Most of the photographers I have edited for since 2017 are in the United States and Canada, and the practical reasons are always the same three: the time difference, the price of an editor's hour, and the fact that one person handles every file.
In short
- Lithuania is 7 hours ahead of New York, 10 ahead of Los Angeles
- Send at the end of your day, and the work happens during your night
- Invoiced in USD, paid by PayPal or bank transfer — no customs, no import forms
- Digital files, so nothing crosses a border in any sense that costs you
- One editor on every image, the same one every month
The time difference is the feature
A gallery uploaded at 6pm in Chicago arrives at 1am my time. I start work at seven, and by the time you sit down with coffee there is either a finished gallery or a question waiting. Photographers describe this as "editing that happens while I sleep", and after a few months it changes how you schedule: culling becomes an evening task rather than a weekend one.
It cuts both ways, so be honest with yourself about it — if you like sending a note at 3pm and getting an answer in ten minutes, my afternoon is your morning and that will occasionally annoy you.
Paying someone in Europe
PayPal or a bank transfer, invoiced in US dollars, once the gallery is delivered. There is no VAT to add for a business outside the EU, nothing to import, and no customs anything — these are files, not props. Photographers in the US treat it the same as any other contractor expense; in Canada it goes in the books the same way.
What to check before sending client images anywhere
This is worth doing with any retoucher, including me. Your client contract almost certainly allows you to use a contractor to produce the images, but it is worth reading the sentence. Ask what happens to the files afterwards — mine are used for the work and nothing else, no portfolio use without your say-so, no AI training, deleted on request and always within 90 days. If you want that in writing before the first gallery, ask and you get it in writing.
The part that has nothing to do with geography
None of the above matters if the edit is wrong. What most studios are actually buying is consistency: a gallery in March that looks like the gallery in October, because the same person edited both and remembers what you said about skin tones the first time. That is the reason to start with two images rather than a contract.
FAQ
Write anyway. My evening covers most of the North American morning, and genuinely urgent things get done the same day more often than not. What I will not do is promise a two-hour turnaround I cannot keep.
Yes, and you will notice I write my own emails. There is no account manager between us — you talk to the person editing your files.
They are used for the work and nothing else: no portfolio use, no social media, no AI training. Files are deleted on request and always within 90 days.
That is the job. Send a handful of your own finished images with the first batch and I match your colour, contrast and skin rather than applying a house style.
Deividas Kvederys — photographer and retoucher based in Lithuania, EU. 450+ weddings and 1,500+ sessions of my own before I started editing for other photographers, and I still edit every image myself. Newborn retouching · All genres and pricing