A complete photography team includes four positions – photographer, retoucher, photographer's helper and stylist. The photographer is responsible for the photo shooting. Retoucher does the photo editing work, such as color correction, layout design, and reshaped figures to achieve maximum aesthetic effect while preserving believability with excellent photoshop skills. Photographer's helper is the person who is in charge of managing, adjusting, and cleaning the equipment. Stylists work closely with the Photographer. Their job is to find the props, styles, and colors to create the “story” for the products and bring right feeling to the customers.
PayScale.com shows that for an ordinary company, the total annual labor cost of a photography team is between $134,017 and $296,596. The average number of photo shoots per year is about 6,870, and thus the labor cost per photo is between $19.51 and $43.17.