Who is RetouchUp and what sets us apart? Here’s a quick review of RetouchUp to help you get to know us better!
Who is RetouchUp and what sets us apart? Here’s a quick review of RetouchUp to help you get to know us better!
Placing an order with a ‘Rush’ puts your photos to the front of the editing line. You can think of it kind of like a FastPass at Disneyland – you skip the biggest part of the line and then have a much smaller wait to get on the ride. When you’re in a time crunch we would highly recommend that you ‘Rush’ your order.
However, PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, if you need to rework your ‘Rush’ order and the artist is not immediately available, it’s going to take some time for it to be completed. ‘Rush’ orders and reworks will be worked on first by our artists, but our artists do sleep and take breaks. We’ll do everything we can to help you meet your deadlines. We appreciate your patience and are just a call or email away if you need to talk about your order.
Here are a few tips to help you as we navigate this busy time together:
All the best,
Your RetouchUp Customer Service Team
You can now add multiple credit cards to your account and choose one to be your default card. To add more payment options, login to your account, click MY ACCOUNT and then click PAYMENT OPTIONS.
Below is a test account to show how multiple cards will appear in your account. Click the yellow “Make Default” button to change the primary card used for monthly payment. You can change this at any time.
To remove a card, click the red “Delete” button. Please note, there must be at least one card in the account. To add a new card, fill out the information beneath ADD BILLING INFO. Upon completion, click the dark-gray “Add Billing Profile” button.
Yes, Your Payment Information Is Secure
RetouchUp uses Authorize.net (and has since 2014) to protect our clients’ payment information. When you enter your payment information, Authorize.net immediately stores it and gives it a special identifier for security. We want you to have peace of mind so all traffic between our servers and your computer is encrypted. We do our best to follow recommended security measures for any company accepting payment information, like performing quarterly information security audits. Your continued privacy and security are high on our priority list!
Your RetouchUp Team
To RUSH, or not to RUSH? That’s what we made the Delivery Time Estimator for! To help you make informed decisions about when to expect your order and if you should mark it as RUSH.
Once you’ve selected a retouching level, you’ll see a graph similar to the one below (please note that the following graph is for Complete Retouch):
The graph shows how long it took for similar orders to be completed in the past 24 hours. Based on the above graph, most Complete Retouch orders will be done in 19 hours. If RUSH is applied, then the order would be ready in closer to 5 hours. We do our best to predict when your order will be ready, but some factors that can cause delays are:
1. Large or complicated orders.
2. Incomplete or unclear instructions.
3. Missing reference photos.
4. The order was sent at the incorrect retouching level. These must be manually reassigned to an artist who can perform the higher level retouch.
Our team works around the clock and we do try to match our clients’ schedules. Occasionally, unanticipated weekend volume can result in higher weekend turnaround times. If you have a hard deadline it is always advisable to select RUSH. You can also reach out to Customer Service and we will do all we can to help you meet your deadline.
Your RetouchUp Team
Revisions are a normal part of the retouching process. We have recently made a change to the rework procedure to simplify the process. To rework an order, select the “REWORK ORDER” tab on the order page.
This will now bring up a new option for you to rework either specific individual photos or ALL PHOTOS in the order.
If you select “Rework Individual Photos” you will be able to add notes under the photo or photos you wish to return. Any unmarked photo WILL NOT be returned.
Within the individual photo rework option you can use the Markup Image feature to highlight a specific request. This tool can be used to circle or mark specific areas to be addressed. Please add all supporting text in the text box NOT on the markup. The text must be added before using the Markup tool.
If you select “Rework All Photos” you will get one text box to add general instructions that will apply to ALL photos. This should only be used when general instructions can be applied to an entire order.
In the rare case you feel an order should be started over, we prefer that you reach out to Customer Service and they can work with you on how to proceed. We always have the original un-retouched images on file so there is no need to place a new order.
Please reach out to us directly if you need specific help with the rework process or any other questions about our system. We are here to answer your questions and help you any way we can.
It seems that more photographers are beginning to realize the many uses for clipped photographs. Clipping has been widely used for sports photos and products, now we are seeing a variety of uses for clipped photos. For those who have never had the need for a clipped photo here is a brief description of the product, process and uses.
Any photo that has a distinct subject and a plain or non-cluttered background could be a candidate for clipping. The main image is kept intact while the background is removed leaving a transparent background. The resulting image saved as a .png can be manipulated in Photoshop onto any other backdrop for digital sports posters, banners etc. Product shots can be placed or composited onto virtually any background and changed very easily. While it is a relatively straight forward process there are many things to consider when shooting an image for clipping.
Anyone who takes professional photographs will most likely need those images retouched to satisfy their client’s needs. Whether you photograph commercial products, sports teams or portraits you probably will have an ongoing need for retouching services.
There are various solutions available for retouching such as doing it all yourself, having in-house staff and of course, outsourcing. There will be advantages and disadvantages to each of these but we will not explore those in this article. If you are reading this, most likely your desire is to outsource as much retouching as seems feasible for your situation so that is what we will focus on.
A major challenge whether you have in-house staff or you choose to outsource is going to be accurate communication of your expectations. We have several tools programmed into our system that make accurate communication very easy to achieve with minimal effort on your part. We would like to offer a few suggestions that should help you see better results from using our service for your retouching.
Basic Information
We offer three levels of retouching and have most of the basic tasks we perform at each level indicated on our home page. We often receive orders that simply say “RETOUCH” or “DO YOUR BEST”. The artist will attempt to give you his or her impression of what they think is a good retouch but it does help us a to have a basic understanding of your expectations.
Having simple, flat-rate retouch pricing that doesn’t require waiting for an estimate, is a HUGE benefit to professional photographers. This brief video introduction to RetouchUp’s simple pricing is worth watching.
Simple Pricing from Our Team on Vimeo.
We understand that you rely on our retouching services through out the year and especially during the holiday season! It’s a busy time of year spent juggling everything from your clients needs to your family needs, so we’re happy to help give you some time back so you can step away from your computer and share it with those you love!
Our goal turnaround time throughout the year is 24 hours, if you’ve been a customer with us for some time you know that it’s often half that time or less!
Although a 24 hour turnaround is always our goal we do not guarantee 24 hours for any order due to many factors which may include reworks/revisions, order size, level of difficulty, corrupt file, additional information needed, price change request, or artist availability.
Here are some helpful tips to help your orders get back to you as soon as possible during the holiday season!
Choose the correct retouching level.
By choosing the correct retouching level before your order is placed will help ensure that your order goes to the appropriate artist from the very start. Sometimes orders are sent in as Complete Retouches with Complete Plus or Special Service edit requests such as head swaps or removing big objects. These types of images are handled by artists that have that clearance level to handle those more difficult edits. Choosing the correct category helps insure your order doesn’t get stuck in temporary limbo going from one level of artist to the correct level.
By Passing “Favorite Artist”.
Selecting a “Favorite Artist” can delay your order as it gets added to their work queue and worked on in the order in which it was received. If you are in a tight deadline we suggest that you do not select Favorite Artist and let your order go to another skilled artist that can pick up your order as soon as possible!
Make sure all images are in your order.
Including any reference files that might be needed for eye glass glare, head swaps, replacing backgrounds or rebuilding backgrounds. We have seen some orders get held up because the artist doesn’t have all the images necessary to complete the edits requested. Please make sure to select “REFERENCE” below the uploaded thumbnail so that you are not charged for the reference files.
Give Simple, Straight Forward Instructions!
Try: “Remove hand above boy’s shoulder in the red sweater.” Instead of: “This shoot was a nightmare! First the clients came late and then the little sister wouldn’t keep her hands to herself and kept messing with her brother. LOL The mom tried to shoo away the girls hands over and over. This is the shot they chose and you can see the mom’s hand awkwardly trying to shoo away the sister right before this was taken. Can you please please please remove the mom’s hand and get it back to me asap. The mom wants to send out her Christmas cards ASAP!! Thank You so much!!!” We get these types of instructions a lot. It’s a lot to read. And sometimes there’s more than just one instruction like this example. It really helps the artists if you give your instructions, simple, straight forward like a list.
Give Yourself Time.
You’re busy. Your clients are busy. We’re all busy! Busy is good! It means strong business for those in the photography industry. We gear up during the holiday season with more artists who can accept more work every year. We see a great influx of orders during the holiday season and that impacts our turnaround time. Make sure to allow extra time for returned images when you talk to your clients. This helps images get through our system, any reworks or tweaks needed and then back to you and your client!
Thanks For Learning about our RetouchUp’s Holiday Turnaround Time!