Retouch Selection Best Practices

Are you new to using the image retouch selection options in Headshot Tools or maybe you’re having trouble? For example, participants aren’t selecting their images in a timely manner or the retouching workflow is taking too long? Then this guide is for you. See our below image retouch selection best practices to get your jobs retouching 100% on track!

1 – Set A Deadline

The number one way to get your jobs completing quickly and your participants selecting is by setting a deadline. A deadline is in everyone’s best interest!

• It simplifies your retouching workflow so you have less work to do and can do your retouching faster.
• It prevents a never-ending job where you must retouch say 1 image a day, every day, till completion or hold up everyone till the last person selects.
• It makes your participants happier because it gets them their images quicker.
• It also wraps up the job more quickly making your look like a rockstar to your hiring client!

To do this you can customize your gallery banner text with messages like:

• “Please pick your images before the end of the day.”
• “Please pick your images before X date.”
• “Please pick your images before you leave the room.”

It’s also common to add something along the lines of:

• “Please pick your images before the end of the day, or an expert from our team will pick the best one for you!”

This way if participants do lapse, you can still complete the job and they know they’ll still be getting a great image. We recommend establishing a deadline early in the job planning stages with your company contact so that everyone is on the same page.

You can easily pick for participants using the Naughty List Report.

2 – Communicate In Person

Software can solve a lot of problems but sometimes the best solution is a little face-to-face, human interaction. Participants have busy lives and are often distracted but during the moment you’re photographing them, you have their undivided attention. Use this time to your advantage! Communicate your deadline in person as well as any other critical information you want them to know. While this time is short, it can often mean the difference between a job that takes hours or weeks.

3 – Use The "Naughty List”

Sometimes even with the above steps complete and your deadline reached, you’ll find that you still have a few stragglers who have evaded your instructions and mass notify emails.

It’s at this point that we recommend using the Naughty List report download from your Headshot Tools job and emailing it your company contact. Let them know despite your best efforts, you weren’t able to get these participants to select. They may push that participant into choosing, have you choose for them, or they might make the selections themselves. This participant might be on vacation or maybe they’ve left the company. With this tool in your back pocket, you can ensure your job completes quickly and you look super organized to your client!

4 – Schedule Your Retouching

We highly recommend scheduling your retouching such that you can perform it all in one go. We’ve found countless times that performing your retouching in an assembly line fashion, all in one scheduled session rather than multiple batches is in incredible productivity boost. This methodology allows you to:

• Use your time as efficiently as possible by performing fewer clicks.
• Set a solid date with your client for delivery expectations.
• Eliminate the “When will my images be ready?” and “Why did John get his before me?!” emails.
• Prevent mistakes.
• And much more!

Pro Tip: Schedule your retouching directly in your calendar! It makes the process much more tangible and ensures you don’t forget about it.

5 – Consider On-Site Selection

So you’ve tried all the above best practices and you’re still having trouble? This is not typical but, in your situation and the kind of work you do, you might be better off with an “On-Site Selection” type of workflow. This is where on your own or with the help of an assistant, you utilize your tethering software or Headshot Tools to get participant’s selection directly after you photograph them.

For example:

• After photographing a participant, you and the participant review their images on your computer together and mark selected images with 5 stars or a label.
  
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• After uploading images for a participant, you or an assistant help the participant review and select images with their own device or an iPad logged into the Headshot Tools admin console or full gallery.

This is also a helpful strategy for jobs where you have a very tight deadline for selection and delivery.