Sep 07 2011

What’s Worked For Us: Colorati

As business owners, we have a crazy amount of daily tasks and to-do’s, including (but certainly not limited to) emailing, invoicing, culling, editing, designing, blogging, updating, packaging, UPS-ing, and archiving. Oh, and shooting…So how do we make time for all of these things? Outsourcing the bulk of our editing has been HUGE for us. Though I do edit all images used on AFP’s website and blog, as well as all images from portrait shoots, Colorati takes care of the rest.

We’re gonna go out on a limb here and assume that many of you have debated outsourcing your editing and have ultimately decided against it due to the lack of control associated with handing over your images to someone else. Believe me, we’ve been there… But approximately 16,800 images later, I’m sure happy that Colorati knows their stuff.

So why Colorati?

They GET us: The Colorati team can mimick any workflow you throw their way. Nothing is lost in terms of our style or our brand. We send, on average, 600-700 images via passport drive, and pay just $0.32 per image for standard color (i.e., global white balance, exposure, contrast and saturation adjustments).
They’re legit: Legit color analysts that is. Many members of the Colorati team are photographers themselves, and are white balancing/exposure adjusting geniuses. We also get our images back FAST so we can then turn around and give those images to our clients in record time. Colorati’s typical turnaround time is 5-7 days. Which makes OUR turnaround time as short as three weeks. BAM.
Amazing customer service: Leon and Katie, this one’s for you.Colorati is staffed with incredibly professional and NICE people, and you can never underestimate working with genuinely nice, caring people. They are also ALWAYS quick to respond to any and all questions whether by email, phone, or Twitter.
It’s just plain worth it: Apart from giving us our life back, outsourcing also allows us to take on more weddings and ultimately make more money. It’s worth it in sooo many ways.

Have you ever considered outsourcing YOUR editing? Do you have any questions about how we use Colorati?

by Alyse

8 comments

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September 26, 2011 - 10:01 pm

Leon Sandoval - First up- Thanks so much for the wonderful review on Colorati! We certainly work hard to ensure clients are happy with our work and we’re so glad you are satisfied enough to tell the world.

@Matt- I’m so sorry to hear about your experience with outsourcing. We are highly available. Call any time between 9-5 California time and we answer the phone. Email us you’ll usually get a response same day. Skype instead? Sure!

I’d love a chance to chat about your workflow and how we can help, so give me a call and I’ll be glad to answer your questions.

September 26, 2011 - 7:02 pm

Matt - I have dabbled with outsourcing…Although I used another (fairly popular) company. My experience was HORRIBLE! There was a lack of communication, and professionalism. I thought I had given them good instruction on my workflow (nothing crazy or out of the ordinary.) But I would tell one person one thing and then HE would have to relay those instructions because the guys who was working on my files was “out to lunch, or “stepped out for the day.”
All in all, I received my files 3 weeks after I sent them out. When I received the files most of them were unusable. So I ended up paying for the service, wasting 3 weeks, AND I had to do the color correction over.

I decided to outsource because I needed to spend more time on my business, and art. Not color correcting. I might try colorati, but I’m a little bit nervous about wasting anymore of my time. I think it’s key to be able to reach out and get fast replies OR get the actual person working on your files on the phone.

I’m glad your situation is much more enjoyable!

September 9, 2011 - 4:28 pm

Lelia - I’ve been considering this for a while, since editing is not my strong suit. I’ve had no idea who to try though. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I will have to give it a try.

September 9, 2011 - 2:14 pm

Nicole - Thanks Alyse! It is something that I have been considering on and off for a while and this definitely has given me much needed information in order to make an informed decision.

September 7, 2011 - 4:17 pm

Alyse - It was a little hard, but I knew I was ready to let go of the enormous number of hours I was spending on editing by myself. In terms of color vs. b/w, I give all clients ALL color images, explaining to them that they can have prints made in b/w. After all, you can turn a color image into b/w, but you can’t turn a b/w image into color! I do retouch images used specifically for albums, but only if they really need it! Colorati does THAT awesome of a job. The only tweaks I might do include cloning out exit signs and things of that nature. Hope this helps!!

September 7, 2011 - 2:05 pm

Nicole - Thanks once again for the informative post. Was it hard at first letting go of that part of your business, I know for some photographers it’s a matter of having complete control over their images? Also in regards to how you handle the images upon Colorati sending them back, do you go through them and turn some of the images corrected by Colorati to black and white or do you deliver all color images to the client? If a client orders an album do you go in and retouch those images in Photoshop?

October 17, 2011 - 3:55 pm

Our Brand, Fully-Vetted | Windsor Collective - [...] Response time [...]

September 26, 2011 - 10:41 pm

Colorati Review » Colorati Blog | Shoot more. - [...] bless you with the most amazing write ups? We were all smiles over here the day Alyse French posted the following Colorati review on her blog for [...]

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What’s Worked For Us: Colorati