Special effects editing - your policy and pricing?

[DCM1024]

I have a bride asking for editing beyond the norm that I include for noise reduction, exposure,  Portrait Professional face edits, etc. She is asking for edits such as spot color, remove people and objects from photos that can't be cropped out. There are no special effects samples on my website, so she has seen nothing that would indicate that I offer this level of detailed editing as a service or even as an option.  What would you do and what would you charge for this type service?

[revup67]

From my standpoint, it is certainly fee based.  I was hired to do a photo shoot for a band a few weeks ago.  The lead guitarist wanted some clean up done on about 30 pictures after the gig.  Since this is not my mainstay and merely for fun (hobby) I had agree to do the task @ $60 per hour.  Estimating about 2 minutes per photo.  I knew what had to be done, had some scripts already in place and was able to conquer the task.  it also gave me the ability to sharpen up my skills as well so it was worth it for me and the band.

Going forward, if you don't have a contract in place for what is expected then I would advise this.  Be sure to mention post processing is an extra fee unless you include this in a bundle price with a set amount of pictures to be taken and post processed.

Side note:  Some pro photographers believe in never releasing any untouched photos as this unveils first hand what the work and the photographer was really like.  There are many ways to slice and dice this - hope you can find what works for you and always CYA.

[preppyak]

The general advice I've gotten in the past is that if you are capable of making the edits, then you do them (even if its not something you'd normally do) and charge a fee that is worth your time. It depends how much you charge for a wedding...if your packages are $1000 its very different than if they are $5000, but you can basically take what your hourly rate would be from shooting and sort of extrapolate that out to an ideal hourly rate for editing the photos. If its a customer you like or think you might get a bunch of referrals from, then maybe you'd discount the rate a little to make her happy.

Moral of the story is that if she wants the edits done, she's gonna get them done...so, you might as well be the one doing them instead of someone else making money off your clients.

[nightbreath]

Side note:  Some pro photographers believe in never releasing any untouched photos as this unveils first hand what the work and the photographer was really like.  There are many ways to slice and dice this - hope you can find what works for you and always CYA.

I'm doing this by myself. This is the only way to create a common feeling throughout the whole story told by the photos. If you want to see how it looks, welcome to the website from my signature (though this portfolio is slightly outdated, but new pictures are coming  )

I have a bride asking for editing beyond the norm that I include for noise reduction, exposure,  Portrait Professional face edits, etc. She is asking for edits such as spot color, remove people and objects from photos that can't be cropped out...

This kind of request may turn out into something bigger than it seems and I'm afraid it could be something you might regret for agreeing on. From my experience, clients don't understand what exactly photographers do. Many of them think that there are no limits to their desires and everything is as simple as a move of magic wand.

I strongly recommend you reviewing all details of what exactly needs to be done before confirming it.

[risc32]

I've been wondering what to do in the area also. I don't use anything like "portrait pro" or anything. I will spot fix little things on key photos, but nothing that takes more than a few minutes. I will remove things like distracting or nasty looking air return grates from walls in the background, but not for every shot. I'd do it for all the formal shots, but after that, nope. removing people from photos is one of those things that the bride might think is an easy thing to do, but it most likely will be near impossible. good luck.

[DCM1024]

Thank you all for your feedback. I do have a contract which specifies how many photos a bride may choose to have edited: "optimized for print" is how its stated. I do think this bride thinks I have a magic wand. I specifically told her there would be an additional charge for special effects editing (which she says she can't afford). She then sent her list of photo edits with remarks like "remove salt and pepper shakers", "remove person", "remove hair", so I will email her again to remind her there will be an additional chrge if I can't crop "it" out, whatever "it" may be. Thanks again for your input. I technically can do the editing she is requesting, but it would take hours that I don't have available - too many brides waiting for their own normal edits.