Hi!
What a great find this site is! I've got a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time here. I've been messing around with Photoshop and got it into my head that maybe this could become something more than a hobby. Being the cautious, methodical person that I am (lol), I immediately made up a business card and shot it off to the first printer I could find on the net. (Now I have a thousand of them!!)

I was thinking I would pass them around to friends, family, co-workers and strangers on the street and just see what happened. Well, I realized I had no idea what to charge people so I googled "what do I charge for graphic design" and "what do I charge for photo restoration" and eventually wound up here.

Let me tell you, I've been zipping around on this site for the past couple of hours and my question has changed from "what do I charge" to "how in the world do I get as good as some of these guys (and girls)?" Seriously, there is some mind-blowing work displayed here. My first thought was "go lay down and watch TV and eat some cookies because you're never going to be that good." Then I realized that two weeks ago I didn't know what a healing brush was or that levels and curves were better options than brightness/contrast! So that is in fact my question: What's the best way to go about learning? I'll definitely be spending time pouring through the forums here, but I'd also like something a little structured. School isn't an option at the moment, so I'm hoping someone can recommend a good book or two. This is exciting!

Incidentally, I got a few old photos from my aunt and went to work on them. I think I'll be able to post one of them thanks to Flora's resizing tutorial. I'm a little bit proud of it but would welcome ANY feedback/criticism. I'll also post the card I made because I'm a little proud of that, too. Is that inappropriate?

Anyway, I look forward to coming back and checking out your replies. Thanks.

Photoshop Restoration & Retouching authored by Katrin Eismann seems to be the Holy Grail of restoration instruction. Plenty of pictures to download off the supplied website to follow along with in the book.
Also try this link for quick tips: http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/

I have been at this for about a year and feel ready to make some part time money also.

Rich

If restoration is your goal, I agree that Katrin Eismann's books are great.

For tutorials on Photoshop (tools, menus etc.) there are several great free iPod series (Bert Monroy, Photoshop TV, Russell Brown, Matt Kloskowski, Deke McClellan, etc.) Also, check out Lynda.com for CD training or sign up for her $25 per month access to anything and everything she has to offer.

There are tons of tutorials here on RTP and around the web. Photoshopworld.com comes to mind. Experiment, play and enjoy!

As the other folks have said, for restoration work Eisman's book is probably one of the best resources that you will find. One of the best books (In my opinion) that I have found for learning the basics of photoshop is Steve Caplin's Book, How to Cheat in Photoshop. And as Swampy said, Lynda.com is an excellent resource. I'm actually going through some of the courses posted there myself.

I just finished reading
"PHOTOSHOP RESTORATION & RETOUCHING" by EISMANN
and it should be very helpful for you with the work you are interested in. I'm sure to refer to it many times over! BTW I think you did a wonderful jon on the posted photo and you SHOULD be proud. The card looks nice too - you should definitly have a site with samples online though. Best of Luck!

Hi!
What a great find this site is! I've got a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time here. I've been messing around with Photoshop and got it into my head that maybe this could become something more than a hobby. Your story sounds similar to mine. I got started just tinkering around with photoshop and from entering photochop contests on an internet forum based on photoshopping pictures in funny ways. They had a restoration contest one time and I didn't win, but realized this was a very specialized and useful skill. So I stopped chopping pictures and dedicated myself to restoration work. I just launched my site three days ago. This has happened fast, I started learning restoration work in May 07. You bring up an interesting point about what to charge. I see many sites that have flat rates for restoration work, some as cheap as 19.99. My question is, how do these sites turn a profit on such low prices? 19.99 for a major restoration job?

Your story sounds similar to mine. I got started just tinkering around with photoshop and from entering photochop contests on an internet forum based on photoshopping pictures in funny ways. They had a restoration contest one time and I didn't win, but realized this was a very specialized and useful skill. So I stopped chopping pictures and dedicated myself to restoration work. I just launched my site three days ago. This has happened fast, I started learning restoration work in May 07. You bring up an interesting point about what to charge. I see many sites that have flat rates for restoration work, some as cheap as 19.99. My question is, how do these sites turn a profit on such low prices? 19.99 for a major restoration job?

chances are, they send it off to India to be retouched...

I immediately made up a business card and shot it off to the first printer I could find on the net. (Now I have a thousand of them!!)



. . . and a couple bucks less . . .

So I designed business cards to fit 15 on an A4 sheet of paper, printed a few sheets on glossy photo paper, and cut 'm to size with a photo paper cutting board.

Tada!

I agree with Dave Cox (but then I would, I haunt the same Photoshop forum as he does!). Steve's book is a great one to get started with - it presents fun projects in an easy to understand way. Katrin's book is more in depth, but I'm finding it absolutely brilliant. Another book I've used is the Photoshop Wow Book by Jack Davis (Peachpit Press). Mine's for version 7, which is all I can afford at the moment, but I would imagine they do it for other versions.

Thanks everyone, for your advice and encouragement. I wound up getting two Eismann books, but before I even had a chance to crack them, I wound up enrolling in The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Onlince Division for Graphic Design! That was kind of unexpected, but school can never be a bad thing, right? Now all my free time is spent looking and applying for scholarships and grants so I don't have a sixty thousand dollar bill in four years!

You've done the easy part, now comes the ass-sitting time, lots of reading, practice, practice practice.

Have fun and good luck.

C