How to Know It’s Time to Outsource Photo Retouching and Editing

The concept to outsource photo retouching is one that many photographers and marketing teams find difficult to explore. The foremost reason is that it is kind of weird to have someone else finish your work as a photographer. As for a marketing team, it seems challenging to have someone else outside of the team to work on the team’s project.

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As much as you love to shoot or create product presentations, it cannot be denied that photo retouching and photo editing for e-commerce can take significant time. Sometimes, it is even impossible to factor simple photo retouching processes like clipping path and background removal in your already busy schedule. Hence the reason why there is a need to outsource photo retouching. With photo editing services, you can afford more time to spend on developing your photography skills, shoot for more clients, or improve the marketing plan.

But first, what exactly is outsourcing?

Outsourcing simply means hiring other people or team for specific services. The services can be similar, complementary, or supportive to the ones that are already done by your own team. One example is when photographers find other people to edit their photos instead of doing it themselves. For companies, there are plenty of services that can be outsourced. Whether it is for accounting stuff, like bookkeeping, or creative stuff, such as hiring a professional photographer for the product shoots, outsourcing can help balance the workload.

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Outsourcing services is very beneficial because it can optimize the existing processes, reduce costs, and even add special business aspects to the existing revenue stream. It makes the company more competitive in the sense that there is an extra support to do more things at once.

Here are other signs to help you determine whether you are ready to outsource photo retouching.

1. You Cannot Keep Up with the Workload 

Time is tricky; it seems to tick faster when you have got plenty of tasks at hand. If you notice that you are constantly rushing things up just to get all things done, then you really need to delegate some of that work. You cannot risk not having the best results just because you are not focused on delivering quality work but rather keen on finishing all tasks. If you are to outsource photo retouching, you can deal with more important aspects in the business.

2. Meeting Last Minute Deadlines 

Sometimes, you cannot control the sudden influx of work. Perhaps your company gets too busy with seasonal projects, or you are to join in trade shows and other events? Whatever the reason is, it is obvious that you need extra help through photo retouching services in order to meet the deadlines. Outsourcing will give you plenty of time to work on the important details while still being able to get quality results with the help of expert photo editors.

Employee Burnout. It is important to determine the stress level of employees because many of them can easily fall into the routine. Some people think that it is normal to feel stressed at work, not knowing that it can cause havoc to both mental and physical health.

Productivity and professional success gets jeopardized by what is called as “employee burnout”. There are multitudes of reasons why you may feel unmotivated to be productive at work. With photographers, they may dread doing post-processing of photos just because it takes a lot of their time. By outsourcing photo editing, there is enough time to find tasks that actually motivate rather than boring you to the point of being burnout. It is a great and effective way to lessen the workload thereby minimizing the reasons why employees get stressed out.

3. You Waste Time Doing Repetitive Edits 

Doing the same types of edits over and over again is not only taxing to your time but more on your mental well-being. Non-professional photo editors can spend almost 30 minutes or more with only one photo. Usually it is not because it is difficult to do but more on because one tends to become too distracted with other thoughts. Imagine editing photos all day and you still need to do other work-related stuff, you will already feel tired by just the thought of it. With professionals, however, they can perform quick edits in less than five minutes and not because they are experts but because they focus on that task alone.

4. Expanding to Other E-Commerce Channels

Online shoppers have plenty of shopping channels to choose from. It is expected that retailers also have to level their games up by being available across all e-commerce channels so that they can reach their consumers. This would mean that you have to also deal with the different product photo specifications of every channel for example, selling your products on Amazon or on Etsy. You have to follow this specific requirements that the platform requires. If you are going to outsource photo retouching, you are able to free yourself up from the tedious task of sizing and editing photos according to a variety of specifications.

5. You Want to Achieve a Minimum Turnaround Time 

Improving your turnaround time will be impossible if you simply have too many photos to edit. For example, if having 50 photos would take you around one full working day to complete, then you can literally do more if you are going to delegate the editing to a team of professional editors. You are guaranteed with a quick and efficient photo editing while you are left to complete everything else on your task list.

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6. Photo Editing is Not Your Expertise 

Let’s face it, no matter how simple Photoshop is, not everyone can learn it. There are plenty of photographers who are only great with taking photos but not with post-processing. It is great that there are expert photo editors that you can rely on for this purpose. It will make more sense to outsource photo retouching than risk destroying the photos over poorly done edits.

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7. You Need to Focus on Growth 

Growing the company is a serious business. You have to increase your sales, reach more clients, offer new promotions, manage the finances, try new skills, and more! Outsourcing some tasks will let you handle these responsibilities and lets you focus on the factors that can help the business grow. Furthermore, aside from giving you time to grow the company, you are also able to afford quality time for more valuable stuff, such as having quality time with family or doing something else that you are passionate about outside work. This is very important because you can risk feeling burnout if all that you do is work and have no time to relax.

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8. You Spend Too Much for the Photographer

Getting a professional photographer to do product shoots is essential in achieving quality photos. The rates, however, can go up if you are going to have plenty of photos done for editing. Also, no matter how great the photographer is, demanding to have the best edits afterwards can risk having poor-quality results. A professional photographer is still human after all and can also get tired. The best way to go around this is to let the photographer do his best on the shoot then hire another professional to do the edits. 

If you are thinking about the costs, you will find that the rates of most photo editing companies are much cheaper compared to having the photographer also edit for those photos. Aside from the lesser costs, you can also discuss with your team which photos are best to be used for the marketing campaign.

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9. You Need to Deal with Seasonal Fluctuations 

The holiday season is always a busy time across all brands. Overall retail sales increase during the holiday rush so this means a lot of work for the retailers. There will be plenty of photos to edit in order to meet the increased demands of the customers. There are also seasons where trade shows are plenty and product launches would mean a surge of product photos for editing. The increase in demand could potentially hurt your chance of grabbing the influx of potential sales if you cannot handle it. Do not wait for the busy season to start until you outsource photo retouching. Map out the plan early on and have a reliable photo editing services provider to lend a hand.

Whatever your reason is, you can really reap plenty of benefits when you outsource photo retouching. If you are after growing your business, then you must be aware about the importance of time. It is vital that you get all photos ready on time, not just to impress clients, but more on making yourself available to perform all other responsibilities that also grow once your business takes off.

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