I can no longer cope with retouching and keywording of my shoots, at moment have about 10000 RAWs need to be processed (of course i wont send RAWs to anyone). i'm thinking about outsourcing retouching service, does anyone has any experience, good or bad, with keyindiagraphics? my biggest concern is safety of my images. if you have dealt with them before please give some advice, here on the forum or pm. thank you

http://www.mymicrostock.net/2012/11/01/aaron-amat-un-cat%C3%A1logo-en-continuo-crecimiento-de-exitosas-im%C3%A1genes-de-stock/

MM: Sabemos que, debido a tu alt�sima producci�n, usas de vez en cuando los servicios KeyIndia �est�s contento con su funcionamiento? �cu�ndo crees que es rentable un servicio as�?

Estoy muy contento con ellos, actualmente se encargan de retocar imperfecciones de la piel de los modelos y quitar marcas de los objetos, tambi�n se encargan de las Keywords. Son muy buenos y muy minuciosos con su trabajo, quitan hasta las peque�as motas de polvo que puedan haber en la ropa o los objetos, dejando una foto perfectamente limpia.

by google translate

MM: We know that because of your high production, using occasionally KeyIndia services are you happy with your performance? When do you think is profitable service like?

I am very happy with them, currently responsible for retouching skin imperfections of models and brands remove objects, also responsible for the Keywords. They are very good and very thorough with their work, remove even small specks of dust that may be on clothing or objects, leaving a perfectly clean picture.

I thought i am the only lazy person who does not like retouching and believe it in giving to companies who can do retouching for me... ...

I contacted them to get a price for the kind of retouching I do myself (I think it's fair to say I'm pretty high class) so they asked me to upload originals + retouched finals to see what it's all about. I guess they really liked my work because they used it to advertise their 'expert services'. Claiming others' work as your own is one thing... using my pics without my permission is another thing... but the really jerk part is that they put up the unretouched shot of my model all over the place without my / her permisson...  Stay away from these jerks.

I did a five image trial and wasn't impressed. They are somehow tied to JaincoTech and I've used JT for a couple hundred images. The problem is you need to review their work. And when you find stuff they missed, like not removing company logos, you need to send an email back explaining all the stuff they missed. Then re-review the images, send some back again, and on and on. I then still needed to do work on the images to make them the way I wanted them.  It probably depends on what you shoot but in the end it wasn't worth it for me.

Jaincotech and keyindia are two completely different companies but both are targeting microstock photographers. Both were represented at the last microstock expo.

Jaincotech has been purchased by pro image experts now though, so they have changed names.

good.

but i wonder how can he live in UK earning 1$ per image.

consider 2000 images per month, 5 days a week, 8hrs per day ... that means 5 minutes per image, 100 images/day, plus uploading the images back to customers, writing emails to customers, eventual phone calls, etc .. all this for 2000$ and he's supposed to pay taxes on that.

it's a hell of salary in places like cambodia or india or philippines but UK ? maybe on par with grilling burgers at mcdonalds.

Well lads I dropped him an email, (mostly to suggest that he signs up here) and asked him about your queries.

As for pricing, apparently he used to charge more however he lowered the price to compete with the Asian market as not many photographers are willing to pay more when they can get it done in Asia for peanuts.

As for your equations Xanox $2000 USD equates to about �1400 per month, less payable taxes on that comes out with around �1280 per month.

Now when I was working as a van driver over here I was making �8.25ph on a 40 hour week averaging �1320 per month before taxes and that was considered a good wage for the position.  My wife works as a care assistant in a care home and only gets �7.25 per hour.

Salary compared to cost of living in the UK means that the majority of the UK workforce are barely just above the bread line these days.  primarily since the EU deals where all the eastern europeans came over and started taking jobs for half price, meaning that the labour pools got flooded and employers could pay next to nothing.  If it wasn't for minimum wage laws the a massive majority of the UK would be living in poverty.

Anyhow I digress,  Mike is retired, got bored with retirement, so offers the service primarily to stay busy and help top up his pension.

He does not outsource and states that he is plenty busy but will always accept a job if he can do it in a timely fashion.

When I mentioned the forum he also mentioned that he would welcome you guys to drop him a couple of samples to see if you like the quality of his work.

I say what have you got to lose?

Peace to all.

Once again you can reach him at [email protected]