Found in Uncategorized.

direct-to-consumer retouching

| Uncategorized | Jay Hagstrom | Comments Off on direct-to-consumer retouching

It had never occured to me to google the term “retouching business” until a few moments ago. I was shocked to see that a brand new industry had sprung up. I’m referring to the new direct-to-consumer retouching industry. There were quite a few sites offering very low prices on retouching. One of the top returns on this Google search is a website selling retouching for “$3.50 per photograph”. I felt immediately shocked and dismayed!

How could this even be possible?
Is this done in India?
Then I took a closer look…

Apparently they’ve developed a very low price point for photography by narrowly defining what “retouching” is. In other words, they’re blocking the facial features, gaussian blurring the smooth areas of the face (and perhaps spotting out any large flaws). I doubt that you can request that they remove power lines, or fix fly-away hairs. So I’m relieved…
For now…

Still, doesn’t $3.50 seem a bit low to you? I think I could make more money working at the Subway, right? I personally might ask for a little bit more, even though most of the aforementioned labor could easily be set up as an action script. Maybe I should send them a snapshot and then do a blind side-by-side comparison of my work and theirs. I mean, how bad can it be for $3.50? The only problem is that they request three business days to turn it around. I think that it took about three-quarters of one second for my machine to apply Gaussian Blur to a 6-foot by 12-foot flat tif file at 300 dots per inch. That’s a pretty long time, but it’s not three business days. The more I think about this, the more it makes me want to have a lower price point myself. I can run the old “Trap & Blur” a lot faster, and my masks won’t have hard edges.

About The Author

Jay Hagstrom

This is my "coursework in-progress" for a book about retouching and photorealism. Please feel free to pose any questions you might have about the tutorials in the comments section on post, or contact me directly by clicking ASK JAY at the top of this page. Thanks for any input, I'll really appreciate it!

Comments are closed.