How come retouching a photo costs so much?

Question

If you have your own photoshop, you can retouch as well, WITHOUT having the need for someone else to retouch it for a larger amount of money.

Answer 1

Because retouching often takes a LOT of time, even for people who are really good at it. For some problems there is no fast way, you have to laboriously go through and edit very small sections of an image, one by one.

While some simple things like red-eye & blemish removal are fast, other more involved changes may take hours- and if you're skilled enough to do it professionally, your time isn't that cheap. The plumber analogy is a good one.

Answer 2

As a photographer and business person, I take the attitude of the customer always being right, and do my best to satisfy them; if I can't (for whatever reason), I refund their money. It's better to take a loss on one job and keep your good reputation in the community than it is to fight over this. Now, I have no idea if your requests for more/different retouching are "reasonable" or not. Retouching is a matter of taste, and taste varies -- what one person finds amazing, another might consider disgusting. That's how it is with art. For me, when I realize that a customer is being what I consider to be unreasonable, or we just have artistic tastes way too far apart, I'll discuss that with them frankly, apologize for not being able to deliver what they want, and refund their money. If you're in the US, I would suggest filing a grievance on this with the Better Business Bureau. Even if the photographer isn't a member of the BBB, when you file a grievance they'll contact him and ask him to resolve it, and they keep track of complaints and their resolution on their web sites -- so it's a "black mark" against him if he doesn't resolve this to your satisfaction. If he still won't do anything, you can either sue in small claims court (which will take a while and be expensive, but might work out for you) or you can let it go. Just don't be childish and start smearing his name all over the internet, because that can get YOU sued. Sorry this happened, and I hope you can get it resolved. peace.

Answer 3

Well then. Save yourself a bundle of money and do it yourself, then.

Better yet - put yourself out there as a professional photo retoucher and make money at it.

Just because it's an excuse to post my work, start with this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1165244120/
and see if you get this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1165264850/

Actually, if you get better results, I'd be happy to see them. I am not 100% satisfied with mine.

Or maybe carry this to completion for me. This photo was folded in half and in half again and large sections were simply missing. I quit with the thought that it would just have to continue life looking like an old phtograph that was found in the bottom of a drawer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/752595622/

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ADDITIONAL
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Jenny - see my comments to you in the additional to my "question" on this page:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070818184118AAqQ3Py&r=w

Answer 4

most folks dont have the talent, the equipment, or the patience to do their own retouching. Why does a plumber costs so much? Same thing.

Answer 5

wrong it dose cost alot to retouch them but photo shop is not every thing picasa is free and retouchs photo for free and photo shop i dont like it why pay hundreds of dollars when you can download gimp 2.2 for free its photoshop but free basicly

Answer 6

I think it might have something to do with the cost of the chemicals, or of the equipment. And it might depend on wether you want the restored photo to become sepia, become black and white or become color, regardless of which it is, and how old it is. But if it really is and old black and white family photo, I would suggest sepia.

Answer 7

How come surgeons charge so much? I mean, come on, scalpels aren't all that expensive, and you can operate on yourself just as well.