How a Free Photo Editing Trial Works (And What Happens If You Do Not Like the Result)
A trial should let you judge a studio on your own garments before you hand over money or a deadline. Ours works like this: you send 3-5 representative images, we edit them free and return them inside 24 hours, and then you decide. No commitment, no card.
Here is how to run one so the result actually means something, and what your options are when an image comes back wrong.
What a trial is for
A trial is not a free sample of work. It is a test of whether a studio can hit your standard without you standing over them.
That changes how you should run it. Send your three easiest images with an unusually careful brief and you will get a lovely result that predicts nothing. The trial worth running is the one that looks like a normal week.
The four steps
Send 3-5 representative images. Representative, not best. Include whichever garment gives you the most grief: black fabric, lace, mesh, fur trim, heavy knitwear, anything with awkward edges. Send them through the client portal, or paste a Dropbox, Drive or WeTransfer link. We take JPEG, PNG, PSD and TIFF.
Write the brief you would normally write. If you usually send two lines, send two lines. If you have a brand editing guide, send that. The point is to test us against how you actually work, not an idealised version of it. We will build an editing specification from whatever you give us, and where the brief is thin we will ask rather than guess: background treatment, how much retouching you want on fabric texture, how shadows should sit, any marketplace specs you have to meet.
Get the edits back within 24 hours. Same turnaround as live work.
Then judge it properly. Start with consistency across the set, because that is the thing that actually costs you time later. Do these look like they came from one process? Then zoom into the difficult garment and look at the edges. Check colour with the physical garment in your hand, not from memory. Look at whether the shadow sits naturally or has been dropped on.
Judge the worst image in the set, not the best one.
What happens if an image comes back wrong
You tell us what needs changing, and we change it.
Revisions are unlimited. No per-revision charge, no cap, and no argument about whether a revision is warranted.
That is deliberate, and it is mostly about incentives. A revisions cap pushes both sides the wrong way: the studio hurries to stay inside it, and the client stops asking for things they actually need. Take the cap off and the specification decides when an image is finished, rather than the invoice.
If the whole set comes back wrong, that is usually a specification problem rather than an execution one. The brief and the expectation drifted apart somewhere. Re-editing five images against the same flawed reference will not fix that, so we would rather have the conversation about the specification.
And if you decide not to go ahead, nothing happens. The trial was free, there is no card on file, and the edited images are yours.
Trial vs paid work: what actually changes
| Free trial | Live work | |
|---|---|---|
| Images | 3-5 | Your normal batch volume |
| Turnaround | 24 hours | 24 hours |
| Revisions | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Editing specification | Built from your brief | Maintained and refined over time |
| Cost | None | Quoted per project |
| Card required | No | — |
Is the trial representative? The process is identical: same turnaround, same revisions policy, same specification-led approach. What changes with live work is that the specification gets better, because it accumulates decisions from every batch you send.
Questions worth asking any studio before a trial
How many images, and do they choose them or do you? What is turnaround in hours, and does it hold at your volume? Are revisions capped? Do you keep the images if you walk away? Is a card required?
That last one is the quickest filter. A studio asking for card details before a free trial is not offering a free trial.
Frequently asked questions
How many images can I send for the trial?
3-5. Enough to judge consistency, few enough to return inside 24 hours.
Do I need to provide a detailed brief?
No. Send what you would normally send. If it is thin, we will ask about the decisions that matter rather than guess at them.
Is a credit card required?
No. No card, no commitment.
Do I keep the edited images if I do not proceed?
Yes.
How do I send my images?
Through the client portal, or paste a Dropbox, Drive or WeTransfer link on the trial form.
What if I am not happy with a revision?
Tell us again. Revisions are unlimited, so there is no point at which you run out of them.
Start a free trial. 3-5 images, edited free, back within 24 hours.
Paul Lloyd founded Pixel By Hand and still handles client relationships and quality oversight.
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