Retouching: In-house vs Outsourcing
Brands need striking visuals to capture attention and tell compelling stories.
Retouching is a crucial component of the process, and while often considered less glamorous, it can be the difference in making a sale or losing out to a competitor.
You can outsource your retouching or keep it in-house. But which option aligns best with your goals and resources? Let’s dive into the benefits of each to help you find your fit.
Spoiler alert: It might end up being both!
Keeping things in-house
Hands-On
When you keep your retouching in-house, your retouchers are physically close to your studio or art directors, making it easy to have in-person conversations about creative ideas and brand standards. If your workflow needs it, in-house post-production allows you to match swatches and hard proof to assist in color correction.
Speed and Turnaround
With in-house retouching, you can directly access your team, enabling quick revisions and last-minute adjustments.
Cost Considerations
If your business has a relatively consistent daily volume of work, in-house retouching might seem cost-effective. Because you don’t have work overflow, you can maximize your retouchers’ time without having to worry about missed deadlines.
Going external
Access to Expertise
Outsourcing retouching brings in a team of experts with diverse talents and up-to-date industry knowledge. This includes specialized skills like complex composite retouching, GIF creation, and CGI rendering, which you may not have in-house.
Work Smarter
Outsourcing frees up your in-house team from the nitty-gritty of high-volume PDP retouching, allowing them to focus on more challenging, elevated assets like editorial or marketing visuals. This boost in efficiency can increase productivity and improve job satisfaction.
Business Continuity
Outsourcing eliminates worries about employee leave affecting your business performance. With dedicated resources always available, your operations can run smoothly year-round.
Flexibility and Scalability
Outsourcing lets you scale your retouching needs as projects surge or taper off without managing a fluctuating in-house team. It’s like having a helping hand precisely when you need it, from partial overflow assistance to fully managed service.
A 24/7 Production Cycle
By tapping into resources across different timezones, some outsourcing solutions leverage a global workforce to deliver express and overnight production while your in-house team rests. For example, at VMG, we helped a weekly magazine publisher achieve a 40% cost reduction by assembling a team of remote image retouchers who could turn around images within an hour.
Cost Savings
Outsourcing retouching eliminates the need to invest in specialized software and hardware and provides access to a global talent pool with competitive pricing and reduced overhead costs. Some businesses set up shared service solutions, cutting down retoucher costs for other departments or sister businesses. Everybody wins!
Finding your fit
The choice between in-house and outsourced retouching depends on your unique circumstances, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
A hybrid approach might be your sweet spot, offering a balance between creative control and professional collaboration where key strategic work like style guides, technology reviews, performance reporting, and Quality Control will typically stay in-house with a manager.
Whichever path you choose, remember that exceptional retouching can be a game-changer for creating visuals that resonate with your audience and elevate your creative output.
Ready to enhance your brand’s visual impact? Whether you’re considering in-house options or exploring outsourcing expertise, let’s talk! We’d love to work with you to tailor a solution that aligns with your goals and resources.
