About & FAQ
About Retouchedd
Welcome, I am Dzidra Dubois, photographer and retoucher. I know what the photo camera does already since my childhood in analog times and have retouched images since I made the first steps in graphic design after graduating from a Technical university of Riga.
I have a BC Architecture in my pocket, very good knowledge of photography and light years long experience in Photoshop. However, I’m constantly refining my skills and learning a lot. I think retouching is a never ending story that constantly gives me the drive to increase the achievement.
I do portrait, lifestyle, editorial, fashion & beauty retouching as well as product and advertising photography retouching.
I love old photos and do some kind of photo restoration jobs now and then.
Natural, close to reality, with the main purpose to enhance but not lose the original aesthetics, texture and living look of the picture.
Beauty retouch can be more clean with a more artificial look but anyway, I am against plastic-fantastic neither in my work nor in the nature and environment.
I offer only high end service and I am about quality and not quantity.
I do not offer background removal, clipping path and batch resizing services although these manipulations can be used and applied as a part of my retouching workflow.
I’m based in the Netherlands but I work worldwide.
I’m available online Monday through Friday (excl. holidays) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., UTC +1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer. If you contact me after business hours, I will respond the next working day.
I am very experienced and I have been using Adobe Photoshop professionally for almost 25 years. I also edit images in Adobe Lightroom and Capture One Pro.
Workflow
Turnaround time depends on the complexity and amount of the job and also how busy I am. Standard turnaround is about 5-7 working days and can be significantly longer for more extended projects. This is always discussed and stated before. However the order also can be completed in a few days for a special price.
To ensure your work is completed in time I prefer to work with evident timelines and to have a good scope of my schedule.
Please, let me know the deadline so that I can plan and book in the necessary time for you.
If you already have booked my services but will postpone the order or can’t deliver your files in time, please, let me know that immediately so I can adjust your booking in my agenda.
Yes, if it is possible at the given time. Rush orders can be completed within one or two days. Here rush rates (+50% of total order) are applicable. These orders are paid in full in advance.
Yes. After receiving finished photos, you can request the necessary changes. Please, note that change requests should not contradict your requirements described in your order.
Change requests like lightning, color or tone adjustments, minor imperfections and detailed corrections, are accepted within three business days after delivering the finished photos.
Feature requests – everything that is not mentioned in your order or another concept of the retouching – are considered as a new project and will be quoted and billed separately.
NB: Each alternative retouch concept of the same image is considered as an apart image and charged accordingly.
I own the copyright on my retouching work as an artwork and the rights to publish this on my website. However I guarantee a customer’s privacy and would like to publish photos with your consent.
By placing an order you will be asked for permission. I would highly appreciate it if you allow the publishing of my retouching work on my website and Instagram account. This is the only way how I can promote my work and keep my company going.
NB: I kindly ask not to give me the credits and my work if the images will be altered after my retouching.
Order & Payment
The cost of retouching may vary depending on the type of retouching required: basic, extended or high-end. From the overview of my services and detailed description of the retouching types and prices provided on my Rates page you can previously decide which kind of retouching you need so you can easily estimate your expenses.
Anyway, each job is quoted individually, based on the project deadlines, amount of the work, submitted image quality, Design Brief, reference images added and instructions provided.
Price lists and price indications on this website do not comprise a proposal.
You can always contact me for an exact quote.
I work on prepayment. Once you approve the quote, you need to make a payment of 50% from the total price of the order.
Only after receiving this payment the order will be considered as accepted and I will start with processing of submitted images.
The order will be delivered completely exceptionally after receiving full payment.
I accept PayPal by sending you a payment request.
For the customers from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany payments can be made in my webshop by iDeal, PayPal, Giropay, Mister Cash, Maestro credit card. After the order is discussed I will send you a payment link.
Yes. I offer a 10% discount on first order for new customers and 15% discount for publication in a magazine with credits in printed edition.
Orders of more than 20 images can be charged on the sliding scale (depends on the difficulty grade).
Discounts are not cumulative.
Images
No. If you will test my work, I suggest you simply place a small order of one or two images to get a better sense of how the editing will look like and if it suits your needs and taste.
I offer a 10% discount on first order for new customers.
It depends on your requirements and the image further use. I apply basic color and tone corrections for all kinds of retouching I do.
Most common in portrait retouch, for example, is skin cleaning and smoothing, redness removal, eye and teeth whitening, spots and stray hair removal, unwanted object removal, background cleaning, shaping and liquifying, etc.
Check my packages for a more specific list of adjustments.
You have to fill in the order form and send me by email a job description (Design Brief) with image (color) references attached.
After you have accepted a quote, you can send me your files by wetransfer.com or share any of the cloud service folders like most common and convenient Google Drive or OneDrive.
I accept any RAW (NEF, CR2, DNG etc.) files, SOOC (straight out of the camera) or with settings applied.
I work with many file formats like JPG, TIFF, PNG, PSD and others, but I prefer RAW files since they contain more detailed digital information and have a considerable advantage by converting.
NB: The quality of the source files provided has a huge impact on the final result!
The most common way I deliver processed images is by uploading them onto secured online photo gallery. Here you can preview your images and download them if you are satisfied with the results. The gallery will be online for one month.
I can also send you the images by wetransfer.com or set up a shared Google Drive folder for you. This folder will be available for a longer period of time, however I do clean out my Google Drive every month. Please ensure that you get your images in a timely manner and always ensure you have backups of your retouched pictures.
I am not responsible for loss of files once they are delivered.
Yes, of course. Before accepting your order I check submitted images in order to evaluate the quality and estimate the processing time.
It can happen. I guarantee high quality of my work and I keep certain rights to reject files which are not sufficient for executing an appropriate editing or/and retouching work, like digital images of low resolution, poor artistic quality, already (destructively) edited or/and effects applied, out of focus, blurry or indistinct, extremely over- or underexposed with raw data loss, etc.
My broad experience lets me judge any image correctly. In case of disagreement I check the files with special tools and can tell you exactly why I can’t offer you a good retouching job done for this particular image.
By default processed images are provided in JPG (sRGB color space) format.
Please, specify during your order which other formats and settings you would like to receive your images.
Yes, I offer this service for photographers and graphic designers. You can request these files for additional price by submitting your order so I can prepare special layered PSD files.
The price of each PSD file is at least the price of the retouched image.
