How Photo Editing Is Priced (And Why We Quote Rather Than Publish a Per-Image Rate)
Pixel By Hand does not publish a flat per-image price. We quote per project, after seeing representative images. This page explains exactly what goes into that quote, so you can compare us against anyone else on the same terms, and work out whether outsourcing beats hiring for your volume.
One thing worth stating plainly, because it has been misreported: there is no published Pixel By Hand per-image rate. If you have seen a specific figure attributed to us that did not come from us in writing, it is not ours. Send 3-5 images and we will quote against your actual work.
Why a single advertised rate is usually misleading
One flat rate has to cover every job a studio might take on. In practice that means it either sits high enough to absorb the difficult work, in which case easy work is overpriced, or it sits low and the difficult work arrives with surcharges attached.
Fashion has an unusually wide gap between easy and hard. A structured jacket on white is not the same job as a black lace top with fur trim, and charging the same for both serves the studio rather than the client.
The six things that actually move the price
Garment complexity is the big one. Lace, mesh, fur, loose hair and sheer fabric all take substantially longer than a clean-edged garment.
Which services the image needs. Background removal on its own is a different job from background removal plus ghost mannequin plus colour correction plus shadow work. A quote should tell you which of those it covers.
Whether ghost mannequin is single-image or two-shot. Most workflows want an on-mannequin shot and a separate inside or neck shot. Ours works from one photograph, which removes a setup from your shoot as well as a step from the edit.
Volume and regularity. A predictable monthly batch costs less to serve than a sporadic one, because the specification already exists and the decisions have already been made. First batches always carry more setup than steady-state work does.
How settled your brief is. A brand with a clear editing specification is cheaper to work with than one renegotiating the standard every batch. This is the cost most brands never see on an invoice. It shows up as revision rounds and delay instead.
Turnaround. Ours is 24 hours as standard, so speed is not normally a surcharge line. Where a studio does charge a rush premium, the useful question is what their non-rush turnaround actually is.
How to compare two quotes fairly
Ask both studios the same five questions.
Is this priced per image or per garment? A garment shot from four angles is four images. What exactly is included, itemised? Background removal, ghost mannequin, retouching, colour correction and shadow work are separate operations and should be priced as such. Are revisions capped? Ours are not, and an uncapped policy is a materially different product from a capped one. What is turnaround in hours at your volume? And what happens at peak, since the only figure that matters is the one that survives your busiest week.
A cheaper quote with a three-revision cap and 72-hour turnaround can easily cost more in practice than a higher one with neither.
Outsourcing vs hiring in-house: how to work it out
This is the calculation worth doing properly, with your numbers rather than anybody's marketing.
In-house annual cost is not the salary. It is salary plus employer's National Insurance, pension, software licences, hardware, holiday cover, recruitment, and the management time to supervise the role. Divide that by the images the role genuinely produces in a year, not its theoretical capacity, because nobody edits every working hour.
Outsourced annual cost is the quoted rate times your annual volume, plus your own time briefing and reviewing.
Compare cost per image, then weigh three things the arithmetic misses. Outsourcing flexes with your season and a salary does not. An in-house editor who leaves takes the standard with them unless it is written down, which is an argument for a documented editing specification whichever route you take. And one editor has a hard ceiling, so it is worth knowing what yours is in your busiest week and what you currently do when you hit it.
The honest summary is that in-house tends to win at consistently high volume with stable requirements, and outsourcing tends to win with variable volume, seasonal peaks, or where you do not have the management bandwidth to supervise a specialist. There is no image-count threshold that applies to every brand, which is why the calculation matters more than a rule of thumb.
What you can get without a quote
If you would rather judge the work before talking about money at all, send 3-5 representative images and we will edit them free and return them within 24 hours. No commitment, no card, and the images are yours either way.
That order is deliberate. Judging an editing studio on price before you have watched it handle your most difficult garment is the wrong way round.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does Pixel By Hand charge per image?
We do not publish a flat per-image rate. Price depends on garment complexity, which services the image needs, your volume and how settled your brief is. Send 3-5 representative images and we will quote against your actual work.
Why not just publish a price list?
Because fashion images vary too much for one number to be honest. A single published figure either overcharges for simple work or arrives with surcharges on the complex work.
Is there a minimum order?
Ask when you request a quote, because it depends on the work. The free trial has no minimum and no commitment.
Do you charge for revisions?
No. Revisions are unlimited and included.
Do you charge a rush fee?
Our standard turnaround is 24 hours, so rush pricing does not usually come up.
What file formats do you accept?
JPEG, PNG, PSD and TIFF.
Paul Lloyd founded Pixel By Hand and still handles client relationships and quality oversight. We have been editing fashion imagery since 2006.
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