Photoshop Charge and Album questions

[gaea106]

Ok, as you may recall my dad is a professional photographer in another state. He has been having issues the last few years since he switched to digital from film. His business has really shifted away from weddings and senior portraits to mostly video and reproduction work (copying old video and film formats to digital DVD).

After speaking with him about it at length I believe the problem may be that he really hasn't gotten into Photoshop as much as he should. He is still delivering portraits like he did in the film days with minimum of Photoshop color correction and resizing.

So to my questions on Photoshop as a part of your business.

1) Do you regularly Photoshop all your pictures?

1a) If yes, what sorts of Photoshop do you always do to pictures given to clients? (i.e. Color correction, sharpen, border, add actions)

1b) If no, do you pick a few images and photoshop them to interest the client in extra work?

1c) Do you build this into your package prices or is this a "premium" service they can pay extra for?

2) Do you offer additional Photoshop work? (smoothing skin, removing wrinkles etc)

2a) How do you offer and advertise this service?

2b) How do you charge for this type of work?

My dad also says he rarely sells albums anymore (unbelievable since I remember doing nothing but albums for hours on end when I was a teen helping him). I think this may be because of the same reasons, lack of Photoshopping and keeping up with album trends.

1) How do you deliver your proof and final photos to the client?

1a) If via the web, do you watermark so they can't be downloaded and used? Do you also offer or give some sort of proof album?

1b) If via album, what type is it? Do you deliver in any other method as well?

1c) Anyone making use of Lightroom or slideshows to present to client with computers?

1d) Do you design the bigger albums yourself or outsource?

2) How do you plan for and sell albums? Is it included in your package price?

[Aric C. Hoek]

1) No image leaves my studio unless it looks as good as it can look and it is signed by me.

1a) Expose your images properly and you will minimize your photoshop work. I always do facial retouching, stray hairs, clothing, and vignetting as a start. Each image is unique.

1c) I never offer my clients an inferior level of quality of my work. I only give them the best that I can. I can't imagine not putting forward my best effort for every client I have.

2) No. There is only one level of quality. The best I can do. I am only concerned with putting the best images I can through the doors of my studio. Everyone on my team has the same goal. If they don't then they wont be part of the team for long.

2b) You can assume that a professional retoucher will charge about 75 per hour. Most jobs should only take them 15 minutes or less. Incorporate this into the price of each product. Assume that there will be five people in each image.

Second section----

1. We do not give proofs to our clients. They can purchase a DVD with full reproduction rights or an online gallery to view their images.

1a) We do not offer a proof album. They either order an album or they don't. Again, we will not put out an inferior product.

1d) During the slow time of year, we design in house. During our peak times, we design our smaller sized albums in house and out source the design of our larger albums. Regardless, we always price our product as if the design were being outsourced.

2) We price everything A La Carte. We let our client design their own package to fit their unique needs.

Hope this helps.