Per-image retouching prices look arbitrary until you see what changes between tiers. The price follows the number of decisions made about a frame and how long each one takes.
At BeEdits, professional photo retouching costs from $2.50 per image for high-volume cleanup to $60 per image for full creative compositing, and client portrait work usually fits Standard ($4) or Beauty ($5). The price follows how long a frame takes, so choose a tier by what the finished image has to do rather than by comparing totals.
Retouching is almost always priced per image, because the frame is the unit of work. What changes between tiers is how much is done to each frame, and that is the part worth understanding before you compare prices.
The prices below are BeEdits' own, since those are the ones we can state accurately.
What each tier buys
Entry — high-volume cleanup, $2.50
Skin smoothing that keeps texture, blemish removal, light and colour correction, and basic stray-hair cleanup, applied evenly across a large set.
Not included: dodge and burn, frequency separation, teeth and eye work, clothing cleanup or background work.
Right for: headshot batches, event galleries and large sets where the brief is "clean and consistent" rather than close-up finishing. This is Basic Retouching.
Standard — client-ready portraits, $4
Skin cleanup with frequency separation, blemish and spot removal, under-eye cleanup, minor hair cleanup, clothing wrinkle cleanup, teeth whitening, eye brightening, colour correction, exposure and contrast, minor background cleanup and a final check.
Right for: portrait sessions, lifestyle and personal branding work, family portraits and wedding portraits. It is the level most delivered client work needs. This is Standard Retouching.
Beauty — close-up skin, $5
Natural skin retouching with frequency separation and dodge and burn, blemish removal, hair and flyaway cleanup, teeth whitening, eye enhancement, colour correction, high-resolution delivery and one revision.
Right for: beauty portraits, fashion, model portfolios and editorial frames — anywhere the skin is the subject and the image will be seen large. This is Beauty Retouching.
High-end — three packages, $4.50 to $10.50
High-End Photo Retouching is split into three packages rather than one price, and the lowest is lighter than Beauty Retouching:
- Essential Retouch, $4.50 — basic skin cleanup, minor blemish and distraction removal, light colour correction and a web-ready export.
- Premium Retouch, $6 — advanced skin retouching, dodge and burn, colour correction and grading, hair and clothing cleanup, background cleanup and detail enhancement.
- Editorial / Campaign Retouch, $10.50 — high-end skin work with detailed dodge and burn, colour grading, background cleanup or enhancement, hair, clothing and product refinement, and delivery for web or print.
Right for: commercial, editorial and campaign images, choosing the package by how closely the frame will be examined.
Creative editing — a different category, $16 to $60
Background changes, compositing, built environments and visual effects. These are priced by how much of the picture is being made rather than corrected, so they are a separate category rather than a higher tier of retouching.
Basic Creative Editing is $16 per image for a background change with compositing of up to two images, mood grading and light skin retouching. Advanced Creative Editing runs from $25 for a background change with basic grading, through $35 for blending up to three images with matched lighting and shadows, to $60 for full manipulation with visual effects.
Why the range exists
Mostly time. A cleanup pass takes minutes. A beauty frame worked properly with frequency separation and hand-painted dodge and burn is closer to an hour. A composite with a built background, matched light and drawn shadows can take several hours.
A cleanup price for beauty work means the beauty work is being automated or skipped. A beauty price for cleanup work means you are paying for attention the frame does not need.
Working out which tier a frame needs
Start from what has to be true about the delivered image:
- Clean and consistent across a lot of images — entry.
- Client-ready portraits that still look like the person — standard.
- Seen full screen, where the skin has to hold up — beauty.
- Carries a campaign or goes to print at size — high-end.
- Needs to be somewhere else entirely — creative.
Decide per frame rather than per job. The twelve portraits a couple will print may justify beauty work; the other 588 frames in the gallery do not.
What else changes the total
Volume. Bulk and ongoing monthly work is quoted as a custom plan based on volume, style and delivery needs rather than list prices.
Revisions. Beauty Retouching includes one. For the High-End packages it depends on the package, so check before ordering.
Source quality. A well-exposed raw file takes less time to work than a rescued JPEG, which affects how long the frame takes even when the price is fixed.
Quote-only work. Video Editing and Advertisement Design have no per-image price; each is quoted per project after the brief.
Setting the price against your own time
Comparing a per-image price with doing the work yourself only makes the price look expensive if your own time is counted as free.
A clearer comparison is what else those hours could do. Take a photographer whose time is worth $150 an hour on shoots or client work: eight hours retouching twenty-five portraits costs $1,200 of that time, while the same frames at $4 each cost $100.
That does not mean everyone should outsource. If the returned hours would go on rest, that is a perfectly good use and it changes the sum. The point is to work it out with your own figures rather than a guess.
Common questions
How much does BeEdits charge per image? Basic Retouching is $2.50, Standard Retouching $4, Beauty Retouching $5, and High-End Photo Retouching $4.50, $6 or $10.50 depending on the package. Basic Creative Editing is $16 and Advanced Creative Editing $25, $35 or $60; Video Editing and Advertisement Design are quoted per project.
Why do retouching prices vary so much? Because the work varies. A skin and colour cleanup takes a fraction of the time of beauty retouching with frequency separation and dodge and burn, and a composite with a built background takes longer again.
Which level of retouching do I need? Start with what the delivered frame has to do. Clean, consistent images in volume suit Basic; natural client-ready portraits suit Standard; skin that holds up at full screen suits Beauty; campaign and editorial frames suit High-End.
Is there volume pricing? Bulk and ongoing monthly work is handled as a custom plan, quoted on volume, editing style and delivery needs rather than on the per-image price list.
Does the file I send affect the result? Yes. High-resolution RAW, TIFF, PSD or JPEG files give the best result, and reference images with clear written instructions help match the style you want.
Related reading: How Long Should Professional Photo Retouching Take? and How to Choose a Professional Photo Editing Service.
BeEdits Editorial Team
Post-production studio
A photography post-production company: high-end retouching, creative editing and scalable production support for photographers, studios and brands.