I've been wondering what interests most of us. I love restoring and manipulating photos. I would probably lean towards the manipulation of photos giving me the most pleasure. I think it's because I like creating something new. Although I get a lot of satisfaction from a good restoration job and the pleasure of seeing a customer happy with the result.
Since my son has been doing his Audio Engineering course I've had to create CD labels and inserts for presentation of his assignments. That's a lot of fun too, I can let my imagination run wild and use some of the more unusual filters with those projects.
My question is what part of photo retouching, restoration ect do you like? And why?

It's quite difficult to answer you, but my feeling is pretty similar to yours - the re-creation stuff gives me the biggest kick, and making CD covers is fun. I also enjoy making montages which tell some kind of story. As something completely different the Lisa challenge (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=107) was great.

Gotta be restoration. The look on a client's face when I pull a nice big fat rabbit out of a hat is priceless.

And, figuring out how to accomplish things. It's like working a puzzle. I find I get lost in it. I love it when there's a "how do I" question on the forum boards that I can work on...

I guess for me it would be the restoration of old photos or the enhancement (tonal corrections, etc.) of newer ones. I also have a good time making birthday cards for family members. They are usually comical, and everyone seems to get a kick out of them. But it's nothing like doing a restoration.

Ed

Alltho I've been disabled for several years I am just learning to work with PS 7 and love photo restoration and retouching
. I do some work for relatives and friends and get great pleasure when they thank me. I have never taken any payment for work that I do.Maybe someday I'll be able to recoup for ink and paper.

I only have a highschool education.I found as I grew older I want to learn about everything.Your never too old to learn if you want to.

At my job as a retoucher, I like it when I open up an order for a head, eyes or person swap. It's fun to fit the new image part into the other file (I like jigsaw puzzles, too). Uncrossing eyes is amusing, too.
Uh oh, maybe I just like the easy stuff (I'm not crazy about acne).
C