I’ve been learning a lot these past couple years. Being a business owner is an entirely different world from being an employee. There is so much to consider, so much to keep track of, so much to pay for. I’m learning a lot about what I have to do to make this business successful and to continue providing my clients with images and products they love.

I believe in sharing knowledge with my clients. I believe in letting them know where their money is going, why I charge what I charge, and why my prices go up.

Here are some things I have to pay for every year:
– My website
– My image gallery where you buy your pictures
– New Software
– Equipment Upgrades/Fixes
– Marketing Materials (business cards, postcards, fliers, information packets, etc.)

On top of these expenses is the expense of my time. I put in countless hours after your session to provide you with the best quality pictures I can.

Here’s a break down of the time I spend on a standard photo session:
– 1 hour driving to the studio and/or location
– 30 minutes preparing
– 2 hours taking pictures of you
– 1 hour driving home
– 30 minutes pulling pictures onto computer
– 30 minutes selecting the best images
– 6 hours editing pictures
– 1 hour backing-up files to cd and external hard-drive
– 2 hours loading pictures to the web
~ 14.5 Total hours on a standard session
Take what I’m currently charging for a session and divide it by 14.5….not such a big number is it? Bear in mind this is just for a standard session. Not Weddings. They take LOTS more time!

Needless to say I’ve been putting a lot of thought on how I’m going to remedy this problem, and I’ve finally found the solution that I think will work best for everyone. I’ve decided to start charging for retouching.

Basically what we will do is after your session, I’ll send you off for about 45 minutes while I pull & cull your images. When you arrive back at the studio you can select the images you want edited and then we’ll figure out your total retouching fee based on the number of images you chose and how much retouching work they need. This way you still have all the control. You get to choose as many pictures or as few as you like and I’m still being compensated for the amount of time it takes for me to edit.

Here’s a quick example of what I can do after your session:

See what a huge difference that makes! You would never know she had acne. And that’s how I want her to feel! Now this is an extreme example. But it really makes all the difference in the world to the person in the photo. To retouch this picture it probably took me 15 minutes, which can add up when I go through and edit, lets say, the 70 photos I selected from her session.

But you can see how important retouched images are. It can take a picture to a whole new level, eliminate distraction, and make you feel oodles better about yourself. So that’s our latest change. If you are interested in learning more about this post-processing tactic and how we are going to charge for it – feel free to leave a comment, send me an email, or give me a call.

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