Introduction

Finding the right retoucher for a new project can be tough - and what can be even more tricky is simply understanding the steps involved to take a retouching project from kickoff to successful finish.

This guide is meant to help producers, art & creative directors, designers, project managers, and anyone whose job it is to hire, manage, and work with the right retoucher.

Getting Started

When do you need a retoucher?

Did your art director just say they could handle all the Photoshop stuff? Did the photographer say they could capture everything in-camera? Did your client just decide they didn’t like the product on that background color? Did you just learn that the media-buy now includes bus shelters, in-store, and the back page of the New York Times?

Yeah, you probably need a retoucher.

Most projects involving photography (and many involving cg) will go a whole lot smoother with a dedicated retoucher - a Photoshop professional - on the team.

Many projects won’t get off the ground at all without a retoucher.

And the most successful projects are one’s where the producer recognizes early in the process, ideally in pre-production, that a retoucher needs to be included.

How (and where) to find the right retoucher.

It can be tricky. There’s never been a handy local directory for vetted retouchers, but it’s getting easier with some of the online platforms that focus more on business and creativity than reels and memes.

Here are my top 3 ways to track down the right retoucher for your creative project:

1. Ask Around
   Good old-fashioned word-of-mouth still tends to be the best way to find the right retoucher. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other producers in the industry. If they’ve been in your shoes, they can probably relate to needing a solid recommendation they can trust. They might even be able to give you a little insight into how to reach out, or what to expect in terms of billing and communication style.
   
   

2. Behance
   Behance has made some leaps forward recently in features designed to connect businesses with creative service providers. They even have “Retoucher” included in their list of Creative Fields for hire. That’s a first!
   
   You can even filter by location all the way down to City, and whether the retoucher is available for remote work. Give it a try!
   
   

3. LinkedIn
   LinkedIn is nice because it automatically prioritizes connections in your network, or one to two degrees separated. Unlike Behance, you have to drill down into individual profiles to find links to portfolios, but you get a fuller picture of an individual’s professional background.
   
   

   With the “People” tab active, try using a broad search term like “Photo Retoucher Image Editor”. Give it a try!
   
   

What to actually look for in a portfolio

Now that you’ve tracked down some potential candidates, it’s time to decide if you want to take the next step and get in touch with them. At this stage you should be reviewing portfolios to rank your list from best to worst possible fit. It can be deceptively tricky to judge a retouching portfolio though, so here are a few things I recommend and what to watch out for.

The first question you should ask yourself when reviewing a retouching portfolio is “Does this work look like the work we already make, or are trying to make?” It seems so simple, but I often find that producers make the mistake of thinking that apples are oranges when it comes to choosing a retoucher.

There are so many different focus areas and skill sets for retouchers. But the one mistake I see producers make is thinking if a retoucher does one thing well, she must be able to do all the other things well. It’s possible, but more often than not, if you hire a fashion & beauty retoucher to work on your next sports apparel campaign, you’re in for some surprises.

A good retoucher should represent themself clearly with their portfolio. They may do a broad range of subject matter really well - and they should show it! You shouldn’t be doing the detective work of figuring out what it is they actually do by sifting through way too many work samples, or way too few.

Ideally, you want to see case studies. Learning a little about the retoucher’s thought process and challenges they solved in a creative project can go a long way. Before and afters are great too - you’ll learn a lot seeing how much transformation of images they’re capable of, and how well they finish them.

The retouching portfolios that annoy me the most are ones with very little explanation, too many or too few images from disparate categories, and no before & afters. The few times I followed up on portfolios like that and asked for before & afters, it always turned out the retoucher had done very little work at all.

How to reach out and start the conversation

Now that you’ve whittled down to your top 2 or 3 candidates, it’s time to say hi!

Here is my #1 tip of what not to do in your first contact with a retoucher you’d like to hire:

Never, ever, ask “What’s your rate?”

Now, I’ll caveat - when hiring for a staff position, or on-site freelancer, it may make sense to work out an hourly rate. But in most cases where you’re bringing in a freelance retoucher, asking upfront about their hourly rate is a time-wasting mistake.

Think of it this way, you as a producer have no idea how long it takes to do retouching. By asking to frame the work in an hourly format, it kinda puts you in the position of now needing to manage the retouching work by hours. Rather than framing it as a deadline and deliverable that needs to be met, regardless of the hours it takes.

Retouchers work at all different paces. I may be 10 times faster than a retoucher with half my experience and resources, but I shouldn’t be paid 10 times less for it. Framing a retouching project in terms of an hourly rate actually dis-incentivises working smarter and faster.

The best retouchers will not respond with an hourly rate, but will begin by asking questions about the project. Look for this as a good sign! They need to get the fullest picture of the job so they can give you a project estimate, usually a range.

These conversations are often started via email but finished on a voice or video call. It’s the best way for you to get a sense of whether or not this retoucher is somebody who’s easy to work with and will help solve problems. It’s the best way to avoid a ton of typing and just get down to business, saying, “Look, we have this budget for this project, can you work up an estimate that fits?”

Every email in the process of finding the right retoucher is time spent not doing the work.

In my next (Part II) post we’ll dig a little deeper into how to “brief-in” the retoucher on your creative project, standards about agreeing on budgets and timelines, and defining the scope of work (SOW).