In order to maximize the number of photos clients can receive on whatever budget they’re working with, I offer several pricing options.

I would rather get my photos out there for less profit than have them languish in my archives unseen. What’s the point of creating beauty that no one sees?

And so, I’ve been offering three different prices:

• $40 – fully edited images, the best I can do
• $15 – partially edited images, everything but the cleanup
• $400 – the whole shoot, in super high res, with only coarse adjustments for tone and colour

But, you ask, what do these options actually look like? Well, you’re reading the right post.

This is an unedited, unadjusted image, straight off the camera:

Straight from the camera

It includes the background of the studio, and it hasn’t been adjusted at all. It’s not really in a usable state, much of the time, because it’s created as a foundation on which adjustments will be applied.

Here’s what happens when those adjustments are applied:

Adjusted for colour and tone

This is much closer to a usable image, and it’s what you get with the $400 whole gallery purchase. It’s been brightened, colours adjusted, etc, but no other changes have been made. This is really useful for people who do their own editing, performers who need a ton of raw material, indecisive people, or anyone who just wants all of it. For most people this works out to about a dollar an image, give or take.

But it still takes work to make it useful. It needs to be straightened, cropped, and the background tidied up, because in many cases there are chunks of studio very close to the subject.

And that’s what you get for a $15 partial edit:

Partial edit: everything but the cleanup

As much as possible, the background will be filled in. Studio equipment will be edited out, and the wall will be filled in. But that’s it – sometimes there’s detritus on the floor (hair, glitter, feathers, scuff marks etc). There are cracks in the studio wall which I remove in every single shot ever (ugh!) which may be noticeable. Bruises are still there, any imperfections that appeared the morning of the shoot (zits are fun!), etc. Depending on the shot this can be a very viable option.

But for the full effect, a full edit takes care of all those things:

Full edit: money well spent

This is, as much as I can make it, perfect. Wrinkles smoothed over, bruises removed, studio cleaned up. Stray hairs erased, nips un-slipped, flaps re-tucked, errant threads snipped, etc. All these details are watched for and corrected in every finished image.

Ultimately, the one that works best for you will depend on what you want it for, and how good the foundation image is. Sometimes you want to go all the way, sometimes you have an image that you like, but you don’t like, full edit like it.

And there it is. Got questions? Message me in the usual places. =)