How much to Edit

Recently, another photographer asked me how much I would charge to edit an 800 picture wedding for her.
She would rather do a flat rate than per image. How much do you think I should charge? Do any of you have experience with this in the past?

I don't have any experience with that but if it were me I would tell her to cut it down to 200ish and then we could start talking.

Good advice, She is a REALLY REALLY popular photographer and turning into a friend, so I want to continue a good relationship with her. And I have gotten really consistent and fast with my edits, so I don't mind doing 800.

I can tell you what I would do...

A) I don't want to edit 800 pictures that someone else took of a wedding that I was not at.

That said, first I think you need to find out what level of editing she is looking to have done. Are we talking about basic exposure, contrast, sharpening, etc. or creative edits that are much more involved? Secondly, I would follow up with an editing company (e.g. evolveedits.com) and find out what they would charge.

Then you could decide, 1) Do you want to price along those lines, do the work yourself, and make all the money, or 2) Sub the work to Evolve or other.

Personally, I would insert a markup fee and sub that editing to Evolve So that I'd really only be involved in an hour or so of work, they'd be turned around QUICK, still make some money, and she thinks you're incredibly fast at editing

I don't know what they are expecting with "edit" first clerify that one. It could be just running a Lightroom preset to all or one by one retouching photos and correcting stuff.
my advice, understand exactly what she means by edit.
Give a number depending on how much time you are going to spend. I don't do weddings, its usually commercial work and I deliver about 60-70 images. 10 of them are retouched, and rest just a saturation etc via Lightroom. This takes me about 2 to 3 days and my rate is split 40/60

To me its simple math, figure how long per edit, lets say its simple edits in LR only so what maybe 1min each photo, so thats 800 min of editing 800/60 is 13.3 hours, figure import and export time. I would round that up to 15 hours of time. Figure out your hourly rate, lets just say $30 an hour. 15x30 is $450. I would then work my butt off to try and get that 15 hours done in less time so I end up making more per hour.

I base this idea from my drafting/design work. The price changes as the editing time goes up. But if its simple stuff, you can copy presets from one image to the next fairly quickly .... well under 1 min each photo.

me agree with littlejon.

I too would go with an hourly rate.

I wouldn't sub out and then charge a markup. That's not a good way to keep that business relationship.
The photog obviously trusts you to edit her pics, that's great. Keep it simple. Work out a cost for 11 pics, 200 pics, 800 pics etc and provide them to her. That way it will be really easy if the next wedding had 600 or 1000 or so.

Letting her know these prices this way clears up any confusion. If you go to a 'time' pricing things are different. I don't like it.

I have just started farming out work,much simpler stuff though. When I recive proof wedding prints as 4x6's they need sorting in order and then a cement I albums. I pay: $30 for 300 images, $45 for 500 images. The person can take as much time or as little time as they want but have a timeline deadline.

O another thing, if my clients want a flat rate, I always tend to pad it a little more just in case there are issues that take a little longer. I tend to make a lot more from a flat rate job then an hourly job.

Thank you all, This was extremely helpful! I will go and tell her exactly what i want now!

stillinamerica wrote in post #16008894
I wouldn't sub out and then charge a markup. That's not a good way to keep that business relationship.
The photog obviously trusts you to edit her pics, that's great. Keep it simple. Work out a cost for 11 pics, 200 pics, 800 pics etc and provide them to her. That way it will be really easy if the next wedding had 600 or 1000 or so.

Letting her know these prices this way clears up any confusion. If you go to a 'time' pricing things are different. I don't like it.

I have just started farming out work,much simpler stuff though. When I recive proof wedding prints as 4x6's they need sorting in order and then a cement I albums. I pay: $30 for 300 images, $45 for 500 images. The person can take as much time or as little time as they want but have a timeline deadline.

All sorts of companies sub work all the time. Can you explain why you think this is not acceptable?

Additionally, let's say that my hourly wage was $30/hr and in that time I could do 60 edits. Let's say that I got to a point where I was shooting so much that I literally didn't have the time to do my own edits and I choose to outsource them. If outsourcing the edits took less time to have done and was cheaper than my hourly wage, should I drop my prices?

drvnbysound wrote in post #16009325
All sorts of companies sub work all the time. Can you explain why you think this is not acceptable?

Just the act of subbing is perfectly acceptable, but if someone has asked for you specifically, and then you sub, then that's shady.

drvnbysound wrote in post #16009325
Let's say that I got to a point where I was shooting so much that I literally didn't have the time to do my own edits and I choose to outsource them. If outsourcing the edits took less time to have done and was cheaper than my hourly wage, should I drop my prices?

No, you shouldn't lower your prices. You're quite justified in doing it that way, unless someone has specifically asked you to do the edits.

drvnbysound wrote in post #16009325
All sorts of companies sub work all the time. Can you explain why you think this is not acceptable?

...because the other photographer is asking Drrobinson to do the edits because presumably they know, like and trust their work. Its like hiring Kit Ramsey but ending up with Jif Ramsey. It would be much more honest to tell the other photographer to sub the work themselves, playing middleman in this situation would be hardly worth it for any of the parties involved.

If the work is the same and I know the cost upfront, does it really matter?

I've asked plenty of people to do work for me. Most recently I'm having a workshop built in my backyard. I know a general contractor who builds homes and does all sorts of re-model jobs. I know that he could do the work so I got a quote from him to build it. He's subbing it. At the end of the day, I still pay the same price and I still get a 12' x 24' building in my backyard. Personally, I don't care who does the work as long as I still get the same finished product.