If you are a brand owner, professional photographer, or entrepreneur trying to make it in the eCommerce world, you probably already understand the importance of good product images and professional image editing. 

But how do you get to your desired result and quality of commercial photography? The answer is between doing it yourself, hiring an in-house professional for photo editing services, or completely outsourcing image retouching.

Each option has its pros and cons, but in this article, you’ll find some tips on effectively outsourcing photo retouching and maintaining good communication and workflow in the process.

Why is communication so important in outsourcing?

Communication is the holy grail of outsourcing for several reasons. First of all, to avoid setting your business up for failure, you need to outsource to a company that is mastering communication skills (besides the other image editing hard skills that you’re looking for, of course)!

According to a recent study, 20% of businesses say that language, cultural barriers, and time zone differences are the main communication challenges they face when outsourcing. A much smaller percentage includes inadequate technical abilities and a lack of transparency. 

How to facilitate communication with your photo editing service provider?

✅ Unlock the power of the project management tools.

Communication and project management tools can make your image editing projects manageable and successful without much hassle. Tools like Monday, Asana, Trello, or Jira can help by significantly optimizing the workflow when outsourcing image retouching.

These tools allow you to see what your team has been working on and next, giving you a clear overview of the project.

✅ Use a limited number of communication channels.

When you have to look for information in many different places, the work usually starts on the wrong foot. To avoid losing information about the project, feedback or files, choose one or two communication channels and stick to them.

If you are using more channels than needed, information tends to get lost. For example, if you communicate decisions via Whatsapp, the flow of further communications may miss the essential details for the project.

✅ Write down the important stuff.

Many crucial details and decisions can be made during a video call, face-to-face discussion, or phone. Unfortunately, these types of communications can often be forgotten or reinterpreted, so always remember to write them down in a follow-up email.

✅ Use automated image editing tools for simple tasks.

The creation of commercial photography has three main steps: pre-production, product shooting, and post-production. While for the first two steps, human intervention is a must, you can benefit from the power of artificial intelligence in post-production. For example, if you need to remove background from a large batch of images, AI will enable you to do that fast and easy. This will remove frustration from repetitive labor and keep your outsourced team happier and more focused on other vital tasks like high-end image retouching.

How to communicate your expectations accurately

Communication between you and the team outsourcing your photo editing services is essential in making sure that both parties can work collaboratively. Good communication guarantees that you get what you expect, issues are fixed efficiently, and problems are avoided or limited. When you start by setting the expectations right from the start, you are more likely to get exactly what you want and avoid a lot of back and forth between you and your outsourced image editing team.

You should offer all the essential information, including what you consider an excellent retouch and a list of instructions and the desired degree of retouching. But, unfortunately, there is no “recipe for success” or “one size fits all” in terms of image editing when it comes to commercial photography. 

Using the right words here is crucial. For example, reduce, minimize or remove are words that will help the image retouching artist understand your preferences. If you have a reference photo of a good example of what your images should look like, send it over to your outsourced team.

Good communication, trust, and cooperation are key elements of a good outsourcing experience. Success can be achieved if good communication exists between you and your outsourcing team throughout the entire project.

If you need to outsource photo editing services, we recommend the best image retouching provider.