Tap Room Podcast 29: We don't outsource editing or photographers
There isn’t a week where I’m not approached by a company or person wanting to take over my edits post photo session. You may or may not have seen this out there (maybe not if you’re not a photographer) but it’s good to know where your images go post “click”.
A lot of photography studios are one man/woman operations and if they aren’t in the field/studio working they aren’t getting paid. Sitting at a desk costs money for some - there really isn’t an easy way of breaking down this further.
At TAP, we’ve never outsourced services in editing and hiring outside photographers. You’re either getting Kevin or Erin during or post session. For us, it comes down to our quality control and review. It’s easy to pass it along and hope that an outside source will edit your photos as you would your own image. A lot of times we’ll pivot on an edit and the result is newer, fresher image that an outside vendor won’t do or care to do. I’ll probably get some slack from those who outsource which is fine, but at the end of the day - who cares about the images better? The photographer who’s name is attached to the image or the one behind the scenes just processing images. For us, that tradeoff isn’t appealing and we’d rather save time streamlining other processes.
I will note, there are some great third party editors but it’s a feature we chose no to follow along a trend with some of our peers.
A few years ago we hired a photographer for family pictures. Yes, sometimes we to look hire a professional for a job as well and we wanted a particular style they were editing. Post session, we looked at their other edits and noticed the quality difference between some of their final proofs. I reached out and this company used an editor in California for post production.
Would these issues happen if they were inhouse? Maybe, I’m not perfect and if caught I’d quickly correct it but it never sat right. This particular photographer promotes specials now, where it’s promoted where all images of that session are edited by that photographer.
So why would a photographer give up some control of their editing and what are the pros and cons
PROS
Cost - Hiring a full time employee to edit could be a pretty large expense, while sending your images to a be edited can be cost effective.
Business time - This one is maybe the biggest driver for photographers and is probably biggest pro for many. If they aren’t sitting editing, they can make more money out and about.
Turn around - The busier you get, the longer it takes you to get images back to clients. I do believe there’s a fine balance but the turn around time and complexity of the shoot are always discussed prior to the session.
Editing Time - This goes back to time saved and where the individual feels this process opens more time.
CONS
Loss of control - From start to finish, I have a particular image in my head when I work with a client in a session. During a session my process for editing post session have already started to bring the final image to life. Relaying this image to a third party might result in a rather crazy phone call or discussion since translating the original idea seems odd at first then comes out. Most of our images aren’t cookie cutter and a general “filter setting” will never suffice.
Learning from mistakes - I’ve learned new techniques over the years from making a simple error, I love this part and allows me to continually develop as a photographer and editor.
Hidden Photo Gems -Images or a potential image may appear. I’ve changed gears during my editing sessions when looking over the images realizing there was an image taken that could be the gem out of the session. It’s a creative piece I don’t like to miss.
Ultimately, the end result is the responsibility of the photographer and our preference to keep editing in-house and we’ve focused on other automated cost saving techniques to make our client experience continually more streamlined and geared toward a better experience. This not only saves us time, but creates a more inhouse, robust experience for our clients.
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