Hi all,
This is my first post. I just joined this forum. I, like some others, never realized this site existed, and I'm so glad that it does. I hope to learn a lot from it and everyone here. I've been an assistant to a wedding photographer for the past 2 1/2 years and doing a lot of post-processing, retouching and have done some restoration work on the side as well. I'd really like to pursue a digital retouching career. I recently applied for a digital retouching position with a temp agency called Career Blazers in NYC (maybe some have heard of it?) but, I realized that I made a typo in my resume! doh! stupid stupid stupid...they probably won't be calling me anytime soon....So, I'm not sure where else to look now. I tried searching the posts about where to look for jobs, but I couldn't come up with anything. I am fairly new to forums in general, I will try again, but if anyone would like to give me some advice, please do :-)

Also, I came across this website, Zeroflaws.com, and was wondering if anyone ever heard of it? They are hiring "Editors", retouchers, but I'm not sure if it's legit and if it is, if it's worth it. If you've never heard of it, check the site out, let me know what you think.

Well, I'm off to search the forums some more. Hope to be chatting with some of you soon!

Lee

it looks like it could be a good way to get some experience under your belt...

hmmm....just one reply....I feel like I've got cooties or something :-)
Pixelzombie - I was thinking that Zeroflaws would be a good place to get some more experience, but I just don't know if the place is legit. I've tried researching about it on the net, but came up with nothing.

Anybody else out there know anything Zeroflaws ?(I mean, working for them and all) If it's a legit company, how much do they actually pay? They won't say on the site.

Also, I wanted to know how some people got started with retouching/doing digital art and your 'journey' along this path.

Any suggestions on where I can learn (possibly get certified, but not go to overprice schools like SVA or Parsons) everything about retouching/digital art in the NYC/Westchester area?

I do not think I would be sending anyone my social insurance number.
also they are not to specific what they pay you.You should really be careful especially with your personal info.Also why do you need to do one of there jobs,why cant you send a sample of your work,who knows maybe thats how they make money by getting people to do sample jobs.

just my opinion zganie

>>>>>>> So, I'm not sure where else to look now.

Well, you could try the Yellow pages NY, Monster.com, craigslist, angieslist, contact departments at schools in NY... on and on, Ad agencies, magazines....photographer studios.. anywhere.

Zganie, thanks for your opinion. I too am a bit weary about giving my SS# to some unknown company - I guess I should just trust my instinct as well.

Smak - I have been looking on Craigslist, but haven't come up with anything recently. Tried Monster too, no luck. And some other places, too. I guess when I said "I'm not sure where else to look now" I wasn't being literal, I just said that because I was just feeling low. I haven't been able to find anything and I was also feeling down about the resume thing. But, thanks for your input.

Have you Googled something like zeroflaws plus scam or review experience payment etc.

Smak - I've Googled Zeroflaws, but I haven't tried it with the other words, I will give that a try, thanks.

Lee,

Thank you for inquiring about our site. My name is Lucas. I am the founder of Zero Flaws inc. which used to be PhotoChop.com until a recent dispute with Adobe over the name. As a photo retoucher my self, I know how difficult it can be to get into the professional market. Communities like this site are a wonderful resource as I am sure you found.

To speak to the social security number. All (law abiding) companies in the United States are required to 10-99 independent contractors for earnings of $600 or more annually. Since we only hire U.S. contractors, it makes sense for us to require it.

We are currently undergoing a site overhaul and a large SEO/SEM campaign launch due out in early September. I hope that you are able to check back in and see the great improvements.

We welcome any feedback and encourage you to apply as an editor. However, because we currently have over 120 qualified editors and a growing consumer and wholesale business we do not have any openings for editors. We will still take applications and approve them as the client base grows (again something we plan on doing next month).

Well I hope this information helped. Have a great day,

Lucas Dexter
Founder
www.ZeroFlaws.com

Lee,

Thank you for inquiring about our site. My name is Lucas. I am the founder of Zero Flaws inc. which used to be PhotoChop.com until a recent dispute with Adobe over the name. As a photo retoucher my self, I know how difficult it can be to get into the professional market. Communities like this site are a wonderful resource as I am sure you found.

To speak to the social security number. All (law abiding) companies in the United States are required to 10-99 independent contractors for earnings of $600 or more annually. Since we only hire U.S. contractors, it makes sense for us to require it.

We are currently undergoing a site overhaul and a large SEO/SEM campaign launch due out in early September. I hope that you are able to check back in and see the great improvements.

We welcome any feedback and encourage you to apply as an editor. However, because we currently have over 120 qualified editors and a growing consumer and wholesale business we do not have any openings for editors. We will still take applications and approve them as the client base grows (again something we plan on doing next month).

Well I hope this information helped. Have a great day,

Lucas Dexter
Founder
www.ZeroFlaws.com

Lucas,
Thanks for your reply! I actually wasn't expecting anymore posts from anyone, let alone the founder of Zeroflaws :-)

I understand it's the norm that most jobs require a SS#, but I guess you can't blame me for being a little cautious, especially with the internet and all.
When applying, would it possible to send samples of my own work instead of doing a sample sent from the company?

Thanks again for your reply.

Regards,
Lee

Lee, just a word of caution.

You still don't really know anything about Zeroflaws, and I certainly wouldn't be giving my SS number to anyone I hadn't checked out fully.

Lucas@ZeroFlaws may be legit, but it is his first post here, and you still haven't checked things out with an independent and trustworthy source, until you have I'd refrain from giving out personal information.

Ask for company details that can be checked with the relevant authorities. If this is a legit set up they should be more than willing to give them to you.

The internet is full of extremely personable and believable criminals and rogues, and until you establish that Lucas is not one of these be cautious.

Lucas,
Thanks for your reply! I actually wasn't expecting anymore posts from anyone, let alone the founder of Zeroflaws :-)

I understand it's the norm that most jobs require a SS#, but I guess you can't blame me for being a little cautious, especially with the internet and all.
When applying, would it possible to send samples of my own work instead of doing a sample sent from the company?

Thanks again for your reply.

Regards,
Lee

Lee,

I absolutely understand your reservations with the SS#. And yes you can send us some of your own work, but we will still require you to attempt the edits requested in the sample we provide in order to establish consistency in our evaluation.

To speak to Garry’s comments. We were previously called PhotoChop.com, so I understand that there has been little press on “Zero Flaws inc.”, since we just made the change this past June. I do how ever have some articles that you can read while we were under the previous name.


http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061226/NEWS/612260359/1036/BUSINESS01

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/devlin/4537

Thanks again for your interest and have a great day,

Lucas Dexter
ldexter@ZeroFlaws.com

Lee, just a word of caution.

You still don't really know anything about Zeroflaws, and I certainly wouldn't be giving my SS number to anyone I hadn't checked out fully.

Lucas@ZeroFlaws may be legit, but it is his first post here, and you still haven't checked things out with an independent and trustworthy source, until you have I'd refrain from giving out personal information.

Ask for company details that can be checked with the relevant authorities. If this is a legit set up they should be more than willing to give them to you.

The internet is full of extremely personable and believable criminals and rogues, and until you establish that Lucas is not one of these be cautious.

Thanks for your concern Gary, I did notice that it was his first and only post. I am still being cautious, and I have been gathering whatever info that I can. And I haven't given out my personal info.

Lucas-If you really are legit, I apologize if my posts are causing any kind of annoyance, I mean, it shouldn't if you are legit anyway. Like what Gary basically said, it's important to research a company that you don't know much about before you get involved with them.

I appreciate everyone's posts!

Regards,
Lee

Lucas could view this as invaluable marketing research. I know I would.

Lucas-If you really are legit, I apologize if my posts are causing any kind of annoyance, I mean, it shouldn't if you are legit anyway. Like what Gary basically said, it's important to research a company that you don't know much about before you get involved with them.

I appreciate everyone's posts!

Regards,
Lee


No need for an apology Lee. As Doug noted, this has been great feedback and we will be changing our policy in the new release of our site do out next month. We will no longer require SS#s until the approach of the editor making $600 in a year through our service.

=)

Lucas

If Zero Flaws is the same company as Photochop, with the same policies and pay scale, do not bother. Their price per image retouch request is not worth it, especially if being paid is dependent upon some unknown customer being perfectly satisfied with your work. If what you did was not quite what they had in mind, they can throw the job back up into the queu for another retoucher to work on....and you will get nothing for your efforts.

I, out of curiousity, did Photochop's ridiculous, yet difficult retouching sample request (taking elements from a wedding party and putting them on a tropical beach.....and did a very good job with a lot of time spent), was "hired", spent a lot more time on a couple of retouch jobs for them, didn't get paid the $3.00 USD or so I should have, and then got an email from Photochop saying that my application was rejected.

My thoughts were: "Huh?" and "Whatever".......

Too bad they aren't recruiting in India, because third world countries are the only places with retouchers who can possibly pay their bills on that wage.

If Zero Flaws is the same company as Photochop,


Neen273,

Sorry for the delay in responce.

ZeroFlaws is a new company based on the same rough principals that PhotoChop was. We have a new executive team and will be relaunching our site and services in the near future. We are aware of the difficulties that PhotoChop had and continue to optomize the experience for both the editor and the customer.

I looked into your account, it did show that your payment was sent. Please e-mail me if you did not recieve it.

Thank you,

Lucas Dexter
ldexter@zeroflaws.com

Too bad they aren't recruiting in India, because third world countries are the only places with retouchers who can possibly pay their bills on that wage.


i found out r.r.donnelly and quebecor are sending some of their photoshop work to India, so it's only a matter of time before Quad and some of the other larger printers follow suit...

I work with Quad, no talk of doing anything like that as of yet. Not that they would ever dare let that info get out to the employees. Lets hope it won't happen, they employ a lot of people. Its a really shitty thing to do. But, thats coorporate America for you.

corporate indeed, i had an interview at r.r.donnelly recently and he told me straight out that they employ 250 people in India who only make clipping paths and masks..as soon as 1 big company starts doing it, the rest will soon do the same...

corporate indeed, i had an interview at r.r.donnelly recently and he told me straight out that they employ 250 people in India who only make clipping paths and masks..as soon as 1 big company starts doing it, the rest will soon do the same...

Wow its so sad that we are pissing away our economy to make a buck :depressed

i've now heard that quad is indeed doing this, just not out of the NYC facility, yet. but stuff does go to India. go usa!