily charge a per-photo fee that's fair to both of you. I'm talking something so basic that you could virtually batch process them with actions. If you have to spend 15-30 minutes per photo, that's in the realm of hourly wages based on some rate that's comfortable to you both.