This Woman Hired Photo Retouchers For Different Prices, And The Results Speak For Themselves
The age-old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is more relevant today than ever, with deregulation, zero hours contracts, outsourcing and competition from emerging markets pushing prices for services lower and lower.
Professional photographer Irene Rudnyk decided to investigate what this means for her industry, by logging onto popular freelance services website Fiverr. The community is useful for entrepreneurs who want to build the business on a budget, as well as freelancers looking to build experience and a solid portfolio. However the level of competition for retouchers is incredibly high, leading to some people offering their services for as little as $0.25.
“I had heard people mention Fiverr a lot on YouTube so I was really intrigued by the website,” Irene told Bored Panda. “When I realized that a lot of people on there offered retouching services I knew I had to try it out. It seems too good to be true because most people were charging very little for the retouch and almost everyone had five star ratings.”
“For me, retouching is very important,” she told us. “I like to photograph fantasy-like images, so I need to bring the fantasy-like element to them in Photoshop. I also have a very specific editing style that makes my images recognizable. And that is very important nowadays. Distinguishing yourself from ton of other photographers.”
Irene tested out 3 retouchers at different price points: $0.25, $5 and $10 to see what kind of results they would come up with. She gave them each an unedited picture along with this request: “I would like if you made this image very vibrant, warm. Clean skin, bright eyes, and make her hair look more red, so it matches the background. Also, I trust your judgment on making this image look beautiful.”
The results were.. interesting. There was a clear jump in quality as the price point went up, as the wise old saying foretells. Irene doesn’t think much of the website as a source for quality work, and wouldn’t recommend it for other photographers looking for retouching services. “I am a perfectionist and it’s usually very hard for me to trust someone else with my Creative Vision,” she explained, while adding why she thinks that editing is an important aspect of photography. “I think most people tend to want to create something rather than just document the mundane everyday life. We like to look and admire extraordinary things that are beautiful, and editing help us create that and get closer to that Creative Vision.”
So while cheaper freelance help can have its benefits, there are definitely drawbacks too, particularly for the professional photographer. However it was certainly an interesting and eye-opening experiment! You can check it out yourself by scrolling down the page, and let us know what you think in the comments!
This is Irene Rudnyk, a professional photographer from Canada. She always edits her own pics but she decided to experiment with the cheap freelance services on offer
She went to freelance website ‘Fiverr’ and found retouchers at 3 different price points. She sent them this unedited picture with the same request description
The $0.25 Retouching Job
The $5 Retouching Job
The $10 Retouching Job
Rudnyk’s Edit
She reviews of all the edits in an eye-opening video
Here’s what people had to say
947Kviews
Share on FacebookThis is so fake it hurts. Just an advertisement for the photographer. Lame.
It seems to me that she only did this to advertise how incredible her work is...
What? With good tools anyone can retouch pictures now. And you don't need Photoshop for this. There are many other perfect tools. And this one retouching picture for 0.25 cents it's a joke of course. Come on... fake as hell.
With lightroom anyone can edit that photo and get a good result in 5 minutes.
Load More Replies...The original looks just as good if not better than any of the others. Why bother?
I'm a professional retoucher. What actually strikes me the most is how much she manipulated the girls features and body to create a "prettier" image - something most people overlook when they look at the before and afters. Hair fluffed up. Jaw and face rounded. Arms, waist and hips slimmed down. Yes- she did help the skin tone and color etc.. but it yet again shows that apparently, the natural beauty of this woman wasn't good enough. Which makes me very sad to see.
I'm a photographer, and if the best photo editor in the world offered to edit my photos for free, I'd turn them down, since editing is a major part of photography. If I don't edit my own work, then it's NOT "my own work."
It is not your own work from the very beginning judging by how you say this. Dont you have an Art director? a stylist? a hairdresser? and so on? A retoucher is just a part of that team same as you. Its all those peoples work because all of you put a lot of effort into it
Load More Replies...Why would anyone expect good results for any of those prices? They're less than minimum wage in most places.
Yes, but consider that these are very basic edits. A competent Photoshopper can turn out a dozen or more of them per hour. That adds up.
Load More Replies...Even her own editing is off in colour - I bet the dress was originally black. Also, a gentle touch of flash or a silver reflector would have helped this image a lot. The cheapskates are worse, of course, but her own work is far from perfect as well.
To be honest, the priciest retouch wasn't bad at all. She said "brighter and warmer colours" and nothing about the skintone. Still the guy was admitting touch-ups if the client was not satisfied, so to me that price is totally fair. Want it cheaper? Learn photography and retouching.
I don't like any of the edits, not even the photographer's own. There is something about the way the shadow falls on the model's eyes and lips that when edited it makes her face look very off.
Looks like .25 guy tried to morph her with Scarlett Johansson (unsuccessfully).
To me, the 0.25 version looks like a thin Fiona from Shrek ^^
Load More Replies...So she tested 3 out of 6,400+ and makes a recommendation not to use the site?
Her own retouching is the best. In the $10 her expression became super weird, in the $5 her eyes are too blue and the whole thing looks fake, and let's not talk about the $0.25. In her own retouching she looks better than the original, yet still normal, natural and beautiful. I don't care if she's advertising or not. In my opinion, it's best if she edits it herself (provided she KNOWS how to) because a. She knows what she wants and what is her idea of herself looking "nice"; b. she actually cares a lot about how her own pic turns out since it's of HERSELF. Honestly, though most are decent, a lot of online jobs, paid or unpaid, don't really care about how your pic turns out, and as I said before, they don't really know what exactly you want touching up unless you gave them very specific instructions.
Her work sucks. And what's with writing "creative vision" in CAPITALS...TWICE.
Well why would someone charge $0.25 when they clearly have put so much work into it?
It's odd, because in fiverr prices should start with $5. It must be bulk image editing service. (20 photos per $5) it must be very young person or very new editor who wants to make just some orders to put prices up. Also most probably lives in third country where everything is cheap.
Load More Replies...I paid someone fifty cents per photo to remove powerlines from my vacation photos and they did an excellent job. I know Photoshop makes it really easy but that would have cost me twenty dollars for a month subscription.
Affordable professional photo editing service. Check this out - https://www.fiverr.com/onlinemelvin/do-professional-photo-retouch-post-processing-and-editing
I get the feeling the $0.25 made it so bad, you'll need more editing, thus more money...
We can just pretend the $0.25 "edit" never happened. As for the rest, while I realize it's hard to tell on a computer screen, especially a cheap laptop, none of them, including Rudnyk's, look to me as though the editor spent more than a few minutes on them. As a very long time photographer and Photoshop user (who is not so enamored of his own creative vision that he feels it needs to be capitalized), I'm not impressed with any of them.
Rudnyk's edit is indeed beautiful. Some people (below) really don't see very well.
$10 is still dead cheap. Would have been interesting to see a $25 or $50 edit, what she would probably have charged for her time.
My question is who gives a f***? Who wastes their time retouching photos..models (it's their job) vain people (get over yourself) and photographers (learn to take better pictures). The problem with the first photo was that it was taken in low light. Of course she looks drained in it. Plenty of photographers that are capable of taking photos without touch ups.
Most professional photography has some post-processing done, not just modern digital photography, pros were messing with things in the darkroom the minute photography became a thing.
Load More Replies...So the lady in Spain who retouched Jesus to look like a monkey is doing photo retouching, too? Cooool.
This is an edited photo that my husband took on his phone and it's better than all of those.....looks like an ad for the photographer..... 38518836_1...862ce5.jpg
As I used to be a fashion-photographer myself, I never retouch or photoshop my photos, why ? I chose the right location, the right light and the right light make up if its necesary. Retouch and photoshoped kills your photo, take the soul of your photo out, most fashion magazine photo are soulless,.
This is so fake it hurts. Just an advertisement for the photographer. Lame.
It seems to me that she only did this to advertise how incredible her work is...
What? With good tools anyone can retouch pictures now. And you don't need Photoshop for this. There are many other perfect tools. And this one retouching picture for 0.25 cents it's a joke of course. Come on... fake as hell.
With lightroom anyone can edit that photo and get a good result in 5 minutes.
Load More Replies...The original looks just as good if not better than any of the others. Why bother?
I'm a professional retoucher. What actually strikes me the most is how much she manipulated the girls features and body to create a "prettier" image - something most people overlook when they look at the before and afters. Hair fluffed up. Jaw and face rounded. Arms, waist and hips slimmed down. Yes- she did help the skin tone and color etc.. but it yet again shows that apparently, the natural beauty of this woman wasn't good enough. Which makes me very sad to see.
I'm a photographer, and if the best photo editor in the world offered to edit my photos for free, I'd turn them down, since editing is a major part of photography. If I don't edit my own work, then it's NOT "my own work."
It is not your own work from the very beginning judging by how you say this. Dont you have an Art director? a stylist? a hairdresser? and so on? A retoucher is just a part of that team same as you. Its all those peoples work because all of you put a lot of effort into it
Load More Replies...Why would anyone expect good results for any of those prices? They're less than minimum wage in most places.
Yes, but consider that these are very basic edits. A competent Photoshopper can turn out a dozen or more of them per hour. That adds up.
Load More Replies...Even her own editing is off in colour - I bet the dress was originally black. Also, a gentle touch of flash or a silver reflector would have helped this image a lot. The cheapskates are worse, of course, but her own work is far from perfect as well.
To be honest, the priciest retouch wasn't bad at all. She said "brighter and warmer colours" and nothing about the skintone. Still the guy was admitting touch-ups if the client was not satisfied, so to me that price is totally fair. Want it cheaper? Learn photography and retouching.
I don't like any of the edits, not even the photographer's own. There is something about the way the shadow falls on the model's eyes and lips that when edited it makes her face look very off.
Looks like .25 guy tried to morph her with Scarlett Johansson (unsuccessfully).
To me, the 0.25 version looks like a thin Fiona from Shrek ^^
Load More Replies...So she tested 3 out of 6,400+ and makes a recommendation not to use the site?
Her own retouching is the best. In the $10 her expression became super weird, in the $5 her eyes are too blue and the whole thing looks fake, and let's not talk about the $0.25. In her own retouching she looks better than the original, yet still normal, natural and beautiful. I don't care if she's advertising or not. In my opinion, it's best if she edits it herself (provided she KNOWS how to) because a. She knows what she wants and what is her idea of herself looking "nice"; b. she actually cares a lot about how her own pic turns out since it's of HERSELF. Honestly, though most are decent, a lot of online jobs, paid or unpaid, don't really care about how your pic turns out, and as I said before, they don't really know what exactly you want touching up unless you gave them very specific instructions.
Her work sucks. And what's with writing "creative vision" in CAPITALS...TWICE.
Well why would someone charge $0.25 when they clearly have put so much work into it?
It's odd, because in fiverr prices should start with $5. It must be bulk image editing service. (20 photos per $5) it must be very young person or very new editor who wants to make just some orders to put prices up. Also most probably lives in third country where everything is cheap.
Load More Replies...I paid someone fifty cents per photo to remove powerlines from my vacation photos and they did an excellent job. I know Photoshop makes it really easy but that would have cost me twenty dollars for a month subscription.
Affordable professional photo editing service. Check this out - https://www.fiverr.com/onlinemelvin/do-professional-photo-retouch-post-processing-and-editing
I get the feeling the $0.25 made it so bad, you'll need more editing, thus more money...
We can just pretend the $0.25 "edit" never happened. As for the rest, while I realize it's hard to tell on a computer screen, especially a cheap laptop, none of them, including Rudnyk's, look to me as though the editor spent more than a few minutes on them. As a very long time photographer and Photoshop user (who is not so enamored of his own creative vision that he feels it needs to be capitalized), I'm not impressed with any of them.
Rudnyk's edit is indeed beautiful. Some people (below) really don't see very well.
$10 is still dead cheap. Would have been interesting to see a $25 or $50 edit, what she would probably have charged for her time.
My question is who gives a f***? Who wastes their time retouching photos..models (it's their job) vain people (get over yourself) and photographers (learn to take better pictures). The problem with the first photo was that it was taken in low light. Of course she looks drained in it. Plenty of photographers that are capable of taking photos without touch ups.
Most professional photography has some post-processing done, not just modern digital photography, pros were messing with things in the darkroom the minute photography became a thing.
Load More Replies...So the lady in Spain who retouched Jesus to look like a monkey is doing photo retouching, too? Cooool.
This is an edited photo that my husband took on his phone and it's better than all of those.....looks like an ad for the photographer..... 38518836_1...862ce5.jpg
As I used to be a fashion-photographer myself, I never retouch or photoshop my photos, why ? I chose the right location, the right light and the right light make up if its necesary. Retouch and photoshoped kills your photo, take the soul of your photo out, most fashion magazine photo are soulless,.
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