Editorial vs Campaign vs E-commerce Retouching

Editorial

Editorial retouching serves the photographer's and the magazine's vision. It usually keeps more character and allows more of a look. Decisions tend to rest with a few people, so changes can move quickly, and deadlines are set by the issue. The files have to meet the publication's specifications. Covers are a special case: see how a magazine cover gets retouched.

Campaign

Campaign retouching serves a brand, and usually has to please several people. Expect more detail on the product, more rounds of changes and more legal review. A campaign also has to run in many formats, so a single image can produce many files. It tends to cost the most per image, since it needs the most decisions. See one campaign, every format.

E-commerce

E-commerce retouching serves the customer who's deciding whether to buy. The goals are accuracy and consistency, across hundreds or thousands of images. Backgrounds, crops, shadows and color all follow a fixed guide, and the same steps repeat on each image, so speed and price matter much more. The most important test is that the product looks like what arrives in the box. See how to keep product color consistent.

How the three compare

• Time per image: editorial and campaign images get individual attention, and e-commerce follows a repeatable process.
• Who decides: the photographer and magazine for editorial, a brand team for campaign, a style guide for e-commerce.
• Biggest risk: losing the look in editorial, misleading or missing a format in a campaign, and inconsistency in e-commerce.
• Files: print specifications for editorial, many formats for campaign, set sizes and web files for e-commerce.

When a job is more than one

A shoot might produce a few hero images and a large set for a product page. Treat those as two jobs, with separate briefs and prices. Otherwise you can end up paying campaign rates for simple images, or getting bulk treatment on your hero shot.

What high-end retouching costs explains how pricing works, and our fashion and commercial pages describe the work.