This is the single-most important question to ask because it’s the single-most important factor in ensuring quality and consistency throughout your creative media production.

While many studios put different retouchers or creatives on a job, you should always have a single point of contact on their team who is responsible for project communications, sharing final deliverables, and keeping things moving seamlessly on their side.

💡Tip: Get to know the lead retoucher on the studio’s team — it’s helpful to be able to directly contact the person responsible for your imagery.

Not only should you feel involved in every step of the process, but you should also feel that your vision and needs are being heard. How do they keep you involved in decision-making? Do they prefer email or project management software? Are there methods and processes already in place for you to give feedback? These are essential questions to clarify up front.

Take time to understand the creative studio’s processes and ensure everyone’s expectations are clear from the beginning. Leave the surprises to birthday celebrations!

Before getting started, ask: Does the studio like to have a formal kickoff? How do they account for your existing brand identity? How many rounds of creative execution and feedback are accounted for?

In the simplest terms, how do they set you up for success?

💡Tip: Think in the long term—dig into how the studio can accommodate your creative needs if you decided to become a permanent client.

Whether digitally retouching 10 images or 10,000, you need a post-production partner that can handle the ask. Truly eye-catching, impressive product or lifestyle photography that stands out from the rest requires a set of fine-tuned skills from a retoucher who can meet the mandate.

Why? Because in today’s constant content churn, brands need a post-production studio that can meet the demands of always-on marketing and retail. Can the studio scale up without sacrificing quality? You don’t want to fall behind because they failed to keep pace!

This question is meant for you to identify a studio that has a broad set of skills, as a great post-production team should be well-rounded enough in their knowledge that, if a unique challenge arises, they have the capability to solve that problem—or find the solve you never knew you needed be it ecommerce photo retouching, creative production, or something entirely different!

You don’t want to have to look for additional support because a studio is unable to be flexible. After all, brands like to dream big—studios need to dream bigger.