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damargo
Community Member

retouching test

I want to ask a question: I send an application to the customer and write the prices. (25 dollars / hour or 10 dollars / photo). He offers to complete the work, is very pleased with the result and in response offers to complete the project for 25 dollars, as there is a limited budget (130 photos as the cost of one hour of work?!?!?)

Why ask to do test work if the price that the retoucher wrote does not fit?

We often do free trial tests — can we use this work (our hours spent !!) in the portfolio for upwork? So that others can see the quality of our work? After all, the hours spent on tests are time that cannot be replenished. The customer receives the result for free - I post the work in the portfolio (it seems reasonable to me).

To the question of putting work in my portfolio was the answer: since you are not working on this project, it is undesirable ... why? The work is obtained, the result arranged.

Otherwise, tests begin to seem like using retouchers as a free tool!

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
prestonhunter
Community Member

Margarita:

Speaking generally and not about any specific situation:

You say you often do free test trials?

You really should not be doing that.

It is not Upwork's intention that you do that.

 

It is a violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

You asked if you may use such work in your Upwork portfolio.

 

If a client asks a freelancer to do some work, and then the client does not pay for that work, then the work belongs to the freelancer. If something belongs to the freelancer, then the freelancer may put it in her Upwork portfolio, or in any other portfolio, or do anything else that she wants with it.

 

Of course this should be done in a respectful and appropriate way.

 

But it is important to understand that a client who asks a freelancer to work for free is disrespecting her in a serious way. Such a client loses the "moral high ground" and loses the right to be considered a real "client."

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12 REPLIES 12
prestonhunter
Community Member

Margarita:

Speaking generally and not about any specific situation:

You say you often do free test trials?

You really should not be doing that.

It is not Upwork's intention that you do that.

 

It is a violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

You asked if you may use such work in your Upwork portfolio.

 

If a client asks a freelancer to do some work, and then the client does not pay for that work, then the work belongs to the freelancer. If something belongs to the freelancer, then the freelancer may put it in her Upwork portfolio, or in any other portfolio, or do anything else that she wants with it.

 

Of course this should be done in a respectful and appropriate way.

 

But it is important to understand that a client who asks a freelancer to work for free is disrespecting her in a serious way. Such a client loses the "moral high ground" and loses the right to be considered a real "client."


Preston H wrote:

 

You asked if you may use such work in your Upwork portfolio.

 

If a client asks a freelancer to do some work, and then the client does not pay for that work, then the work belongs to the freelancer. If something belongs to the freelancer, then the freelancer may put it in her Upwork portfolio, or in any other portfolio, or do anything else that she wants with it.

 


Preston, I don't know why you keep giving this advice even though it's been pointed out to you several times that it's not correct. If you retouch a photo, it absolutely DOES NOT belong to you and you CANNOT do anything you like with it. The copyright belongs to the photographer (and/or the usage rights belong to the person who purchased the photo), and you cannot use it without their permission. And if the photo is of a person - as is the case with many retouching jobs - then you may also need a model release before you can use it for any commercial purposes. 

 

 if the client gives (asks) a photo for processing, then he gives the right to make changes, changes made to the photo are my work for which permission is given. The client is very pleased with the work, but offers a humiliating price. I’m going to use the photo-only in the portfolio and only on upwork in order to show abilities.

Christine: I didn't say anything about retouching photos.

 

My post was a general post about clients who ask freelancers to work for free. These clients are thieves.


Preston H wrote:

Christine: I didn't say anything about retouching photos.


It's what the OP does and specifically mentioned that she did for the client.

 

Freelancers should not be misled into thinking that they can generally use work that was not paid for in their portfolio, because a lot of work can not just be used in this way, and retouched photos certainly can't..

You are talking about copyrights and exclusive copyrights. Copyright will always belong to the photographer even if he sells the photo. He will always be the author, this does not apply to retouching. The work of the retoucher will be the work of the retoucher and it is usually indicated as well.

robin_hyman
Community Member


Margarita D wrote:

I want to ask a question: I send an application to the customer and write the prices. (25 dollars / hour or 10 dollars / photo). He offers to complete the work, is very pleased with the result and in response offers to complete the project for 25 dollars, as there is a limited budget (130 photos as the cost of one hour of work?!?!?)

Why ask to do test work if the price that the retoucher wrote does not fit?

We often do free trial tests — can we use this work (our hours spent !!) in the portfolio for upwork? So that others can see the quality of our work? After all, the hours spent on tests are time that cannot be replenished. The customer receives the result for free - I post the work in the portfolio (it seems reasonable to me).

To the question of putting work in my portfolio was the answer: since you are not working on this project, it is undesirable ... why? The work is obtained, the result arranged.

Otherwise, tests begin to seem like using retouchers as a free tool!


Since you're rather new to Upwork, note our language:

 

Customers = Clients

We = Freelancers

Test Work = Work for free

 

Do you really think the client is going to come back with an actual paying gig if you've already supplied him with the work for free?  Think again.  It's not a good strategy.  And it feeds into the crook mentality of many of the clients on the platform.  It stops with us, freelancers.  If we collaboratively don't accept the free work offer, they will stop asking for it (at least ask less often). 

kbadeau
Community Member

Clients do this all the time. Ask you to retouch a photo for free to see if you "have the skills needed." They ask 100 other freelancers to do the same. They get 100 photos retouched for free and freelancers get nothing. DO NOT DO FREE WORK FOR ANY CLIENT, EVER.

 

Of course this extends way beyond photo retouching. Just always make sure you tell them it's against the TOS and say you'll do it for a small fee.

damargo
Community Member

thanks, I understand, the issue with the portfolio is not clear (everyone says different things).if I worked for free, then this work belongs to me if it is not paid and I can show it here on upwork

petra_r
Community Member


Margarita D wrote:

thanks, I understand, the issue with the portfolio is not clear (everyone says different things).if I worked for free, then this work belongs to me if it is not paid and I can show it here on upwork


No, you categorically can not, unless you have the permission of the copyright owner.

I am really sorry to see that you have been misled into thinking that you can.

 

In all of this, let's not lose sight of the fact that when clients ask freelancers to work for free, these are not real "clients". In most cases that we read about, including the original poster's situation, these "clients" are thieves.

 

They know what they are doing. They do it on purpose.

 

But we will never get rid of that type of behavior while there are freelancers who are willing to work for free.

 

As others in this thread have stated, it is important for freelancers to do the right thing, which is to NOT work for free. As a freelancer, I may not be able to prevent EVERY freelancer on Upwork from working for free. But I can make sure that I personally don't do it. That way I will not be wasting my time. And also, I won't be messing up the platform for others.

 

This issue is most definitely not about any one job niche.

you're right. I think it was the last,, test,,

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