Photo Retouching Services for the USA
A Manhattan retouching studio bills by the hour. Pixel Retouching bills by the image, from $0.30, to the same magazine standard — and because our floor runs while New York sleeps, work sent at the end of your day is finished before the start of the next.
After editBefore
Hover to see before
3 images edited free. No credit card, no sign-up.
Retouching for NYC Studios, Agencies and Brands
Product photographers, fashion studios, e-tailers and creative agencies in New York use us as the post-production department they do not want to staff.
What a New York Studio Actually Gets
We are not a New York company and will not pretend to be. What we are is the retouching floor a lot of New York work quietly already runs through.
The time zone works for you
Dhaka is ten hours ahead of New York. Files sent at 6pm ET are worked overnight and waiting when the studio opens — a full extra shift on every deadline, at no rush charge.
Per image, not per hour
High-end retouchers in New York bill by the hour, which makes a catalogue impossible to budget. A per-image rate makes a 500-image job a known number before it starts.
White label by default
Files come back unbranded. Agencies and studios deliver them to their own clients as their own work, and we never publish anything without written permission.
Magazine-standard finishing
Frequency separation, dodge and burn, skin that keeps its texture, jewellery that survives a full-page crop. The standard is the same one campaign work is held to.
How It Works
Four steps from raw frames to listing-ready files, with no account setup in between.
Send the shoot
Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer or straight to your FTP. RAW, TIFF, PSD, JPEG or PNG.
Retouched overnight
A named retoucher works to your reference set while New York is closed.
Quality control
A second editor checks every frame against the brief and the rest of the set.
Back before you open
Delivered unbranded in your formats. Revisions are unlimited.
Photo Retouching Services We Provide for New York Clients
The disciplines NYC studios outsource most, each row shown on a file that demonstrates it. Image masking for hair, lace and glass and editorial skin retouching are both run from here and have their own pages. Drag any slider to see a real client file, before and after.
Beauty and Fragrance Packaging
Beauty packaging is sold on finish. Gloss, frosted glass, foil and pearlescent coatings all photograph flat under a softbox and have to be given their depth back by hand, while the brand colour stays exactly the colour on the pack — a shade off on a fragrance bottle reads as a counterfeit rather than as a bad photograph.
- Gloss and frosted finishes rebuilt
- Foil and pearlescent kept, not flattened
- Brand colour held exactly
- Reflection built under the bottle
Jewellery & Luxury Product
The category New York advertising is most exacting about. Metal lustre rebuilt, stones sharpened, reflections reconstructed and shadows built to sit the piece on the page.
- Dust, stain and scratch removal
- Metallic lustre restored
- Diamond and gemstone sharpening
- Reflection and contact shadows
Product & eCommerce Editing
Catalogue and marketplace work at volume: cut-out, pure-white or custom background, true colour, natural shadow and every file sized to the platform it ships to.
- Marketplace-compliant white
- True product colour
- Shadows and reflections built
- Sized per platform spec
Portrait & Corporate Headshots
Executive, editorial and personal-branding portraits finished naturally — temporary marks removed, texture kept, nothing about the face reshaped.
- Blemishes and redness removed
- Glasses glare and flyaways fixed
- Skin texture kept, not plastic
- Whole rosters matched
Fashion & Ghost Mannequin
On-model and off-model apparel for e-tail: mannequin removed, interior collar composited in, creases cleaned and the weave left intact.
- Mannequin removed, shape kept
- Neck and sleeve joints built
- Creases and lint cleaned
- Weave and drape retained
Real Estate & Interiors
Manhattan interiors are the hardest lighting problem in property photography. Brackets blended by hand, windows recovered, verticals straightened.
- HDR blending by hand
- Window pulls and flash blends
- Verticals corrected
- Day-to-dusk conversion
Polished Metal and Studio Reflections
Anything mirror-finished photographs the room it was shot in: the softbox, the stands, the cables and usually the photographer. Deleting a reflection outright leaves metal looking like plastic, so the surface is rebuilt with reflections that behave like metal and show nothing identifiable. Engraving and maker’s marks stay legible through it.
- Studio and photographer removed from the surface
- Reflections rebuilt, not erased
- Metal still reads as metal
- Engraving and hallmarks kept legible
Photo Restoration & Archival
Archive and heritage work for publishers, galleries and private clients: damage repaired by hand and monochrome colourised with historically plausible tones.
- Cracks, tears and water damage
- Fading and discolouration reversed
- Black and white colourisation
- Print-resolution masters
New York Clients We Retouch For
Mostly businesses that have the shooting covered and need the post to stop being the bottleneck.
Product photographers
White-label post under your own studio name.
Fashion & apparel brands
Lookbooks, e-tail and campaign sets.
Jewellery houses
Fifth Avenue standard at catalogue volume.
Advertising agencies
Campaign retouching billed on as your own.
eCommerce & DTC brands
Whole catalogues to one listing standard.
Magazines & publishers
Editorial finishing to a print deadline.
Headshot photographers
Corporate rosters turned around overnight.
Real estate & architecture
Listings, brochures and portfolios.
Food & hospitality
Menu, delivery and campaign imagery.
Wedding & event studios
Full galleries in peak season.
Design studios
Composites and artwork retouching.
Furniture & interiors brands
Catalogue cut-outs and shadows.
Ways New York Clients Work With Us
No contract, no minimum and no retainer required — though most volume clients end up on one.
Trial first
Three images edited before any commitment.
Overflow only
Keep your retoucher, send the spike.
Full pipeline
Every shoot, on a standing brief.
Seasonal campaigns
Capacity for the peak, released after.
White label
Delivered under your studio or agency name.
FTP integration
Automatic hand-off and delivery.
Under NDA
Signed before any files move.
Rush & same-day
For deadlines that will not move.
Why New York Studios Outsource Retouching
It is rarely about the images. It is about what an in-house retoucher costs in Manhattan and how badly post scales.
New York retouching hours are expensive
A high-end retoucher in the city is a serious salary or a serious hourly rate. Outsourcing turns that fixed cost into a per-image one that moves with the work you actually booked.
The overnight is free capacity
Ten hours of time difference means a shoot handed over at the end of the day is finished by morning. Locally that is a rush job with a rush price; here it is the standard turnaround.
Post is the reason delivery slips
Shooting is bookable and predictable. Retouching is not, and it is almost always what pushes a client delivery back. Moving it out is the fastest way to protect a schedule.
Volume kills a single retoucher
One person can finish a hero image beautifully. A 400-SKU catalogue to one consistent standard is a different problem, and it is the one a team with a written style guide is built for.
Our Retouching Workflow
The same four stages run on a three-image trial and a four-thousand-image catalogue.
-
01
Reference
Your look recorded as a written style guide for the account.
-
02
Retouching
A named retoucher works the set by hand in Photoshop.
-
03
Quality control
A second editor checks every frame before release.
-
04
Delivery
Unbranded, in your formats, back before New York opens.
Retouching Rates for New York Clients, per Image
Starting rates for standard complexity. Send a sample and we confirm the exact price before any work begins.
Hand-drawn path, product placed on white or transparent.
Background, colour, shadow and marketplace sizing.
Hair, fur, glass and lace with transparency kept.
Lustre, stone sharpening and reflection shadows.
Skin, eyes, hair and wardrobe finished naturally.
Frequency separation, dodge and burn, print-ready output.
Bulk orders of 10+ images qualify for discounted pricing, and 100+ for up to 50% off.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you based in New York?
No, and we would rather say so plainly. The studio is headquartered in Singapore with its production floor in Dhaka. What New York clients get is the time difference working for them, magazine-standard retouching, and rates that are not Manhattan rates.
How does the time difference work?
Dhaka is ten hours ahead of New York. A shoot handed over at 6pm ET is worked through the New York night and delivered before the studio opens. That is the standard turnaround, not a rush service.
Can I deliver the work as my own?
Yes. Everything is white label by default: files come back unbranded, your client never sees us, and nothing is published in our portfolio or marketing without your written permission. We sign your NDA on request.
Do you work to an art director’s brief?
Yes, and it is the normal way high-end work runs here. Send reference frames, a mood board or an approved image and the look is recorded as a written style guide, then held across the whole set and future jobs.
What does high-end retouching cost?
Beauty and campaign retouching starts at $4.00 an image, product work at $0.39 and clipping paths at $0.30. Everything is priced per image by complexity, quoted against your actual files before work begins.
Can you match our existing campaign look?
Yes. Consistency with an existing body of work is the most common request from agencies. Send the approved images and the grade, contrast and skin treatment are matched rather than reinvented.
How many images can you take at once?
Capacity runs to 8,000 images a day across more than eighty retouchers, so a full season or a large catalogue refresh is routine. For big projects we agree a delivery schedule upfront.
Do you deliver layered PSD files?
Yes, on request. A flattened TIFF or JPEG is standard, and the layered file can come with it so your team can adjust the retouch without coming back to us.
How do we send and receive files?
Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer or a direct connection to your FTP server. For recurring volume the FTP route means hand-off and delivery happen without anyone doing it manually.
What if the retouching is not right?
Revisions are unlimited on every order. If revisions still do not resolve it, a money-back guarantee applies.
Are our images kept confidential?
Yes. Unreleased campaigns and pre-season ranges are handled under NDA as a matter of course, stored securely and deleted on request.
How do we start?
Send three images through the free trial, ideally the hardest frames in the set. They come back edited to your brief within 24 hours with a quote for the rest, and there is no credit card and no obligation.
Related Photo Editing Services
Each service has its own page with the full workflow, deliverables and sample work.
Send Three Frames Tonight
They will be retouched and back before your studio opens tomorrow. No credit card, no sign-up, no obligation.