Clipping path
$0.39 per image
Hand-drawn vector paths, priced by how many curves the subject has.
6–24 hours
- Basic to super-complex
- Path saved in the file
- Transparent PNG included
- White-background JPEG included
Published, not on request
Image Editing & Graphic Design pricing
Image editing & graphic design is priced per image, with the rate dropping as volume rises. Everything below is either a published rate of ours or a US market range — not one of them is a number invented to fill a gap.
What we charge
Most chosen
Masking & retouch
$0.69 per image
Hair, fur, glass and transparency, plus correction and cleanup.
12–24 hours
- Alpha channel masking
- Edge decontamination
- Color and blemish correction
- Layered master included
Ghost mannequin
$0.99 per garment
Necks, cuffs and hems composited from separate exposures.
12–24 hours
- 2D and 3D effects
- Neck, sleeve and bottom joins
- Shadow to match the original
- Marketplace-spec exports
What this costs across the US market
These are typical American market ranges, not our quote for your job — we have not seen your files. They are here so you can tell a reasonable number from an unreasonable one, including when the unreasonable one is ours.
| Type of work | Typical range | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Simple cut-out and clean | $0.40 – $2.00 per image | Straight-edged products, plain backgrounds, basic dust and spot cleanup. |
| Standard e-commerce retouch | $2 – $8 per image | Complex edges, color matched to a reference, shadow work, multiple crops. |
| High-end and advertising | $25 – $250+ per image | Beauty, jewelry, compositing, liquid and fabric work — hours per image, not minutes. |
What actually moves the price
- How complex the cut-out is
- A rectangular box is not a bicycle, and a bicycle is not curly hair on a busy background. Edge difficulty is the single biggest driver.
- How much retouching
- Dust removal is minutes. Rebuilding a reflection, reshaping a garment or repairing a bad capture is a different order of work.
- Volume
- Per-image rates drop with quantity, because the reference and the setup are amortized across the batch.
- Consistency requirement
- Matching four hundred images to one reference costs more than editing four hundred images well individually. It is also the thing that actually sells a range.
- Turnaround
- Overnight work is real overtime for real people and is priced that way.
- Number of output versions
- One master and five crops is six versions per image, and thirty-six files once each is exported in three formats and two color spaces, not one.
How long it takes
| Phase | Usual duration |
|---|---|
| Reference image approved | 1–2 business days |
| First batch back | 2–3 business days after the reference is signed off |
| Volume production | Typically 200–500 images per day once the reference is locked |
| Revisions | 1 business day for a normal round |
| Rush | Same day or overnight, priced accordingly |
Priced separately inside Image Editing & Graphic Design
Before you ask
The questions that come up on most image editing & graphic design inquiries.
- What is the difference between a clipping path and masking?
- A clipping path is a vector outline drawn with the pen tool. It gives a crisp, re-editable edge and suits hard-edged subjects — boxes, bottles, tools, most products. Masking works on pixels and handles soft or semi-transparent edges: hair, fur, fabric, smoke, glass. If your subject has any of those, masking is the right service and a path will disappoint you.
- What do you need from the shoot?
- The garment on the form, plus separate shots of the inside neck, and the cuffs and hem where those will show. Shoot everything from a locked-off camera position with the lighting unchanged between exposures. Without the inside shots the effect cannot be built, and that is the commonest reason a set has to be reshot.
- How do you keep four hundred images looking like one brand?
- One image is edited to your brief and approved first. Everything after that is matched to it rather than edited independently, and a second person checks the whole batch against that reference before anything ships. That single step is the difference between a catalog and four hundred separate decisions. It is also why we ask for the hardest files rather than the best ones when you send a trial.
- What do basic, complex and super-complex mean?
- How many anchor points the subject needs, which is what the time goes on. Basic is a simple closed shape like a phone or a book. Complex has many curves or internal holes — a bicycle, a chair with slats. Super-complex is something like jewelry with chain links or a garment with lacing. We grade your images and tell you the mix before quoting.
- Can you do it from a single photograph?
- Sometimes, and it is always a compromise. Without an inside-neck exposure the neck opening has to be reconstructed rather than composited, and on a close look it shows. Send us one image as a free trial and we will tell you honestly what we can get from it.
- What is the difference between a clipping path and masking?
- A clipping path is a vector outline drawn with the pen tool. It gives a crisp, re-editable edge and suits hard-edged subjects — boxes, bottles, tools, most products. Masking works on pixels and handles soft or semi-transparent edges: hair, fur, fabric, smoke, glass. If your subject has any of those, masking is the right service and a path will disappoint you.
- Will the path be saved in the file?
- Yes. The path is saved inside the delivered file, so you or anyone downstream can re-use or adjust it rather than starting again. We also supply flattened outputs — transparent PNG and white-background JPEG — so the files are usable immediately.
- What is the difference between 2D and 3D ghost mannequin?
- 2D keeps the garment flat-on, which suits most listing photography. 3D builds the sense of a body inside it — more depth, more work, and better for hero imagery and lookbooks. We quote them separately because they are genuinely different amounts of work.
Want the real number rather than a range?
Send the brief and a couple of sample files. You will get a fixed price rather than an estimate, usually within one business day, and nothing starts until you say yes.