Is digital photo retouching, restoring a good business to go into?

S
Posted By
salt
Apr 13, 2005
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I am currently doing some research on the industry ananalysis of Photo Design
or photo retouching, is this a good time for this market? If so, can someone supply me with a "credible" source as to where I can have access to information or current facts about this industry?
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T
Tacit
Apr 13, 2005
In article <ZN87e.1755$>,
"salt" <@nyc.rr.com> wrote:

I am currently doing some research on the industry ananalysis of Photo Design
or photo retouching, is this a good time for this market? If so, can someone supply me with a "credible" source as to where I can have access to information or current facts about this industry?

Depends on what you mean by a "good industry." Can you make a living at it? Sure, though not all that good–everyone with an inkjet printer and a copy of Photoshop wants to make money doing photo restorations, and most people aren’t willing to pay very well for it. In my experience, it’s a lot of people chasing not very many customers.

The real money in photo retouching and image compositing is in high-end work for advertising agencies, design firms, and the like. I routinely charge $120/hour or more for this kind of work, and examples of the image editing I’ve done have run everywhere from ads in Rolling Stone and Newsweek magazine to billboards and advertising displays int he Atlanta metro system.

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K
KatWoman
Apr 13, 2005
I don’t know about research on the industry, but personally hubby and myself make a living doing digital photography (bulk of income) then selling retouching, prints and layout services as an added service which is optional. I get $50 and hour for retouching and artwork and there is a small profit margin in printing. I really enjoy having the control of how the color prints look compared to the old way of sending to a lab, we always made our own B&W prints and hand retouched them in the dinosaur times. The change to digital has meant a change in the way we work, the tools we use but you have to keep up with the times. I think more and more photographers want to retouch their own work, or in a commercial situation the art directors do it. I have seen jobs for this type of work available at laser shops and such usually also includes customer service and only pays about $15.00 an hour.

So you may not see an "industry" fully by just looking at the freelancers. A lot of companies are doing this in-house.

"salt" <@nyc.rr.com> wrote in message
I am currently doing some research on the industry ananalysis of Photo Design
or photo retouching, is this a good time for this market? If so, can someone supply me with a "credible" source as to where I can have access to information or current facts about this industry?

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