Hi
No. This is an example that retouchers are making as much or more on the same AD job. However there investment is a LOT less. Here in Sydney AD agencies are doing more in house retouching as they see a profit here. We are doing all our editorial & some AD work now even with complex stuff.
Denis
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Talking numbers on an open forum can be a slippery sloap, but in the real world the only rule is there is really no rules, or better put the rules change depending on your market and personal perspective.
A digital tech in NY will generally have a rate that is pretty much standard with everyone else in the New York market and I promise you believes their rate is completely justified, but that is from the digtal tech's perspective. This holds true for Hair, Makeup, retouching, stylists, assistants and in some cases all of the fees are justified, in some they really aren't.
The real rule and the only rule should be is you invest in your business, use what's appropriate for the project and try to stay profitable.
There are about 10 million ways to reach this sceanrio and what is profitable for someone living in Omaha can be way different for someone living in Malibu.
We all have clients that cut budgets, or have shortfalls and try to find ways to make up the margins. There is nothing new about that in any industry and though it may seem appropriate to think, "well they're not paying for ________, so bugger it I'll use my less expensive equipment", but does your client's budget dictate your standards, at least if you already own the equipment?"
I'm not advocating giving anything away, but usually investment in your business reaps rewards.
This industry can get sideways very quickly and from "my" perspective of couse no retoucher should make more on a project than I do, then again I've seen some photographs before the retoucher saved them and I think the retoucher should have been paid double.
Of course were not talking about my photographs.
The real question all of us have to ask ourself is if money and creativity is leaving our domain, how to we retrieve it, how do we make it so an Ad Agency has no benifit in taking it in house.
Early on with digital I learned that possession of the files is a positive and not a negative. If you have the files, make them almost instantly retrievable, keep excellent cataloging and can process, retouch and deliver image(s) in a better, more cost effective and effecient way then the retouching will come under your roof, even if you live in an electronic house.
Though not to get into specifics, we have devised a way to pretty much keep the process to a one e-mail, one response, one button click delivery method for our clients.
This isn't for the faint of heart, takes a lot of work and investment and keeps you or someone in your studio married to the computer almost always, but then again it keeps you envolved with you clients in ways that film, or even just dropping off processed files never could.
JR
