Average number of retouching hours

[dleather]

Hi all, does anyone monitor their average number of retouching hours, like how many hours per image, how many per day, etc. I know there are tons and tons of variables that go into this, and I'm trying to generate a benchmark specifically for my department so it's rather specific. But, if you expose raw photography, make paths/channels, and color match to relatively specific existing fabric swatches or merchandise, let me know if you've thought about this at all. General ballpark numbers are completely acceptable.

Thanks for any info you can lend.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Having an action script with dialog boxes at the decision making points, helps me treat images consistently. But it's very hard to give a general. Having just a couple minutes per picture can make a great difference on some images. Then there are images where colour is important, and you are talking about paths and channels, and there it is impossible to say without seeing what genre of photo. 1-120 minutes enough of an indication?

 

[dleather]

Thanks Lukas, but obviously I'm not asking the impossible. Many art/production departments I've come in contact with do monitor their work time hourly. Most departments also monitor their quantity/output by number. A simple calculation for averages is all I'm asking for.

For instance, if you are a web production person, the amount of hours spent on a specific season launch divided by the number of images in that launch will give you a result. Or if you work for an ad agency using photos from a fashion shoot for a client's ad campaign, you divide the total time spent per number of images used on the campaign. Or if you are in a creative department for a silk manufacturer, you would take the number of hours worked, divided by the number of images that may appear in the catalog. Or if you are a fine artist retouching photography for exhibition, the amount of retouching time divided by the amount of images in the show gives you a result.

As I said, I know there are a lot of variables. 1-120 minutes is certainly a relevant estimate, but I would imagine if you are an efficient retoucher, you have way to measure how efficient you are.

Thanks again.

 

[rich apollo]

That's not a fair question, dleather. If you're making minor color, or exposure, tweaks it could be seconds per image. If you're removing 30 pounds from the model it could be much more. If you're removing the folds and wrinkles from a satin fabric then it could take longer still.

 

[dleather]

Thanks for your reply Rich. Maybe I can clarify some more... I'm not looking for the amount of time for a single silk image, or a single model shot. I'm looking for an average drawn from working on MULTIPLE images. I do retouching work also - I know there are a lot of variables. I'm trying to figure out if there's an "industry standard" or something to compare our workflow against.

For example, today, I adjusted the levels of an image just to add tone in a couple places. That took about 4 seconds. Today, I also added two paths to an image, made several masks and converted something that was purple with a lot of contrast, to yellow with not much contrast. That took about 1.75 hours. I also softened the edge of a shadow that was affecting another image. That took about 15 minutes. So, that's three image edits in about 2 hours, which averages out to 40 minutes per image.

I don't think this is an unreasonable request -- other people must track this somehow. Maybe some of you hands-on guys have a manager/supervisor you could get a ball park number from? I'm sure she/he's keeping track of hours per project.

Keep the ideas coming everyone. The more people who chip in numbers, the closer we can come to a benchmark.

 

[bprint_tampabay]

It seems to me you are well on your way to answering your own question. Why don't you just continue monitoring your time spent over several weeks or whatever time frame you think would work, and there you have it.

Wouldn't that work for you?

 

[LoweringTheBar]

Just make up a number... nobody will ever be able to verify or dispute your findings because nobody has any idea what prepress does anyway. Your superiors will just tell you that the competition is doing it twice as fast as you, so just ask what average time they'd like to see and come in 20% less! You'll be a hero and they'll never be the wiser.

 

[dleather]

I guess I'm just thinking bigger picture than you guys are...from a business perspective. Thanks. I'll look elsewhere.

 

[Blackbelt AdProd]

I manage a retouching dept and I agree it's difficult to measure but i'll throw out a few ballpark standards we use in our dept:

web retouching - low resolution - quick silo and cleanup, drop in new bgs, crop and resize: anywhere from 25 - 75 images per day depending on the person's skill and quality of incoming image

catalog retouching - high resolution - per round of retouching, paths, color correction: 8 to 20 images per day (note this is per round and we often go 3-4 rounds per image

brand level retouching - magazine or high profile work - 2 - 4 images per day: this is for work that contains critical brand images and needs the utmost attention to detail and color quality, meaning real artistry. I do real estate and wedding retouching on the side and anything that involves heavy faking or recreation (planting flowers, deleting cars, people, etc) is very time intensive.

I've consulted retouch outsource agencies and they also break down pricing along 3 tiers (basic, intermediate, and advanced)

Let me know if this helps

 

[dleather]

Thanks Blackbelt - that does help... When you say 8-20 rounds/images per day, is that per operator, or total for the department?

 

[Blackbelt AdProd]

you're welcome- these are all per operator numbers

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

I think you will need to break down into different type images for averages to be useful, as in the work example of Blackbelt. What we normally have is also a minimum time of 15 minutes to cover finding the file, opening editing saving... thing is there is so much we do that is not possible to debit (like email time to explain that they are out of their mind). If one job would include 10 images that all need a minutes work, we may find that the total time will me more realistically 30 mins, including scratching your nose.

 

[TerryWyse]

Just make up a number... nobody will ever be able to verify or dispute your findings because nobody has any idea what prepress does anyway. Your superiors will just tell you that the competition is doing it twice as fast as you, so just ask what average time they'd like to see and come in 20% less! You'll be a hero and they'll never be the wiser.

I've checked this over the past several years and have the answer...

For general color correction, it's precisely 2.6 furlongs per image.

Where retouching and/or paths, layers, extra channels are involved, it's precisely eleventy-seven bananas.

Hope this helps.

tw

 

[buckeye]

I've checked this over the past several years and have the answer...

For general color correction, it's precisely 2.6 furlongs per image.

Where retouching and/or paths, layers, extra channels are involved, it's precisely eleventy-seven bananas.

Hope this helps.

tw

Good one Terry.