This was in the post-processing section, Eyeball suggested that I move it here, (Thanks Eyeball).
I'm having a battle over this. My prices are set up for retouching on all prints. I am considering offering packages that have no retouching in them. These would be just straight out of the camera photos. When I shot film, (that is how old I am) we shot alot of families on 35mm because they did not want to pay for the retouching.
This was always a choice that I gave them to have a 35mm session or a Med. Format session. During holiday season we did 4 Saturdays where we would just shoot families in 15 minute sessions from 8:30 AM until 4:00 PM, the lab next door processed the film and in 2 hours moms would return and pick there photos and by Friday the photos would be back to them no retouching straight prints as they came out of the camera. The average sale would bring a profit of $41 (Dec 6th 2003) and doing 23 families was a pretty good profit for a hard days work (doth the lab and I loved it). While with things digital things got fancy, and now we retouch all the photos that are printed and with that prices went up and now the lower income (which in my area are alot of people) are not having their families photographed. This year we did a total of 19 families on the 4 days. I know the economy is down, the profit from the 4 days and 19 families was just a little over what I made in 1 day back in 2003 with just straight prints when you concider the time I spent retouching at $60 an hour. Is it time to offer unretouched prints again and not spend so much time at the computer.
If price is a issue with your clients I would show a re-touched and non re-touched sample and let them decide if they want to spend extra for the service. Price it low and allow for add on sales from re-touching, finishes etc.
On the other hand is less business due to lower prices from Walmart or someone else giving away the service. Maybe that segment of the market is only willing to go super cheap and you need to focus on those wanting a more specialized product.
I think by offfering both you would find out really fast which catagory your new clients fall under.
For my business I have to re-touch. My clients expect it and would not be happy without it. I would be out of business without it.With my clients price is not the big issue, looking near perfect in a photo is much more important.
Clients are savvy these days and most know about portrait professional. There is some other company that makes something similar as a plug in for PS. Check them out - they do amazing work and cost less than $100. A monkey could be trained to recouch and generally it takes 3 mnutes and beats what 90% of anyone can do in PS. I think the era of charging $60/hour for retouching is going bye bye.
If the customer's 15 year old can do it they certainly expect a pro do it.
Second reason you need to retouch is that your image is YOU. The better your prints look the better for you, long term. Make people look amazing and there will be comments made and referrals will occur.
I do projection proofing and will do an image up as a before and after on the retouching end of things. I do this for several reasons - I'm not retouching 60 so they can buy 5, and I ask them if this is OK with them, that I'll retouch every image they buy to look like 'this one'. They ALL love it. EVERYONE is vain, even the Lutheran pastor I shot. Build it into your pricing. Explain to them "i retouch every image cause I want you to look your best, I only want my best work to leave the studio, etc.'.
If they're not paying you what they should be, then you need to increase the percieved value in your work.
If your just going to take it from the camera to the print without doing anything, you might as well just give them a disk and send them to walmart IMO.
The game has changed since the film days. Everybody is providing more with digital than they did with film.
I don't know if the clients you're talking about know anything about software like portrait professional, but even the high-volume stores like Sears, Portrait Innovations, and Olan Mills do.
People get basic retouching done at all but the very cheapest outlets, and IMO a small business can't compete with those high-volume stores by playing their game. You have to define your own game and get in it to win it.
I use "Portraiture" by Imaginomic. I have default settings that I can run as an action or droplet in Photoshop against an entire batch of photographs--it's self-masking and only affects skin (when you've set the default properly).
I second Jefferies1, Mr. Fate and RDKirk, above. I would also add the following about how the game has changed in the last few years.
EVERYONE has access to a digital camera and WALMART. When it comes to a "snapshot" blown up to 8x10, with 10 minutes of amateurish editing by someone's cousin.................well, an awful lot of people are simply satisfied with what they see for that $1.56 print, especially since they didn't have to go anywhere to get it taken, and the "editing" was also free.
I recently had a family wedding (in my own family!!!) that describes where the world is going. Both the bride and groom's families could have had anyone in the San Diego Area do the wedding shots. Several were interviewed (and I refused to to do it or give a recommendation, instead I gave them 3 days extension at their hotel in Cabo San Lucas) and their ultimate decision (Bride and Groom, NOT the families) was to do a formal studio portrait, and then to let two relatives run rampant during the rehearsal, wedding, and reception. End result was several thousand snapshots on CDs that went directly to the couple, that none of us have seen to date. They thought they would get "more spontaneous" coverage and "cuter shots." You can guess my attitude. Walk away, walk away............
You can't compete with this........don't even try. These folks are gone and are NOT coming back. Their attitudes are different than even 10 years ago, and the technology is racing to catch up to those attitudes.
Move your business to the higher level. Look for higher end special events and "really special" occassions to do the 18-24 and larger wall print. One of the most successful pros in our our area of North Texas shoots every single high school senior she can catch, at a very favorable rate (and has several different packages of differing prices for "field projects and poses"). Her "on screen" portfolio (in her studio on a 54 inch tv screen), as shown to the parents includes the "senior shots" but also includes examples of entire family compositions keyed to locations in and around the area. Bingo! Large dollar, high value assignment.
Look for higher end special events and "really special" occassions to do the 18-24 and larger wall print.
One area I'm just breaking into in my area with promising success is quinceañera portraits. Photographers in Florida and the southwestern US have been doing these for decades--some do nothing but. As more Latinos move into other areas, this could become significant for other photographers.
Lest you think that market is too "working class" to support high-end photography, one thing to understand is that it's not the income of the client that counts, it's the value the client holds for good photography. Latino parents save up for their daughter's quinceañeras, and they do value good photography.
