You’ve taken a bunch of pictures on your vacation. You love them, but the light was too bright or you saw some wrinkles that weren’t there last year. Naturally, if you’re not Photoshop/Lightroom-savvy, you’d want to get some photo retouching work done.
But how do you find the best photo retouching services on the internet? Keep reading as we go through the best currently available. There’s also a selection guide after the reviews.
Best Photo Retouching Services Reviews
Contents
FixThePhoto
FixThePhoto is among the best photo retouching services out there, offering excellent quality and reliability. The site has a broad range of services, neatly sorted in tiers. You can opt for anything from blemish and scar removals to advanced effects, restoration, and coloring of black and white photos.
The speed is up there with the best in the business. Also, the customer support is stellar. The support team is fast, knowledgeable, and dedicated. You can expect help in mere minutes if you have a problem or can’t find something on the site. FixThePhoto’s website has the standard email support, as well as an active Facebook page and a site bot that can answer your questions.
The site is easy to navigate and looks reasonably good. You can find the examples of offered services and pricing pages with no trouble, and there’s also an extensive blog section. However, the site could use a visual update.
Ordering on FixThePhoto is a breeze. You can also get a free quote for every project. The site allows you to upload images from your computer and a range of popular cloud storage options. It also supports all major image formats.
Pricing is another strong point of this service. The “Basic” tier services cost only $2.00 per image, and it includes cropping, teeth whitening, blemish and scar removal, etc. The next in line is the “Pro” tier, and it costs $5.00 per image. “High End” and “Extra” tiers cost $10 each, while the “Manipulation and Restoration” tier starts at $25 per photograph.
Pros
- Excellent service quality
- Fast delivery
- Great customer support
- Easy ordering
- Reasonable pricing
Cons
The site could use an update
Wedding-Retouching
Wedding-retouching is among the top retouching services on the internet for a reason. It offers professional-level quality and a vast range of editing services. The name might lead you to believe that they’re focused only on wedding pictures, but they work with all types of images.
When it comes to customer support, Wedding-Retouching doesn’t fall behind. You can send them an email, contact them on Facebook, or use the online support chat. The site’s Facebook page has an active community of around 10,000 members.
The site looks classy and polished, with the main menu huddled to the left edge of the page. Cyan, dark red, and white dominate the landscape. The site also has an extensive blog section, mostly dedicated to taking and editing wedding photos.
Ordering is effortless, and Wedding-Retouching gives you many uploading options. You can use your local storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, and even WeTransfer. Note that you have to have a registered account to place an order.
Wedding-Retouching scores top marks in delivery speed so you don’t have to think twice before ordering a larger batch. Another plus is that the editors work until you’re completely satisfied with your images.
Finally, the pricing is relatively affordable. For example, the Wedding Light package costs $99, and you can get a color correction on 700 images. The Wedding pro package includes simple editing for 20 pictures and advanced editing for an additional five.
Pros
- Fast and reliable
- Wedding packages
- Unlimited re-edits
- Easy ordering
- A stylish site
Cons
Not the most affordable service
WeEditPhotos
With WeEditPhotos, you can count on excellent quality and a wide range of services. The site mostly gravitates towards portraits and wedding pictures. However, they also work with many other types of photos.
The site has a reasonable pricing policy. All offered services are divided into five tiers, ranging from $0.05 to $10 per photo. The lowest level, “Culling,” is if you can’t pick a set of images that you want to edit. “Color Correction” is the next tier, and it costs $0.20 per picture. The “Basic Level” costs $2 per image and the “Pro” and “Extra” levels cost $5 and $10 respectively.
The site looks professional and is easy to navigate. It is smooth and has a light color scheme. It’s worth noting that the blog has some great articles on photo equipment. The Portfolio page showcases the site’s services. Each example photo has a slider that lets you compare the original and the final result, which is neat.
The customer support is on par with the best sites around. You have the standard set of options like email, Facebook page messaging, and the chatbot. Whichever option you choose, you will get a fast answer.
Finally, WeEditPhotos is not the fastest site around. As a tradeoff, you do get exceptional quality.
Pros
- Excellent quality
- Informative blog
- Example pictures with sliders
- Pro-level customer support
Cons
Not the fastest service
Colorexpertsbd
Color Experts International, Inc. is behind the colorexpertsbd.com. The service advertises as a bulk photo retouching service based in the United States. However, you can place small orders. They even accept single image orders. Portraits, fashion, weddings, real estate, and various other types of photos are welcome here.
It’s interesting to note that the site also allows potential customers to check out its services for free. However, if you decide that you want to work with the company, you’ll have to contact the staff to get a quote.
The site looks somewhat untidy and cramped. However, once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier to operate. Similar to many leading retouching sites, you can find sample pictures with the “Before and After” sliders.
As for the pricing policy, Colorexpertsbd is among the affordable options. For example, the ghost mannequin effect costs $1.49 per picture. Vector conversion starts at $3.49 and image masking $1.50.
Colorexpertsbd is very hard to beat in turnaround time. The site can process 5,000 images in 24 hours. Of course, that only goes for images that need simple editing. However, the ordering process is a bit complicated, and you have to give plenty of information.
Finally, customer support is on a professional level as the site offers 24/7 non-stop support. Your options include email and the site’s chatbot.
Pros
- Commendable work quality
- Exceptional speed
- Reasonable prices
- Free trial
Cons
- Needs improvements in the checkout
- The site looks a bit untidy
High-End Beauty Retouching
If you need professional-level retouching and image editing services, High-End Beauty Retouching is perhaps your best bet. It offers exceptional quality and reliability. On the other hand, if you just need to remove some blemishes, you may want to try another site.
High-End Beauty Retouching is not slow by any standard, but you shouldn’t expect lightning-fast results either. Quality does take some time and, which isn’t great if you’re on a super-tight schedule.
Now, the pricing policy is probably this site’s biggest weakness. You won’t find anything under $10 per image. On the other end of the spectrum, the most expensive service package costs $150 for one photo. However, you can expect the quality to reflect that.
The site is tidy and straightforward, if not a bit understated. Nonetheless, it is easy to get around and has an informative blog section. You’ll also find many samples in the Portfolio section. It’s worth mentioning that the site has worked with many reputable magazines and taken part in a range of successful ad campaigns.
The customer support is satisfactory, which consists of email, Facebook page messaging, and on-site bot. Finally, checking out is as simple as it gets.
Pros
- Superb results
- Satisfactory speed
- “Before and After” Samples
- Exceptional reliability
Cons
Expensive
Buyer’s Guide
If you’d like to have some of your prized photos altered, you’ll, of course, want to look for the best photo retouching services. Back in the day, you had to rely on your Photoshop/Lightroom skills, or perhaps a designer friend, but there are now many online services that take it over for you.
We have selected six of the crucial parameters to consider when choosing a retouching service. First, you should examine the quality of work they offer and the speed. After that, you should consider the appearance and usability of the site and the quality of the customer service. Finally, the checkout should not be a hassle, and the price should be fair.
Quality of Work
The quality of the retouched photos is the most important thing to look for in selecting the best photo retouching services. After all, you’re looking to improve your photos and not to ruin them. So, if you don’t get what you’re looking for, it is best to go somewhere else.
Professional retouching sites should be able to fix a broad range of problems in your photos. Some of them include fixing lighting, removing skin blemishes, and improving the skin tone. They should also be able to fix most problems with background colors and texture.
The best way to check the quality of work for each site is to send them a sample photo. When it arrives, inspect how well done was the job and if they followed your guidelines. It shouldn’t cost you too much to test out three to five of the top-rated options you find online.
The bottom line is that if the sample photo doesn’t impress you, the service probably won’t for the rest.
Speed
While it’s good to have the highest quality, sometimes you may just find yourself in a crunch. If you have to deliver photos to your clients, you’re going to need both quality and speedy delivery.
Typically, small orders should be ready in a day. Some sites can even get the work done on the same day if it’s just a photo or two. Of course, if you place your order in the evening, it probably won’t arrive until the next day.
However, when trying out a photo retouching service, be aware that you will most probably be sending in a single photo. It will take them longer to fix larger batches. Depending on the number of files, it might take several days. You should consider the waiting time when talking to your customers.
Another thing that affects speed is the amount of work that each photo requires. If you have ten photos that need some basic retouching, they should be ready quickly. However, if each image needs a lot of editing, you should arm yourself with patience.
But if you are just looking to fix several vacation photos from last summer, the speed probably won’t matter to you.
Customer Support
Similar to all high-quality retail and service sites on the internet, the best photo retouching services offer professional-level customer support. You might need some extra info on the services on tap, or you might want to request further editing. Or you might want to ask for a refund for unsatisfactory work.
You should be able to reach the site’s support staff without any hassle. If there are problems with that, it might be a signal that the site gets too many complaints. If they are unresponsive or rude, you already know what to do.
Also, look for other ways to communicate with customer support other than email. If the email was the only option before, there are now faster and better options. There are chatbots that can guide you, live customer service reps, and even social networks.
That said, a photo retouching site doesn’t need them all, and they probably won’t have all of the above. But you should still be able to get in touch without having to jump through hoops.
Official Site
Since you’re looking for an online service, the site is the face of the company. That’s even more true for a website that’s in the business of making your photos look better.
When you land on the homepage, you should first take a quick look. If it feels off, you probably should move on. The site should look fresh and polished. It doesn’t have to take your breath away, but it shouldn’t be too clunky or plain either.
After the initial assessment, take a look at the menu and the site’s structure. You shouldn’t have any problem navigating the site, even if you’ve never been there. After all, a website that’s selling a product or a service can’t afford to have low user-friendliness.
The catalog of services, descriptions, and pricing should be readily available. Also, look for some samples of what to expect when you order a particular service. It would be helpful if a site had a section with explanations of those services.
Some sites also have blogs. These can be useful if you want to learn to do a thing or two on your own, or if you’re going to see what kind of service your photos need. The themes usually cover photography techniques, image editing software, and similar.
Ordering
The ordering systems and rules are bound to be different. Most of them work in US$ and have clearly stated prices, though sometimes you have to dig around a bit. However, some sites have credit systems in place, which makes placing an order a lot more complicated than it should be.
Here, you should look for simplicity and clarity. The ordering form should be easy enough to fill out, even for first-timers. If you can’t find your way around, you might want to move on.
Also, pay attention to your upload options. Some sites support only upload from your computer, while others allow you to upload from cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.
Some sites work with a limited number of file types. Make sure that the site of your choice covers the basics at least. Also, make sure that it works with your preferred files. JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, and RAW should be on the menu on all sites. Also, some sites may have preferred formats, as well.
Pricing
Finally, you should consider the pricing and try to get the best service for your money. Photo editing sites vary significantly in this regard, and your best bet is to check out as many as you can.
Some sites may charge as little as $2 per photo for some light retouching. On the other hand, you might have to pay north of $10 for a live person to touch up your image. That depends on the expertise of the photo editing staff most of the time, but it’s not always the case.
Also, you can get bulk discounts on some sites, but not others. It might depend on the company clientele. Those that work with business and professional customers are more likely to offer bulk pricing.
Most of the time, however, the site will have a set of packages or tiers on offer. These will include a defined set of services.
Final Verdict
It’s time to pronounce the best photo retouching services on the market. If money is not an issue, you should go with High-End Beauty Retouching. If speed is your biggest concern, then we’d suggest Colorexpertsbd.
Wedding-Retouching and WeEditPhotos are your best bet if you have some wedding photos to fix up. Finally, if you want all-around quality service with fast and reliable delivery, FixThePhoto may be the one.