By Doug Nelson (doug) on Friday, June 01, 2001 - 08:52 am:

Since I'm your host, I guess I'm obligated to go first:

My name is Doug Nelson. I'm 41 and live in St. Louis, MO

I've been involved with photography since 1968 (yes, that's right), with computers since 1974, and with DTP and image editing since 1988.

In real life I'm a marketing communications specialist (although I prefer the title "Minister of Propaganda").

There...your turn


By Ed Ladendorf (ed) on Friday, June 01, 2001 - 02:55 pm:

O.K. Doug. Good possibility I'm the youngest one on the site ;). I'm 63, had the same girlfriend (wife) for 43 years plus. We had 9 children, 5 boys and 4 girls. I've been interested in photography since the late 70's. My computer skills are almost up to number one, with zero being the worst on a scale on one to ten. I still have many things to learn about Photoshop 5 including working with paths, channels, etc. With the help on one of my boys, I built a 16' X 27' addition on our home, one and a half years ago. We did all the work except pouring the footing and doing the heating/air conditioning. Kinda proud of that, since it came out so well. We live in northwest Indiana, where it is a cold 55 degrees on June 1! I'm a firm believer that counting your blessings is the way to live life.


By Whimsey aka Christine on Saturday, June 02, 2001 - 05:49 pm:

Okay, here it goes:
I'm 29 years old and a wife and mom which as everyone knows is a full time job I work at my local church and got my puter last year (was supposed to be family item, I confiscated it, another little known power of MOM)Since then I've become a computer addict and spend lots of time writing my own html (boy is it hard figuring it out on your own) and doing restoration work with PSP 7 for people in my local area, which I almost forgot is in Sunny Florida. I love to learn, have an odd sense of humor (sometimes gets me in trouble, sometimes gets me out of it) and am a TAMPA BAY BUCS FAN!!!
My online nickname is whimsey and my real life name is Christine.

Ohh. look at that, now my soul's hanging out!!!!


By LindaJ on Saturday, June 02, 2001 - 09:26 pm:

Linda J. signing in from Texas. I've always been interested in photography, but no formal courses. I am semi-retired, but seems like there's lots on my plate. I help my daughter-in-law manage her retail store - mostly the computer stuff. I also refinish furniture and paint fun finishes on furniture for her store (it's a children's furniture store). I spend lots of time in front of the computer...mostly with Photoshop. I am especially interested in the archival aspects of inkjet printing and have done a lot of research on the subject.

I am so grateful to have this forum as a resource - haven't yet tackled one of the challenges but it's gonna happen soooon. The talent boggles my mind.

Pleased to meet y'all....I won't give my age...but my son is 35...

Ed - I agree about counting your blessings. I worked awful hours for years - was quite successful but then woke up one day and decided I never had time to do what I wanted to do. So I quit the job and started collecting so many blessings that I've never looked back! About the same time, my husband quit his long-time job and went back to college so he can teach high school math. He has a year left.

LJ


By Sharon Brunson on Sunday, June 03, 2001 - 01:05 am:

Another entry from Texas. Hello everyone. I'm with Linda on the age thing but I would rather say it now (I have a birthday in August). I'm 49 (eek). Married 31 years and have one son who is 24. My husband teaches high school and my son is a recent college graduate and a margins analyst. I have no idea what that is.

I'll never make a dime off of Photoshop, but I love it. Even the simple act of scanning a picture and seeing all the things you can't see with your bare, nekked eye. And that one captured feeling, that one instant of emotion that you see and know was gone as soon as the shutter clicked. I was surprised at how much empathy is needed to really see a photo.

I spend the majority of my time writing. In my free time I like a lot of things others have mentioned. I read a lot.

Thanks for the forum Doug, and for putting up with someone who will never be great at this but who will love it anyway.

Sharon


By paulette conlan on Sunday, June 03, 2001 - 06:51 pm:

Hello everyone-although orginally from New York State,my husband and I have been living in a golf course community on the east coast of Florida for almost four years now.My background in photography goes back to my childhood. My Dad was a very serious amateur photographer and I grew up with a darkroom in the house.He did alot of wedding and portrait photography and I was always the assistant.Anyway although I have a background in computers I never knew what digital photography was about until I discovered a Photoshop course at our local community college. The teacher was excellent and now I'm totally hooked. I really enjoy the opportunity to go online and learn new techniques -especially portraiture.. Thank you Doug for the site.


By Char Covelesky on Saturday, June 09, 2001 - 01:57 pm:

Hello from little Connecticut, on the shores of Long Island Sound. I have 2 married sons and a 30th anniversary coming up soon. Time sure does fly, my body may be getting old, but in my head I'm still a teenager. (Hate those mirrors) Anyway, after my kids graduated and the company I was working for relocated out of state, I went back to school myself, and that was a really positive experience, exposing me to all kinds of new interests and ideas, and motivating me to uprade from the Commodore 64 to a "real" computer. I had always gravitated toward art, so graphics quickly became my passion. I have also always loved photos, and then photography, but I feel most at home in front of the computer. Photo restoration and manipulation combines all the above, and I find it totally satisfying and Zen, I just fall into the zone, its like a drug for me. I started at school with PS, but not being able to afford it myself, I downloaded PSP and found to my amazement that it could do about anything PS could, and for a fraction of the $$$, which was in very tight supply. I found it more intuitive and user friendly, so it is still my weapon of choice.
I love this forum because it expands on the self-taught skills with such a great variety of approaches, it's really an education, and the challenges encourage refining what I've learned, or need to learn. Thanks Doug and all of you talented individuals.


By BamaCutie on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 12:31 pm:

Hi Y'all! Maya Goodson from central Alabama. I'm 30 years old, married with three children. My interests are reading, writing poetry/prose, anything computer related, collecting King Ludwig items, and of course, photography. I'm half Bavarian, half Alabamian... European Redneck! I tend to be a perfectionist, which leads me to anywhere - like here - that I can learn, learn, LEARN. I want to know it all (and sometimes act like I already do!) and I give 110% in whatever I do. Hope to be able to contribute to this forum! Appears to be a very competent group here.


By BamaCutie on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 12:45 pm:

I want to add that I am heavily into geneology. Also that I have plans to start my own business in portable portrait photography using digital equipment. Just a few major things I left out in my previous introduction!


By kathleen crimm (kathleen) on Friday, July 13, 2001 - 12:06 am:

hmmm

i think i hear an echo in here.

i came to photoshop about 1.5 yrs. ago, about the same time i came to computers (mine's a mac)

most of my working life has been as an rn, the last 4 years as a hospice nurse. but i always wanted to grow up to be an artist. (still do, @ 51)

after taking a class in ad. design @ a local c.c. (as local as anything gets here in the country - deep south mississippi), i felt like ps was learnable and perhaps even a potential source of income - which has yet to come to fruition, but that is my hope/plan.

i would like to hear re the experiences of others who are doing ps as a business, but i am too sleepy right this minute to think of what i want to ask.

i was struck recently by the fact that the gratitude i encountered from a friend, whose father's senior portrait i restored, ( he died when she was 8, 30+ yrs ago ) was very similar in poignancy to the responses of families i served as a hospice nurse. it was so "real". grateful to be able to do this. and it's easier on the back than nursing. : )


By G Mantero on Friday, July 13, 2001 - 10:25 am:

Hello, everybody!

I'm a semi-frequent poster on a few other design/software forums, and in real life I'm a marketing coordinator for an engineering firm. My love, however, is photo restoration and retouching, at which I moonlight.

My hubby and I live in Dallas, Texas, which is far too hot (!!!) for our tastes (we hail from Ohio).

This forum has been really great for me--I've taken a couple of the challenges but haven't posted them yet for lack of time. I enjoy the tips and bouncing around of ideas. My favorite thing about PS is that there are five different ways to do almost anything, so you can use whatever method seems the most logical at the time and get very similar results.


By Alan Rubin (airubin) on Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - 03:15 pm:

Hi All,

I see that we are going to be a very diverse group.

I live and work in Manhattan, NYC, and it is also my place of birth. I have also lived in PA, NJ and CT as a result of college and other jobs.

I was a Metallurgical engineer for ten years before I went into the family retail appliance business thirty-six years ago.

I became an active 35mm photographer at the age of ten in 1945. I got hooked the first time I saw an image emerge on a blank white paper in my father’s darkroom.

I lost my darkroom when we sold our home and moved into a NYC apartment. I am now also working with digital photography, so my darkroom is a computer and a printer.

I have taken many Photoshop and related courses these past three years on ZDU and SmartPlanet. The best part of the courses was the interaction among the students in the classes and their forums. These no longer exist in their original format and are not worth the time.

I’ve started the process of building upon all my course work and to learn Photoshop by working with my own images. I use several books to supplement my textbooks while I work.

I found the link to Doug’s site on Katrin’s web site for her “Restoration” book.

This forum has the same feel that I liked in the forums that I mentioned above. It seems as if everyone, regardless of their experience, is willing to help each other.

I am looking forward to many hours of pleasure working with all of you, even when you comment on all my mistakes.

Alan


By Christie Williams on Friday, July 27, 2001 - 07:17 am:

Oh my Gosh....just stumbled into this salon and figured I'd better introduce myself. I live in the hill country in Texas on a ranch, literally in the middle of nowhere..lol. The photo developing place in the nearest town about 20 miles away has asked me to take a shot at doing photo restorations, colorization, manipulation, etc. Well as an avid computer and graphics aholic I agreed. I am thoroughly enjoying this site and am so thankful it's here. I've been messing with phoptoshop for about 4 years now and recently bit the bullet and upgraded to version 6...a wise decision as there are many additional features which are very helpful. As time permits I hope to complete some challenges and look forward to any tips, critiques etc. as I do love the work. I also enjoy photography and when I'm not riding horses or working on pictures I take them. Good luck to all and stay safe and happy.


By Amanda K Jones AKJ on Tuesday, July 31, 2001 - 05:02 am:

Hello All . . .

As you can see my name is Amanda K Jones, a.k.a. "AKJ." Where to begin? I'm 25 years old and have just discovered my passion!

I graduated from college with a degree in forestry--couldn't find a job--so I began to explore other options. . . I told my husband (a network engineer) that I was interested in designing web pages and he tossed an HTML book in my lap and my life has never been the same since!

When you design web pages it's usually a good idea to have graphics so I signed up for a Photoshop course offered by the HTML Writer's Guild. There I learned about color correction, curves, levels, restoration, etc. and something inside me just clicked. I bought Katrin Eismann's book, followed her link to this site and here I am! Can't wait to learn all I can and look forward to burning the midnight oil trying to get everything to look just right.

My background mainly deals with HTML, have been hand-coding web pages for three years now. I have only been working in Photoshop for about 6 months. My first computer was a Commodore 64 and I remember putting in cassette tapes to play different games.

For now, my "real job" is working as a veterinary assistant at our local vet--since my other passion is dogs.

Nice meeting all of you! : )

akj

P.S. I live amongst the Great Lakes in the great state of Michigan.


By Dave on Tuesday, July 31, 2001 - 04:16 pm:

Hi.. my name is David but I prefer to go by my online nickname which is "Vogonpoet" (or ~Vp~ ).

I am a designer working in the autmotive industry in Detroit, Michigan and am originally from England.

Photo Manipulation, Graphic design, Web Design, and anything graphical in nature is my major distraction outside of designing cars! I love to learn and help when I can, so I hope to be able to become an active part of this community.

From what I have seen so far, Doug and you all have made a great website and I am proud to be here

Pleasure to meet everyone

rgds

Dave (~Vp~)


By Alan Rubin on Tuesday, July 31, 2001 - 09:01 pm:

Amanda,

Was the Writer’s Guild’s Photoshop course offered online or locally?

As for discovering your passion at 25, I think that you are limiting yourself with images, HTML and Photoshop. I’ll be married 40 years this December and my wife is still my only passion. My kids and there families come next and everything else is a hobby.

I’m just having a little fun at your expense, as I know how you feel. I’ve been working with HTML, Photoshop and related topics for the past three years. It is very exhilarating, as well as time consuming.

My major “passions” are digital photography and the ability to obtain the best images possible.

I am also developing and American History site that will cover the period between 1750-1870. The major emphasis will be upon people who started and developed our country.

Other than me, my wife has no interest in any of my other “passions”. Your husband tossed you a HTML book. My wife would have thrown it at me. (Ha)

I’ve only been on this site for a few weeks, but I believe that it is on the right track.

Alan


By Amanda K Jones on Wednesday, August 01, 2001 - 06:16 am:

Hi Alan!

You are right about that--if I had to take one or the other I would definitely choose my husband and kids (actually we have a dog and a cat but we consider them our kids) over Photoshop and computers any day--but I'm glad you got my drift. : ) Just feels good to have something that I can call "mine."

Anyway, on to your question . . . the HTML Writer's Guild offers courses online. They offer some great courses and they are all really affordable. You get a discount if you're a member of the Guild but you can still take classes if you are a non-member. The Photoshop class lasts for six weeks and they keep you busy! For more info you can visit their site at www.hwg.org and follow the link to "classes." For now they just offer Photoshop Level I but I think they're working on developing a Level II course. You may be interested in taking some of their other courses too while you are developing your site.

I'm new to this place too but I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time here. Once I learn more about restoration and retouching I'm going to dive right into those challenges.

Your site sounds real nifty--something my husband would get into cause one of his "passions" is American history. ; )

Amanda


By Amanda K Jones on Wednesday, August 01, 2001 - 06:24 am:

Hi Alan it's me again--I forgot to mention something in my previous post. The Photoshop course at the Guild is highly interactive both with the instructors and students. I learned a lot from what some of the other students asked--it was a great experience. I've even exchanged some emails with people so we can keep in touch and continue to learn PShop together. You also work with all your own images so that's kinda neat too.

HTH

Amanda


By DJ Dubovsky on Friday, August 03, 2001 - 03:35 pm:

Hi All,

I'm DJ (Debbie actually but I mostly use DJ when I'm on the net, it's easier) and I have been living in south Florida for about 22 years with my husband and teenage son. We're originally from Upper Michigan and also lived 2 years in the suburbs of Chicago. Too much snow for too many years, so we headed to Florida and stayed.

I bought photoshop about 4 years ago and started reading everything I could find to teach myself how to use it. For 20 years I worked as an electronic tech but decided I wanted to give photohop a try and started a small photo restoration business. So far it's a hobby more than a business but I am having fun with it.

I found this site researching Katrin Eismanns book and loved it. (Loved the book too.) The challenges were fun and informative and the people on the forums were so nice and helpful. I'm not sure what it is exactly but I feel comfortable posting and answering messages here. We all seem to be stuggling to learn and have a good time with digital restoration and are all eager to share what we know and ask about what we don't. It's really all about the people. I look forward to getting to know you all.

DJ

Howdy folks, I'm Tom Pinnock (thomasgeorge) a retired Firefighter ALS paramedic who moved from the bright lights and rat race of the Northwest coast to a peaceful and wonderfully unpopulated area of Northcentral Montana where the nearest Mall is 220 miles away and there isnt a stop light in the entire 5200 sq mile county I reside in. Lots of cows and other critters though. My hobbies are digital astrophotography, hunting(thats how we fill our freezer) and trying to avoid anything even remotely connected to meaningful and gainful activity. I started playing around with computers and graphics in the dark ages of the RadioShack TRS 80 and Commador 64 color computer( with a whopping 4k memory!!!) when pixels were the size of postage stamps and to stack them into a stick figure that could move in a most abnormal manner was state of the art. Been playing with Photoshop since version 4 and Photopaint since it came on floppies. One of these days I'm even going to learn how to run them correctly!!! I do a lot of restores on photos from the 1890 thru 1930 era as most of the Ranchers and town folk here are at least 3d generation and consequently have kept all their family and misc photos intact in collections mostly stored in shoeboxes. Anyhow, its good to meet you all. Tom

By Holly Marie on Thursday, August 09, 2001 - 09:26 pm:

Hi Everyone,

I am 44, and live in the NW suburbs of Chicago, near the Wisconsin border. Still in college and deciding what I will be when I grow up. I have gone from medical studies back to art and writing. : )

I have been interested in photography and art since I was very young. Some of my first daring pictures were from a tourist helicopter ride with no doors, while flying/hovering over rapids and rivers near Wisconsin Dells when I was 11. I was leaning out the opening to get the shots. (the pilot looked pale when we landed and he said he would remember me and not take me up again.) The pictures came out great, and are on slides somewhere with my mom and dad.

I am really interested in all sorts of graphic arts, photography, print graphics, and web design. I specialize also in Accessible web design, and have done some contract work for a professor that teaches marketing and ebusiness on the web who is also blind. I am a freelancer, student, artist, and designer -- that loves having my own hours to just pick up and chase a storm or cloud, or take pictures for the next client web site.

I took photoshop in college a year ago or so, and have also taken digital audio and sound, as well as other web, internet and web design courses. I will be teaching a special topics college credit course on accessibility soon. I am very interested also in multimedia work and music.

I love using Paint Shop Pro, and do also use Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, Freehand, PhotoImpact, and a few others.

I am married 24 years, have two children, A son in college studying to be a LAN networking Administrator(who has been building my computers for the last several years), and a Daughter who is 21 and has Cerebral Palsy.

My love for art(fine printmaking, watercolor, and drawing) and photography has me working alongside Nature and Seasons, mostly, but most everything is interesting.

Glad to be here and looking forward to joining in, getting to know everyone, and learning as time permits.


sorry this is so long - : )
holly

Hello everyone, my name is Marni. I live in Boynton Beach, Florida and am new to Photoshop, only about a year. I got into this out of necessity, 60 damaged wedding pictures of my own to be restored!! I was fortunate enough to find Katrin's book and then found my way to this site. Doug was a real doll and took one of my wedding photo's via the net to be used as a challenge#2. I am AWED at the talent in this group and have learned more in the last week than I did in a year and I sure appreciate how everyone gives of their talents and shares information. Due to living in Florida photo's go through a terrible trial and I will have enough restoring of my old photo's to do for a lifetime I think!!! A little about me, I am a musician who sings and plays keyboards with my own 5 piece band doing Weddings/BarMitzvah's and corporate events. My husband is a professional videographer doing the same type of events. I have a 19 year old daughter who is the Dance Captain/dancer on the Monarch of the Seas, one of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ships. I enjoy computers, sewing, and now photo restoration. My husband is about to divorce me, I am glued!!!! to the computer trying out new things. This board is terriffic!!!!:)

Hi! My name is Anne, we live in Nova Scotia, Canada except for a little bit of the winter when we get down to Florida :)

I'm married, two grownup children who are rather nice people and two wonderful grandchildren (it's all true, grandchildren are best LOL) I play some golf, read a lot and do 'stuff' on my computer. Got a digital camera last year and have had some fun with that but sometimes still like the oldie for some things. I do graphic work in PSP7.02 as the mood strikes :p started with old photos when I found some of my parent's wedding, little itty bitty pics in B/W, that started a whole new learning thing for me and it's been kinda fun too!

Great forums here :)
Anne

Come on folks! Step right up! This thread has been buried, so I brought it back to the top. We have a lot of newcomers to the site. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where you're from, family life, interests, etc. Join the fun.

Ed

When I was first able to buy a copy of Photoshop (academic copy - lower cost via the community college bookstore), I knew this was the perfect marriage of two loves - computers and photography. I am self-taught, and have been using PShop since version 3, but have learned so much more this year that it almost seems like I'm brand new at it. I've worked on family photo restoration for several years, but used only a few tools and filters. Now I am beginning to better understand how to make useful changes in Channels, and am LOVING the chance to LEARN new methods and strategies. Katrin's book and this Forum are really being helpful.

9/10/01

Hi all. I'm Bob Walden. I live far northern subs of Chicago. My wife and I have been married 32yrs. Or is it 33? We have a son 24 yrs old. He is moving to Mn. this weekend to live and start a new job as an IT administrator for a law firm. Going to miss him.

I have spent most of my working yrs in darkrooms. I am a photo lab manager. We are just starting to get into digital.

My interest in PS begain when I was working with my mother-in -law on her family history. That was about 4 yrs ago with PS 3.0. That also led me to become interested in genealogy.I belong to two genealogical societies.(a good source for restoration work). I get great pleasure in trying to save peoples memories by restoring their pictures.

I really enjoy this forum. Lots of nice considerate people.

Well I suppose I must throw my hat into the ring sooner or later !

I’m Chris and I’m an ‘over the ponder’ from Lancashire in the UK. I’ve never been in gainful employment but have been lucky enough to do work where people actually paid me to enjoy myself. These pastimes have included industrial photography, doing various research work in the UK and ‘artistic films’. I did a degree course in creative photography in Nottingham in the seventies and that helped me to get into industrial stuff. Moved on to other things in the eighties but the coming of digital photography rekindled my interest in the medium.

Other hobbies include books (1000’s all over the place) Maps(ditto) naval architecture and generally wandering about this little island of ours. I visit Istanbul as often as possible it’s eyeball deep in history and antiquity.

I do have some distant relatives in Philadelphia and had to contact them a few years ago on the death of a relative over this side. To my horror it turned out they were fire breathing , hell and damnation bible punchers who wanted to come over and save my soul. I managed to dissuade them from this alarming course of action by methods best not mentioned on this site ! However I’ve no doubt they burn me in effigy every year in Philadelphia !!!

That’s It !

Hi to everyone
I am new here. I have been lurking in the forum for awhile now. Lots of great info and a nice easygoing atmosphere. I am not one who generally jumps into forums like this or another form of conversing with others via the internet.
So here goes. I live in beautiful Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I have been married to the same lady for 27 years. I have a daughter 22 and a son 19, both great kids (I think it was their mom).
I have been drawing with pencil for a number of years. Then this computer ended up in my house. Now I play with all sorts of software to do all sorts of things. Some make money others well, call it a labor of love.
I have done a few touchups and alterations. This is what I like doing the best. Paint programs are the tools of choice here. PhotoShop is a great program, and is my main tool.
I would just like to say again I think this is a great forum, and I look forward to learning more.
Garrett A.K.A koonmac

Hello everyone,
Another Texan here from Dallas,59 years old,married,a spoiled dog and a noisy African Grey Parrot. I have been interested in photography off and on since I was 18 and very much into Nature Photography for the last 12 years. I have been using Photoshop for about four years for contrast and color corrections for my nature images. I have just started trying to learn restoration and retouching in the last three months and find it very addictive. I upgraded to PS 6 and like it a lot,it seems a little more intuitive to use and learn.
I am looking forward to participating and learning here and think this is a special site. Thanks to Doug and the moderators for their time and effort in making it special. Roger

my name is Ingrid

Age 54 - married for 30 years – after years in the corporate world, my husband and I now own a small market here on the Oregon Coast. We have two wonderful daughters age 22 (just graduated from college and now a physical fitness trainer) and 24 (in her third year of a six-year dual Naturopathic and Oriental Medicine program in Portland.) Sierra (Siberian Malamute) and Nicky (tuxedo cat) round out our immediate family. That’s “me” three days a week and full-time during the summer. The other four days a week, I’m a full-time college student living in Portland (get to visit with daughters as an added bonus) - a social science major in my senior year - although I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up.
About six years ago I volunteered to become the family historian. This summer while experimenting with how to best record the collected stories/info, I started playing with old photos, maps. I had the educational version of photoshop 5.5 on my computer from a desktop publishing class, but never learned more than the most rudimentary basics since most of the class focused on the Quark Express publishing end.
I dove in blindly and before I knew it, I was hooked – this is so much fun! (I’m lucky my husband is a very understanding man!) Soon realized I was in over my head though and totally unprepared. There is SO-O-O much to learn and never enough time. Spent the last month backtracking and trying to learn about scanning, color calibration (the more I learn, the more confused I get), archival inks/papers, etc., but think (hope?) I finally have a scan/monitor/print workflow that works for me.
Anyway . . . I’m a total photoshop beginner, using on-line tutorials and Eismann’s Restoration and Retouching, whenever I can find/make/steal some time. This is a wonderful forum. Unfortunately, with classes (and my dual-life commuting schedule) starting again this week, I’ll only be able to check in now and again. Thanks in advance for all of the wonderful information!

Ingrid Melissa

Guess I might as well join in this party. Food is quite good, I must say (informationally speaking).

My name is Donald Hill, usually go by Don or Hawkaye. Currently living about as far northwest as you can get in the sunny state of Florida. Got tired of the "cold" winters up around Chattanooga, TN. Currently self-(un)employed, but looking into making a go of image enhancement/manipulation/restoration. LOVE PS, but alas, currently using 5.5 (educational version). Would love to upgrade (get a new car while I'm at it) to 6.0, but might wait for 6.5 :-) Two dogs and a cat and a couple of parents make up the immediate family. Have found this group to be a singularly friendly and informative group (please, don't hold my spelling against me, batteries are dead in the spelling ace). Look forward to share with everyone here, and learning as I go. Hopefully I'll be able to give something back to the group. Looking forward to getting to know everyone!

Cheers!
Donald

My name is Sandra, I live in beautiful Sydney Australia. I'm self taught in photoshop, or should I say am still learning. I started playing around with manipulation of graphics years ago with my old commodore 64. I did a lot of dtp for my children's school manipulating graphics to suit the topics in the school magazines and the children's writings. I started restoring photos about 2 years ago when I was shown a family tree being compiled by a friend. Some of her photos were badly damaged, one with moth holes eaten right through. I was sure there must be a way that I could improve these photos so I began playing with photoshop. It became a passion and I started my small restoration business a few months ago. My main problem is that I'm a perfeconist, which is good for the customer but it makes it hard to make a profit on the jobs. I would love to learn how to be both a perfectionst and a quick restorer, lol. I have a lot to learn about photo restoration and am grateful for any help I receive. I've already discovered quite a few helpful tips on these forums and am looking forward to one day being good enough to offer my own, till then I'll just read and learn. :-)

My name is Pat Griffiths. I signed on nearly a month ago but never drifted through this board before. Skimming through, I see quite a few threads common to mine.
I've been an RN for more than thirty years---most recently in hospice nursing. Since my last patient died about 10 months ago, I haven't worked outside the home; my youngest son is disabled and that complicates life at times. I'm down to two teenagers at home with my oldest four children out (except for semster breaks):)
I have only the LE edition of PS...and PS Elements. Switching between programs with different hotkeys is a real nuisance.
My first pc was a hand-me-down from my sister about four years ago. I've always been one who wants to know how stuff works, and that PC with Win3.1 and DOS 4 was just the ticket! Now I build what I want.
Photography has long been a hobby, and genealogy another. Marrying the two is a natural. When my Dad died a couple of years ago I did a memorial collage in his honor. With the photo albums long in our family, but not improving with age, restoration is another natural.
Soooooooooooo much to learn!!! but not enough hours in a day. ;)

My name is Christine. This is my first time visiting this site and I thought I would introduce myself! :) I'm 26 and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I started out as an artist (when I was about 4) and have been creating art ever since then. I've been interested in photography since I was in high school when I started taking photos for the school yearbook and learning how to develop my own photos in the darkroom. I have also been interested in computers since around the same time. My interest in photo retouching started in 1995 when I first tried Photoshop. Over the years I've taught myself the program.

I was introduced to photo retouching as a profession when I was hired to retouch digital photos using Photoshop for a company that produced Virtual Tours for the internet using a technology called IPIX. The work basically consisted of taking two 180-degree fisheye photos and matching the colours and tones so that they would fit together seamlessly. After that I was hired on at a different company as a retoucher, or as they called it "image technician". It was another company that produced Virtual Tours photography for the net, but instead of IPIX we used a program called MGI Photovista to build panoramic photos by taking 12-14 individual photos and then merging or stitching them into one long panoramic image. This is where I really learned a lot as a result of 10-12 hour work days doing nothing but retouching photos, 5-6 days a week for 6 months. The images we were producing were travel photos and the look the company wanted for every image was that of a glossy travel brochure, so even if the original images were not technically very good, taken on cloudy days, or even if the real location didn't look very appealing our job was to make it look bright, sunny, so that when people would see the images they would say "I'd love to go there". Sometimes it took a lot of manipulation to make a place look nice when it really wasn't at all. And everything had to have absolutely no trace of ever being tampered with or it would not be up to the company's standard, so it had to always look realistic. So I learned how to get the best possible results in the quickest possible amount of time. It was a valuable learning experience. If you're interested I have some samples of the kind of images I'm describing check out http://www.daughtry.ca/portfolio/6/retouch.htm

For the last year I've worked independantly as a freelance graphic artist, doing retouching, photography, web design, illustration, and basically whatever else looks interesting to me! I'm looking forward to joining in on the forum and trying out some of the challenges. Happy Holidays!

Hello, my name is Phil. This is also my first time here.
I'm 35 and live in the mountains (little ones) near Melbourne, Australia.
I've been into photography for a long time......was doing a commercial and fine art degree in photography but stopped as being partially colorblind, color processing was just doing my head in. I was being too much of a perfectionist and became really frustrated at my inability to produce the colors that everyone else did. Looking back I'd now call it artistic licence.. ;)
Be prepared for some interesting interpretations......hehe.
Anyway, learnt hand touching with inks back then.
Been into computer graphics for a few years now as well as .html and flash. Most graphic work has been either for the web, logo's or bits and pieces of graphic design. I love to just open up PS6 when I've got time and just let go.........usually produces a wallpaper or something. I've digitally retouched only a few photo's for family and friends and find it quite a challenge.
Photo manipulation has been a bit of a habit for a while.
Thought I was doing OK until I got onto Katrin Eismanns' site.
WOW.
So I consider myself a newbie to digital retoughing and am waiting for Amazon to send me Katrin's book.
Ummmm what else.........oh yeah, I spend far too much time in other design forums as an admin/moderator/spammer......hehe.

Nice to meet you all *shakes hands all 'round* :):)

Dolby

Am I the oldest one here? I started in photography in '47 in the ad department of a firm in downtown Chicago ...continued my education courtesy of the USAF at the photography school at Lowery Field in Denver ...and opened the my first studio in Fairfield Ca. in 1952. I bought Bruno's in Portland Oregon in the mid 70's and finally "retired in business" in the mid 90's.

My interest in photography has never dulled and, from the moment I saw that first print coming up in the developer to my most recent attempts at retouching on my newest tool, a Wacom Cintiq, every day in my half century plus career has introduced new wonders.

I have truly enjoyed being able to become a part of forums like this where I can share some of my experiences with others with similar interests at all levels ...and although I can often shed some light on handling the older processes and alternatives, I'm also learning a lot about digital here from the younger generations!

If I have any strong points to offer others in this field, it would probably be in business promotion. I've so often heard that it's difficult to make money in the arts but that certainly doesn't need to be the case! For anyone interested, additional information on my current Photo Conservation business is available in the "About Us" section of the Timemark Netscape Business Card at. http://card.netscape.com/timemark

Jim Conway

Hello Everyone,
I my name is Kristen Lindsey. I am 27 years old and I live in Sandusky, Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie. I am artist, but I have only recently discovered the joys of digital artwork, thanks to Photoshop 6. I am currently working on becoming a certified web designer. I have been using Photoshop since October of last year, and I have taken classes to improve my skills. What can I say? I am hooked! I am very interested in photo retouching, and I came accross this site by the way of a Yahoo search for tutorials. I think that I will really enjoy the challenges. I have submitted my first one today, the one titled "back to work". Please tell me what you think. I am not sure if it has been posted yet.
-Kristen

:wavey:Hi everybody,
My name is David Kendal, I'm 15, Home schooled (grade 10, favorite subjects: art, computers) and I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I've been messing around on computers since my Dad got his first one in '92 (when the only thing I knew how to do was play solitaire) and I've always been very interested in the arts. I started getting more seriously into computers when I was about 11 or 12, when I started using email and learning HTML etc. to create websites.
Last year I got a job at Mcdonalds (:D yeah I know its a lame job but hey.. at least its money) and in december I finally had enough pay from my job to get my own computer. Since I was kind of broke after buying it, I've been looking for as much freeware as I can find. One of the programs I found, called "the GIMP" (Its a lot like photoshop but its free), I was really happy to find because I was annoyed by the limitations of most regular photo programs. I've been learning the program mostly by tutorials, and one day my Dad brought me some tutorial files which included some pics and text files from RetouchPro. It looked interesting so I checked out the site. I thought the challenges were a cool Idea so I tried a few, and now I'm totally addicted to these things! :D
anyway, thats who I am and how I ended up here.

- David:)

Hi all,

First post here, so thought it was appropriate I introduced myself. I am 35, single and a total 'geek' (I think that is the right word;) )

I started in photography when I was 6 and my parents bought me a Kodak 126 camera to take on a school trip. (They put a black and white film in it cos it was cheaper than colour at the time!) Since then I have progressed slightly, but I still prefer B&W.

I started in Computers when my Gran bought me a VIC20 - little did she know what she was starting! Now the PC's are taking over the house and I am considering getting a MAC just to find out if they are as good as my friends say they are. My fav toy at present is my IPAQ - since I read constantly the ebook reader on there is the best bit of software yet! I started Photoshop'ing with a copy of version 3 a friend (with way too much money) bought then couldn't be bothered to use. Of course a scanner etc followed very shortly.

So that is the history.... I live with my dogs,( some of which I know are more intelligent than I am,) and my parents ( who I am not sure about intelligence wise :D ) I am based in Poole Dorset in the UK.

Nice to meet you all!

Hello, my name is Stephen Marsh. I am based in Sydney, Australia and have been working in prepress since 1988. I originlly apprenticed as a compositor/typesetter and then moved into desktop systems full time around 1993.

Although I have been involved in general prepress and production art duties for print, I am currently employed as a full time 'imaging specialsist' for a magazine publisher - which entails the colour correction and retouching for around ten monthly publications which cover a wide range of subjects - all of which are image intensive.

I have just found the site and the community spirit is the best that I have seen on any Photoshop or graphics list - this is quite an achievement.

I am looking forward to learning and sharing my experience with all of you.

Regards,

Stephen Marsh.

Hiya... found this site linked on another forum that I am a part of.

I've been lurking for a day or so and decided I should register... looks like this is as good of a place as any to make my first post. (: I'm from Michigan, and I'm 23. I attended college at the Art Institute of Pittsbugh where I majored in photography, but due to some personal circumstances I never finished and got my degree. Since then, I've shot a few weddings, worked for child photography studios most professionals would laugh at and flashed my 3-year-old with a camera so many times he'll probably have eye problems. Heh. I've also been working at getting comfortable with Photoshop for a few years now, and I'm shooting digital these days because most of my images end up on the computer anyway... not to mention that the budget is a little tight and digital is so much cheaper for me than film. You can see some of my stuff at my personal site. Unfortunately I've been too lazy to scan in some of the better stuff I did while I was at college, and some of the stuff I have posted is pretty scary. But I'm still learning...

I've never seen a site or forum that discusses retouching and image enhancement in such detail! I have only done a few in the past as my family was always good about storing and taking care of older prints, but I love the challenges section and have already worked on a couple of the images there and hopefully they'll be added soon.

Hey All!

I'm Jackie Wilson (yeah, it's my REAL name... :tongue: ) and I'm, ummmm.....

<mumbles to self and counts on fingers>

43 years old, yeah that's it....

I've been into photography since I was a little girl. I got a Brownie Hawkeye camera in about the 4th grade and annoyed my family and everyone at 4H camp with it. Then, when I was old enough, Mom gave me the old Ansco 35mm that was my dad's (he died when I was 2). My current "significant other" is a wonderful guy named Cannon Elan 7e... :D

As an extension of my love for photography, I learned to use a darkroom, and in about 1980 or so I was hired by a local minilab chain as a printer. I was eventually promoted, and was a district manager for them for a while, but being in the lab or behind a camera was what I really loved. From there, I graduated to bigger pro labs and have been a lab technician/manager pretty much all of my life now. As a lab technician I was introduced early to traditional retouching and restoration and ultimately to digital as well. It was a fine fit for me, since my childhood school days were spent listening to teachers say, "Jackie! Quit drawing and PAY ATTENTION!" Black and white art is what I really love to shoot, and I've done a lot of traditional hand coloring. I also developed a technique for painting on 35mm negatives with dyes and then printing the neg. on color paper. It's quite different looking, and I have not been able to reproduce the same effect with Photoshop yet - I'm trying though! I've had a few gallery shows and had a few things published over the years, which has been kind of fun.

In 1994 I decided that I wanted a college education since I never got around to getting one, so I started college almost 20 years to the day after I graduated from high school. My major was English (I also write), but as soon as I was done with my studies I went right back to photography and being a lab tech.

I was born in Kentucky and currently live in central Ohio, which is where we lived when I was a little girl. Right now I'm in a little place with one stop sign, about 10 houses and and endless supply of COWS - about 12 miles to the closest "convenience" store and 20 miles to the nearest "real" town. But in between my childhood and now, I lived for 18 years in Phoenix, AZ and 10 years in Portland, OR.

I'm currently taking a leave from lab work to try and build my own retouching/restoration business.

By Flora Meletti (Flora) on Sunday, May 26, 2002


Hi everyone!
I really should browse around more!:)

I am Flora (my real name too!).

I am 50, married since 33 years and have two grown children: Claudio, 32 and Lara, 27.

I am Italian and live in Milan, Italy, but I have lived in different other countries (European and not) for over 25 years, (my husband, now retired, worked for an international pharmaceutical company).

I started out as a teacher, but decided later, to become a translator.

I'm probably the exception here, because I'd never been interested in photography at all... :grin: I started photo "manipulation" as a joke, (I wanted to make something funny for a friend's birthday); about 3 years ago, using PhotoDeLuxe which came with the scanner I had just bought...I enjoyed it very much so, occasionally, I repeated the experience...until I got hooked :D...I passed to Photoshop about 1 and a half years ago, and finding it very difficult to use, I started looking for and reading everything I could get my eyes on, trying to learn how to use it!....During one of my searches, I found "Il Paradiso" (RetouchPro :) ).....and the rest is history....

I'm surprised you didn't discover PSP, as it's much friendlier than PS and a fraction of the price $99 vs. $600 us. Most folks don't need PS even when they think they want it. They just like the statis it has. PSP can do almost anything it can do.

Hi Fugitive!

I'm sure you are absolutely right...but at the time I knew nothing about the variety in "image elaboration" software....and, obviously, I found a very clever salesman!!!....:D :D

Hello everyone. Well I feel like coming into a movie late. Let's see what can I say about me...

I'm 104 (always lie higher, not lower, that way people will think you look great for your age!)
I work freelance as a web designer and general graphics manipulator including photo restorations. I am fairly new at it and just dove in. One day I woke up and realized I had just been laid off and had worked all my life for the financial security rather than joy and still had no financial security anyways. I decided I would do what I love. I had nothing to lose.

I did take a quickie 2 month DTP course but mostly I am self-taught. I love Photoshop. No, I mean I am seriously addicted to it. I dream about it. I saw a ding on my new car the other day and thought I can just use my lasso tool and..... I wish.

Also... just for the joy of it I make extremely wild photoshop artwork which I have gotten much encouragement about. People seem to love them. I am working on my new website right now where they will soon be posted again.

Photo restoration and retouch is definitely an art I am still learning and I see some exciting talent on this site. I'm sure I can learn plenty here. Thank you all for being here. :)

oh yeah.. almost forgot. My name is Marie and I'm from Montreal

you can message me on yahoo as ravenmd
my url is: www.mariedubois.com

Now it is time to jump in and join the fun. I have been a registered member for a while, but I haven't participated in any of the challenges. I would visit the board daily and read and look at the work being presented. I must say, there are many talented people here and to look back at early entries to the present, I really see the growth in skills.

Now about me I have been interested in photography since the youthful age of 8. I attended high school and also college to study the fine arts of photography. I have worked at various labs doing commercial printing.

I have always had an intrest in photo restoration, and creating collages. Using Katrin's book, I have learned a lot and, I have also learned a lot from you all.

Also, the sense of friendship and warmth I get from reading your responses to each other is something to behold - being the peson on the outside looking in.:)

Originally posted by Hydia
Now it is time to jump in and join the fun.

I'm so glad you did! It really IS a lot of fun. I sure hope you don't go back into hiding... :)

Nope, no more hiding.:)

Hi. My name is Phil and I'm a graphaholic. I have to force myself to go outside and tend my yard, and when I do I see a flower that must have its picture taken, and so I grab my digital and snap away, run back inside and upload it and manipulate it, then remeber that yard work needs doing and force myself back outside only to repeat the process. I also am a master at run-on sentences.

I've always liked graphics, in one form or another. Tried drawing as a child and was "ok" at it, but that wasn't my "thing." I got a Commodore 64 years ago and did graphics on it - even sold some to a magazine on disk for that platform. Finally got an associates in Graphic Arts and bought a Mac and here I am. I use Photoshop because I learned it as part of my studies and because I got a good deal on it from Apple who packaged it as an incentive to students to get them to buy their computer.

I have worked for a newspaper doing their graphics, where I learned to cut out images from their backgrounds and make clipping paths, and a label company. I was also a computer lab aid at the college I graduated from helping students with graphical and technical problems. I think it was the spirit of helping, which I like to receive as well as give, that was the attraction for me here. Talented people who are willing to share their knowlege is, in my experience, rare. It seems most are secretive, I suppose for job security reasons or something, and to find those who are not was really nice for a change.

Black Knight was my old CB handle to start with, the name I created my art under on the C64, and various other things during my history in computers. Most people eventually end up shortening it to BK, which I am very used to so feel free.

I'm in Washington state (moved here and thought "ahhh...finally!") and LOVE the place. I live on an island in the Puget Sound with my cat Pat. I play the keyboard fairly well, like walking in the woods and camping.
:wavey:

Hi everyone,

This RP site is so massive I've only just found this thread so here's a little bit from one of RP's minority groups - Brits!

I'm a 49 year old police officer from the North-West of the UK. I've been married to my present wife (ducking as she takes a swipe at me for that last comment!) for just over 25 years. We met 14 months before we wed and, for me at least, it was love at first sight.............(moment of passion from the good lady, Trish!)......!

We have 3 children ranging from our mentally and physically disabled 23 year old son, Mark, to our 20 year old daughter, Alex, a psychology undergraduate, and eventually our 15 year old youngest, Andrea, still at high school.

Since leaving college in 1974, I have been a teacher both here in the UK and in the Netherlands. In 1980, somewhat disillusioned by the crap state of most UK state schools I joined the Greater Manchester Police. I opted out of the promotion system in 1988, 12 months after being promoted to Sergeant. I am currently a traffic sergeant cruising around in Volvo V70 or S60 T5 cars.

My interest in photography started in 1990 with my first SLR, a Canon A1. I've owned most of the less expensive makes over the years (Canon, Nikon, Minolta, & Pentax 35mm systems together with Fuji and Mamiya 645 and 6x6 medium format kits). I've been secretary of a local photographic society for the past 6 years during which time I got into computers - BIG TIME!

I used to play a lot of on-line multiplayer gaming (Quake, UT, Half-Life, etc.) but now I tend to concentrate on the imaging side of things. It was through a link from a site I subscribe to www.davrodigital.co.uk (http://www.davrodigital.co.uk) that I came across ReTouch Pro.

This is without doubt one of the best sites on the web and also one of the friendliest. I am looking forward to spending a considerable amount of time sharing and learning with you all.

Cheers,
Barry

I ran across this site last week while I was looking for damaged photos to practice restoring, and I got hooked! I've been using computers since I got a Commodore 64 in the '80s when I was in high school. Even then, I used it for graphics with a program called Koala Pad--using a joystick to draw!

I'm 30 years old, married 11 years, and have a 6 1/2 year old son. We live in northern Virginia, outside Washington, DC and we love it. We moved here from Tucson, AZ, which we hated. 25 years of desert heat and dryness pretty much ruined me for sunny days. I prefer clouds, rain, snow, and cold weather.

I have been keeping a personal homepage since 1995 and I have a habit of sort of adding to it. A little. Ok ok a lot. It's aroudn 2,000 pages or so. In addition to that I run a number of others sites just for fun, including a vbulletin board like this one, at www.fathom.org

If you are curious about me, you can visit my homepage, which is in my sig. :) I'm glad to be a part of this community! I sent in a few of the challenges last night and I can't wait for them to be added -- how long does that usually take?

Hello, again, Opalcat! (I just seem to be following your threads today.)

RE: Tired of the heat/dry
Been there; done that. Lived in the state of Washington since 1965. Really appreciate the relatively cool weather and low humidity here.

RE: Challenge turnaround
When challenges are submitted over the weekend, it's not unusual for the turnaround to be a little longer than if submitted other times of the week. I'd be surprised if they weren't published first thing Monday a.m.

Our fearless leader and site admin, Doug Nelson, is normally very diligent at posting entries. We do, however, give him a couple hours off per week!

Based on what I've seen of your work so far, I fearlessly predict we'll be in for a treat!

Welcome, again.

~DannyR~

Greetings ,

After buying a second hand book , Photoshop Restoration And Retouching , I'm hooked on digging out old photos and transforming them into something ( hopefully ) better , I'm armed with a shiny new copy of photoshop and a wacom tablet and I'm ready to rock and roll .:)
About me , well I own a few car audio stores in the UK and currently live in Cardiff , Wales where men are men and the sheep are nervous;) , dabble in web page design and computers as a hobby and I think I'm a forum addict .
Travelled the world in my time and lived in Germany , Spain , Hong Kong , Thailand and the Phillippines over the last 15 years , now back in rainy , cold UK and wishing I was somewhere else, my main 5 year plan is to own a beach bar in Thailand , and never having to own another pair of shoes.
Still single with no kids , I have to keep telling myself I'm 35 now and need to be settling down , but I cant face it , maybe someday when I grow up !

Enough , enough,
Looking forward to chatting here,
Nigel.

Welcome Nigel!

Cardiff , Wales where men are men and the sheep are nervous

We have a place like that here - we call it Kentucky (I was born there - lol)


I have to keep telling myself I'm 35 now and need to be settling down , but I cant face it , maybe someday when I grow up !

I know what you mean there! But I don't plan to grow up, so it's a non-issue for me... :)


We're glad to have you here and look forward to seeing more of you!

(cool avatar, btw... nervous sheep... hahaha...)

Nigel:

Welcome aboard. I recently turned 50, became a first-time dad at 44 and (according to my wife) still haven't grown up! Don't rush it. [i]Attitude is everything!/i]

Regarding your dream, see the Walt Disney quote below. That says a lot.

You've found the right site to get lots of questions answered about photo retouching / restoring, photoshop and about anything else you can image + have lots of fun.

Glad you found us. Look forward to seeing you in the forums.

--------

Jak:

With all due respect to Tom, another U.S. State where I've heard sheep are nervous is, "Mon-ta-a-a-a-a-na"! Something about especially chilly winters or the like... :)

~Danny~

Thanks , Jak,

Your avatar made me smile as well , throw me another smacker :knockedou

Thanks for the welcome Danny , give me a couple of months and I'll have enough guts to participate in the challenges , for now I'll just be a unofficial moderator for sheep jokes and other animal related threads :)

Hi there,

Since I'm "hooked" on this site and it looks like I'll be hanging around for awhile, I thought I'd better introduce myself.

I first got interested in photography while in the army and, after discharge, I even worked as a photographer for a few years but gave it up and became an audio-visual producer. This eventually led to a job at The National Geographic Society's Educational Media Division producing materials for K-12 classrooms. After 23 years with NGS I retired in 1994. With my newly acquired leisure time I began researching my family's genealogy and that got me started restoring old photographs.
I didn't realize it could become an obsession. And a money funnel. It seems like every day there's a new program, plug-in, or gizmo I've just gotta have. So many toys, so little time.

I live in Silver Spring, Maryland where, when I'm not glued to the computer, I still take an occasional picture (digital camera), play the clarinet (mediocrely), dote on my five grand kids, and, with wife in tow, travel occasionally.

Jim Caffrey

Hello, all. I am fairly new here. I am the Graphics/digital photography Sig (special interest group) leader for Another Baltimore Computer Users Group. My main computer interests are with graphics and paint programs and digital photography. Over the years I've used Paint Shop Pro starting with version 5, Photo Impact since version 3, PhotoShop 4, a shareware program called PhotoBrush, and Painter 4 through 6. In recent years, I’ve focused mainly on using PhotoImpact and recently PhotoBrush too.

I am 54 years old. Married with 3 daughters, 28, 18, and 11, the oldest of whom made us grandparents in February 2001. Until 4 years ago I worked in a local school system, in support services. I had to end up retiring on disability in late 1998 due to a neurological disorder that affected me to the point where I could no longer perform the job I had. Since that time I have spent a good deal of time learning more about computer graphics and working with digital photography. I look forward to participating here and learning from all you talented folks!

I have put up a website with a free site service to show some of my creative efforts and digital photography. If you're interested here is the URL:
http://members.designheaven.com/~toppergrafix/

In case you are wondering about my online name, "qom" it is short for quaker oats man. I've had that nickname for nearly 30 years now since someone once told a friend of mine I reminded them of the Quaker Oats Man. :) Of course that was back in my long hair "hippy" days. :) It just kind of stuck! Oh and my "real" name is Jim. :)

Welcome QOM!
(I was always a Malt-o-Meal guy, myself, mostly because that's what my dad liked = what my mom bought!)

With your wealth of graphics experience and being a seasoned veteran in life (I'm 50, myself), believe me -- you'll fit right in here, Jim. I'm sure many of us will benefit from some of your pearls of wisdom as much as you learn from others.

As you get familiar with the surroundings (see blue link below for a sneak peak at a soon to be ready for prime time site map), definitely checkout the public gallery (Post a few images of your own, if you like. Beware: 100KB size limit). Don't miss the Challenges area. The challenges is where the rubber really meet the road. The discussion Forums are great, too. Oh, heck, there's something for everyone!

Never be bashful. Ask lots of questions. Engage in the forums. But if nothing else, have a ton of fun while you're here!

Welcome aboard.

~DannyR~

Welcom QOM.

Have an avatar :)

Thanks Doug, guess I have to ask the "dumb" question now... what do I do with it to make it appear on the bb?

Save it to your hd, then go to your User CP to install it under profile (you're under no obligation to use it, but if you do someone will probably animate it soon :) )

Well talk about the perfect avatar... good one..
welcome Jim...
I might be the one who animates the avatar ... although it's great as it is... a hobby of mine ... but others do it here also.

RonDon

I made one for you to look at QOM ... just a small animation ... just nods now and then ... I posted it with the others on the animated avatars thread... page 5 ... hope this link takes you there.....

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2430&perpage=40&pagenumber=5

RonDon

Thanks RonDon! What is the image size limit on the avatars? I'm thinking of making one for myself too. :) Maybe have my face fade into the QOM one. PhotoImpact does come with Gif Animator... :classic:

hi ... I think 30kb is the file size limit..... as long as it isn't over 50 pixels high or wide...
that sounds like a good animation....

Hi there, I thought it was time to come out of the shadows where I’ve been watching and learning for a while now.
My name is Paul Markey, I’m 42 and originally from Ireland and came to Kansas City 12 years ago. I’ve been married to Ger for 13yrs and we have a ten year old daughter Niamh, (pronounced Neeve) yes I know - the Irish language is a little different!! :) and we’re cruel parents for giving her a name only Irish people can pronounce first time, but it’ll “help her build character”.:D
When it comes to photo restoration I’m strictly an amateur, I fell under it’s spell in January of this year when we were visiting friends, they had framed and displayed all the old family photos they could get, most were in good condition but there was one small one with a lot of cracks and tears in it. I told them that they could have it restored and was quickly challenged to do it myself since I knew so much!! did I mention that my friends were also Irish? :nod: Anyway, took up the challenge and using Photosuite 4 I did a pretty good job of cloning out the cracks and spotting the dust specks, the friends were suitably impressed and I was hooked.
I now have PS7 a couple of good books including Ms Eismann’s (what would we all do with out her?) and some “great “ tutorials from this site and as soon as I get back from vacation in Santa Fe NM (digital camera in one hand and a margarita in the other – it’s too hot for Guinness) I need to knuckle down and “do” something.
So here’s to a long and creative relationship, Sláinte.
:bigthmb:

Welcome, Paul! I'm happy to see you here....

And as far as I'm concerned, it's never too hot for a Guinness, although I do like to slip away to Margaritaville w/ Jimmy occasionally too...

And a hearty welcome from me, too, Paul. As you know by now, this is a pretty friendly place where you can learn A LOT. Glad you found us.

Have to agree with Jak on two points: Too hot for a Guinness? Not around the Seattle area, anyway. And I, too, have taken a trip or two on the Margaritaville bus. It helps clear (cause?) cobwebs while plowing through a retouch project.

If you need an occasional diversion from serious work, come on over to the Photo-Based Art (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=110) forum (playground?) and frolic in the sandbox for awhile.

Again, great to have you on board. Happy Photoshopping!

~DannyR~

Well, Danny, if it's the PNW we're in, then I'll take a Terminator...

:)

(Man, I miss McMin pubs...)

I am elated I found this site. Located it on Steve Wolf's website http://showcase.netins.net/web/wolf359/adobepc.htm. I belong to his digiphots mailing list and often the subject of retouch/restore comes up.
I am 44 and a teacher in New York. I have dabbled in photography since I was 14 and with computers at 24. Getting Photoshop was a high point and over the last few years I have spent millions of hours discovering.
I am always looking for new ways to manipulate and fix (even when it ain't broke!!)
Over the last 2 years I have been busy creating slide shows of my neice's lives as graduation gifts and PS/Image ready have been a godsend. Then I spend hours looking for new ways to do old things. I think this site will be my starting point from now on. I am really impressed by the talent, both raw and cultured, displayed by the members of RP. And the criticism/advice is unmatched. I may not get to comment on all submissions due to time factors, but I am impressed. I'm also having a load of fun with the challenges.
I will be spreading this site around, believe me.

Keep up the good work all
Debbie Carr

Debbie:

Great that you found us and thanks in advance for passing the good word about RetouchPRO.

After seeing your post in the Photo-art forum, glad to learn more about you here.

Again, welcome aboard!

~DannyR~

Hello,
I have posted a few times and thought it was about time I introduced myself...

I am from Dartford, England and have been involved in photography since I left school. I have a degree in photography, although when I was at college they forgot to tell us that we really should invest some of our time learning photoshop! So what I have learnt has been off my own back since I left.

I currently have my own young company in England offering everything from limited edition prints, commissions and retouching of course!

Must say at this point that I am very glad to have found you guys, and have spent a long time roaming through the forums - and am still only taking tiny bites of information there is so many good tips, tricks and evil bits to take in. Thanks for all the info thats already here, I hope I can help out and return the favor.

Clare

Clare:

Nice to see your introduction post here. I'm glad you found us, too. It's always nice to have "world representation."

Welcome and keep learning.

~DannyR~

Welcom Clare! Good to see another member from "across the pond!" :)

Hi all. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier – I just discovered this thread today.

My name is Truman Brown. “VisualEyes” is the fake name I use for all those computer applications and web forms that bug me for my company name.

I’m a Senior Systems Analyst with the City of Los Angeles: just your basic civil servant who gets to play with computers all day long and then goes home and plays with them some more. I took my first programming class in the 9th grade, way back in 1972, writing FORTran on punched cards and feeding them into the campus computer which was the size of two bungalows. It was fun, but I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing, so I got sidetracked with photography and lithography classes and came out of high school deciding that I wanted to be a printer. I earned a degree in Photo-offset Lithography, but got sidetracked again when I decided I needed to sow some wild oats in the military.

The Marines taught me how to follow orders, run fast, eat fast, shoot a rifle, and operate a Telex machine. With those skills and an honorable discharge, I soon found a job at Western Union where I eventually transferred from typing telegrams to processing bills on an IBM System/36. That system was always breaking down, requiring calls to the tech support guys on the other coast. After about two years of calls, I decided that I’d rather be on the other end of the phone line, so I quit and went back to school to earn a degree in Information Systems. I bought my first “personal computer” about this time: the Timex Sinclair 1000 (2K RAM! Expanded to 16K for $250!).

Six poverty-stricken years and two kids later, I graduated, found an internship with the City of LA, and began learning all the mysteries and wonder of the IBM AT, IBM AS/400, MS DOS, and dot-matrix printers. About 4-5 years later, after having become a BBS junkie, I discovered a program called Vivid. It was a primitive raytracer that let me create amazing images like those that I’d only seen in sci-fi movies and the 6:00 news intro. I played with Vivid for a few years, then migrated to the DKB raytracer which later became known as POVRay. I got fairly good at it and several of my images were published in magazines worldwide and I even got to author a chapter in SAM’s Publishing’s PC Graphics Unleashed. In order to make my images press-ready, I would touch them up using Aldus Photostyler. Aldus went out of business or got bought, so I looked around for something else to use and discovered Photoshop 3.0. I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve taken beginning, intermediate, and advanced PS classes, but most of what I know I learned on my own.

So, today I have a wife, three kids, three cats, a 2.3Ghz P4, a couple of scanners, digital and video cameras, video capture system, photo inkjet printers, and so little time in the day to play with all of them. :(

Hi. My name is Andrew, and I live in Los Angeles. I guess you could call me a graphic hobbiest, because I spend many evenings trying to learn about color correction and repair of photos. I don't seem to be able to finish reading any of the graphic books I buy, but I like searching the web for tips, and I like to practice on photos.

A few days ago I dropped by here and noticed the Photo-Based Art forum. Making photo-based art is something I tried a couple years ago, and gave up out of frustration. But maybe I'll do better now that I know more about color adjustment and photo-editing tools. So I downloaded the Bambi pic to see what I can do.

Anyway, that's about it. And I better get back to working on the Bambi pic. I'm going to be switching to a new computer soon, and I want to finish before dealing with this other computer.

Andrew

Hi Andrew, and welcome! You will love this place, I guarantee...always something new to see and do and learn! I only found it this past summer and very quickly became hooked.

And Truman, thanks for the fascinating bio. Your full education partially explains your skillful work, but as we all know, knowlege alone isn't enough. Whatever that secret ingredient in art is, you definitely have it!

Phyllis

Andrew...

As moderator of the Photo-art forum, I'm especially delighted you found us and dropped in. Welcome aboard.

If you have any questions on anything, feel free to send me e-mail or personal mail (PM botton below).

Again, welcome. Look forward to seeing your Bambi creation.

~DannyR~

You Gotta Be Kidding?! (actually a very clever moniker)

Welcome to RetouchPRO, Chuck. You've found a great place to hang out and learn. Now that you've got time on your hands (good for you), I'm sure there are gobs of current and archive threads that will be educational and informative.

You and I are in about the same youth group :) (I'm 50, going on 29) and have similar interests and 'How I got started' stoires. I'm a West Coast person too (Seattle area); born in L.A., moved to WA in 1965.

If you have any questions about anything or need advice, don't hesitate to send me Personal Mail (PM button below). If you haven't seen the "site map" yet, click the link below my signature.

Again, welcome aboard, and enjoy the ride. It gets better every day.

~DannyR~

Well, my first post. :)

My name is Steve Campbell and I live in Armidale, Northern NSW Australia. I have been "playing" with restoring photos on my Canon 660 scanner for a while, and now have made the leap to fully digitising the last 40 years of slides and negs by purchasing a canon 4000dpi film scanner.

All I now have to do is learn how to use it :)........and Photoshop!

I am really excited about finding the "font of knowledge" as I have been restoring photos for the last 12 months with not a clue of the best way of going. I have several big restoration jobs coming up courtesy of my mother-in-law (some really old prints of her gradparents).

I have one quick question. What is the combined wisdom concerning handling of prints, negs and slides. Do you wear gloves, and if so what type? I use cotton gloves with prints but they are hopeless for negs as they cover them in dust!! I don't even know whether cotton is the best for prints, but it seemed preferrable to my "grubby paws".

Hope to here from you soon, and really enjoy your forums.

Welcome aboard Steve. I have been a member here for a little less than a month, but am becoming annoyingly omnipresent.

As a fellow newbie, I like the challenges best - you see so much creativity, and so many different takes on the same subject. You should try your hand!

See you around.

Toad

Hi Steve, welcome aboard!

Gloves are a good idea - I use them when I work. Nylon gloves work well. A google search for darkroom gloves should turn up what you need.

Steve:

Let me add my welcome, too.

You've joined a great site where members are knowledgeable and friendly -- and the wealth of information and opportunities to learn are plentiful.

Don't believe Toad's comment about him being annoyingly omnipresent.. He was just being modest. You'll find his contributions supportive and creative.

Look forward to seeing your forum contributions. Nice to have you aboard.

~DannyR~

Welcome Steve,

I have been here for a little while now and am still enjoying - learning - experiencing so much.

The galleries - challenges are so much fun

I have learnt more here in the last couple of months than I have in years and its been enjoyable as well. I still haven't covered all the areas to be found here - theres just so many to be found.

Welcome and I am sure you will find this as freindly and helpful as I have

Clare

My name is Stella Nemeth. In my day job I "program" Access Databases. The "program" is in quotes because I don't write code. This is a pretty odd job for an old lady. You can't belive what I had to go through to convince my current boss I really did know how to do this stuff. :bawling: I've been playing with computers since we bought a Commodor 64 back in the days when computers didn't have hard drives and the Commodors didn't have floppy drives either.

I've been involved in digital photography for several years. We've got two digital camera and I'm on my second scanner and second photo printer.

Until a few weeks ago I never used Photoshop. I've used several different consumer-type photo programs over the years and had outgrown them all, but couldn't seem to get over the hump on the learning curve for Photoshop even though I owned a copy of Photoshop 5.

Then I tried to load yet anothr one of "those programs" on the computer and the computer locked up during the instal. That did it. I'd had enough. It was just once too often.

I had a copy of Photshop Elements on the computer too and I searched the Web for Tutorials so I could learn to use it at least a little. I got almost to the Intermediate level when the upgrade for that program came out and decided not to buy it but to upgrade Photoshop from 5 to 7 instead.

I'm not sure how I found this site, but I'm very glad I did. I've already tried one of the challenges and I'll upload it soon.

Hi Stella:

Regardless of how you found us, * * * W E L C O M E * * * to our happy campground!

Gosh: Commodore 64 to programming Access applications. Now that's a leap!

Are you using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) in your programming endeavors? If so perhaps once you get into PS7, you'll have an interest in dabbling in (or diving into) into PS7's new scripting module. VB along with Java are supported, which enable folks with the right experience / skill set (this excludes me) to write some really custom Photoshop procedures.

With your background, you'll fit right in to RetouchPRO (actually, you already have). Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself. Look foward to seeing you around.

~DannyR~

You asked if I program in Visual Basic. No I don't, which is why I put the word program in quotes.

It is amazing what one can do with Access' own built in tools. Basically I pull data from another database. Export it in ASCII. Inport it into Access and then slice it, dice it and analyze it.

I've got a few real databases going too, where we add data entry to the data we pull out of the Company database, and then run mail merges with it in Word. I do queries, forms, reports and macros, but no Visual Basic.

In addition to needing to reconstruct the few heritage photos I've got, I want to do scrapbook pages in Photoshop. I've managed to get a few that I really like already, but I know there is a lot more possibilities in the program.

Stella -- good for you! Photoshop can do so much, so it's really (one of) the best program(s) to learn if you're serious about working with photos. There are folks here at just about every level of knowledge, so whatever level you're now at, you'll fit in and be able to start getting even better.

If you have a particular area of Photoshop that you're currently struggling with, let us know and someone will have a tip or a link to a good tutorial -- here or elsewhere on the internet.

Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

Hi!

My name is Trine Sirnes and I live in Fredrikstad, Norway with my boyfriend, Knut Fredrik and every second weekend and in hollidays, his two sons.

I'm a passionate amateur photographer as well as interested in everything digital(camera, internet, webdesign etc.).

I'm a member of several photocommunities on the net, and it was in one of them someone told me about this place. And what a great place I found:pleased: It really challenges your creativity and gives you so many new ideas, as well as the oportunity to learn from very talented people.:bigthmb:

;)Trine

Trine:

I am SO glad you found this site. Over the past few days I've been admiring the images you have uploaded for the various challenges. Your works are exceptionally innovative and inspirational.

I hope you find as much enjoyment here as we find enjoyment viewing your creations.

Thanks for telling us a little about yourself. It's an honor to have you join us.

Welcome to the RetouchPRO family.

~DannyR~

Originally posted by CJ Swartz
If you have a particular area of Photoshop that you're currently struggling with, let us know and someone will have a tip or a link to a good tutorial -- here or elsewhere on the internet.

Looking forward to seeing some of your work.

The current focus is on color correction. I've figured out Levels and Curves in black and white, and even in color as long as the color cast is basically normal. In fact, it is amazing how much better all of the photos look these days.

My husband does an annual professional conference and takes loads of pictures there. Because the lighting is very odd, almost every photo needs work, but generally the same kind of work.

This time, using Photoshop, I was able to apply the curve from photo a to photo b, c and d. Not only did I get good results, but they were very fast good results.

Except for the few photos with bad color...

I was able to apply the curve from photo a to photo b, c and d. Not only did I get good results, but they were very fast good results.

Great, Stella. Good technique and efficiency to boot!

Some of RetouchPro's Retouching Challenges are related to color casts. You might want to look at this one for starters (when you have some extra time). The names listed below on that page are linked to each of the previous submissions by past and present members here -- with some details on their technique. There are some tutorials on the web related to color correction also, in case you haven't already seen them.

Retouching Challenge -- K-Mart Special (Orange color cast) (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/retouching/challenge5/index.html)

HI my name is Philip (Phil) Lombardi and I live in the state thats hard to Photograph, New Jersey.
I am married 41 years have four kids and 7 grandchildren and boy do I love them. At 63 this forum has been a reburth for me.
I also was in corporate America and inbetween I did some pro photography wedding and a little commercial.(1970). About ten years ago I learned computers and in my office I am the Guru. Ha HA. I first got Adobe Photoshop 4 and basicly I have only done some photo colorization until two years ago. Last year I joined this forum and have expanded into Photoshop 7 and in the last six months I have taken the artsy part of it seriously. Danny has helped me alot and the post from you guys are awsome and make me want to get better. I have a mechanical ability which helps me figure things out. I am open for all comments because thats how we get better.

Hi,
I'm Art Hill. I live in La Grange Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. I've lived in the Chicago area all my life. I started taking pictures about 45 years ago with an Argus C-3. After my kids grew up I didn't do much photography until I got my first digital camera. Since then I've gone nuts. I just bought a Nikon 5700 and took it to Paris on our vacation. I'm pretty happy with it. I have a wonderful wife and two married daughters - they both live near downtown Chicago. I have a web site where I display a lot of my pictures at http://www.windycityart.com/
I'm looking forward to learning a lot as manipulation, retouching, etc has never been my strong suit. I'm learning.

Wecome (again) to both of you.

Art:
Gosh, I too started out with an Argus C-3 in the late 50's. I'm pretty sure it's stashed somewhere at my mothers house. How the technology (photo equipment, computer-wise) has evolved since then!

Phil:
Since you've been married 41 years, you should be giving ME advice on the subject. You must be doin' a lot of things right! :) Congratuations.

~Danny~

Danny,
I loaned my Argus C-3 to my brother in the early seventies for a vacation. He left it in a cab. Wish I still had it just as a memento.
Art

Danny 41 years does not give the right answers to marrage, we can use advise at any age.

Hi, I've Loren, I’ve been lurking for a while, I stumbled across this page a month or so ago looking for help in colorizing old photos....
I'm 16 and attend Trimble County High School in Kentucky; one of those little towns where the zip code is more than the population.
I've lived around, with and on computers all my life.... I had a Commodore 64 too but all I ever did was play Sesame Street and Dream House.
I’ve been photo manipulating for… 5 or 6 years I think. I use Paint Shop Pro 7 and am mainly a cut and paste girl myself. But I try to do it well; and I’d like to learn more :)
I’ve helped my father restore old photos for his patients and himself… But I’m still at that age where my biggest problems are grades and what my best friend said behind my back. And I’m going to relish it :) Also I have a tendency to type like I talk… So just ignore the Um… and the er… and all the unfinished sentences…
It just means I’m nervous… ~nods~
Um… I don’t think I have much else to say. So… Ttyl

Sibyllea:

We're honored to have you. Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself.

For your age it sounds like you've got a great deal of experience and will no doubt bring a breath of fresh air to RetouchPRO.

If you haven't read it yet I invite you to pop over to my "Welcome Thread" (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3519) in the Photo-art forum. It will give you a quick overview of that part of the neighborhood.

BTW: I like, er, your writing style. You'll fit right in here!

Again, WELCOME. Glad you found us.

~DannyR~

HI Sibyliea My name is Phil handle phili1 and welcome to the best place to learn and practice retouching. There are alot of talented people who have helped me and I am sure you as well.

Its a place to have fun.

Well ok I will excuse your um and er if you excuse my spelling.

Well now that I've been here for a while I guess I could post some info about myself. I'm embarrased to say that I Just found the Salon forum. Guess I've been living in a box.

Anyway, I'm 50 years young and have been married to my wife Cindy for 31 years. We have one grown Son who is 28 years old. We've lived in Lake Charles, LA for most of our adult lives. I work for a fortune 1000 bank, been with them for 14 years but I'm not a banker. I work for the IT department as a network field support engineer. My coverage region is most of southwest Louisianna so I do travel a lot.

I've had many different hobbies throughout the years, most of them very expensive. I shot a lot of film in the late 70's but that took a backseat to Ham Radio in the early 80's. I bought my first computer in 81, a Commadore Vic 20, so that I could use it as a RTTY and morse code interface. That opened my eyes to computers and began what would turn into a profession in 1984. Been fooling with puters ever since. Started in the retail end of the business with Microage Computers and went to the consumer end of the business in 1988 when I went to work for the bank.

Got involved with cameras again 2 years ago when I bought my first digital. This led to photoshop and that's where I am now. Hope one day to earn a small income at home with photo restoration. Right now I can only dedicate what time I have left at the end of the day, unless I get called out.

I have enjoyed my experiences here a very much. You guys have taught me a lot but I have a long way to go yet. Hope I haven't bored you to tears.

Kevin Beatty

Hi Kevin.
My name is Phil and I have you beat by some years in marrage and Life. Welcome aboard.

All I can say is I joined a year ago and no knowledge of photoshop other then to color correct photos, I made bad attempts at restoration and retouching. Now the good part, you will meet on this forum people like Danny, Phyliss, CJ, That Girl,Chuck, Visual eyes, looker, Trine, Wanda and a whole lot of great people who will gently critisize your work and guide you with new tricks to use and you will get addicted to the people and the challanges. You will not want to go on the road. The main thing here is have fun and learn. BY the way in the begining you are going to say I dont belong here some of these guys are to great and all of a sudden your work starts to improve because of them.

You are going to love this forum.
If I spell anything wrong its my typing my fingers do not do what I tell them all the time.

Hi Phill, thanks for the warm welcome. I already do love this forum and have met many of the persons you mentioned. I have been impressed with the knowledge that abounds here. I look forward to meeting more of the users here.

By the way my hands sometimes have a mind of their own too.

Hey Kevin:

Nice getting to know you a little better. I've appreciated many of your insightful posts (mostly in the hardware forum). Nice to have someone with your tech skills and experience to help troubleshoot and/or share what's up with printers, servers and all that sort of stuff in the hardware world.

I discovered Photoshop about the time you did and, like you, am having a blast.

Oh yeah: It was a pic of your dog that Jak used in the Photo-art forum. Great pic to have fun with.

~DannyR~

Hi Danny, thanks for your comments. Maybe some day I will be able to offer advice in some of the other forums.

There is no shortage of pictures of Heidi here. No grandchildren yet so I have to take pictures of something.

Hi all.

Been looking at these forums for a week or so and, as some of you will have noticed, I have now posted a couple of my pictures in the gallery. Well, I thought I'd better introduce myself :)

I live in Portsmouth (South coast UK) and I work for the Ministry of Defence as an IT Support Engineer. I've been married for just over three years and still enjoying life!

I've played with photoshop a few times, but only recently got into using it seriously and loving it. I'm hoping to pick up loads of tips and tricks for the various packages you guys use to help me improve my pictures. I have a couple of images that I may need help with in the future . . .

In the meantime, thanks for a great site and I look forward to getting to know you all at least a little better :D

Collin:

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Glad you found us and took a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself. It's always nice to add some international flavour to the mix!

You've probably already noticed how many nice folks there are who participate in the forums, ready and willing to lend a hand.

Again, welecome.

~DannyR~

Welcome Colin,

Just looked at your web site- oh mini's I love them. I had to sell mine last year as it had become a reservoir! I had to bale out for half an hour or get covered in water! I still have very fond memories and would love to own another for fun when I can afford it, and have a garage it put it in.

Clare

Hi Collin!

Welcome to wonderful RP...from another member this (your) side of the Pond! :)

Just a word of warning...You are entering a Danger Zone ..... ;)....Addiction to Photoshop, (or whatever other image elaboration program is your drug of choice), is very wide spread in all RP areas.....and you might soon become contaminated....there is no known cure or antidote for it....I know because it happened to me....and I loved and love every single moment of it!!!!! :D

I really do hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

P.S. Help, tips, tricks, and great tutorials are a side effect of the contamination....You'll find them, mostly, in two forms: scattered all over particularly assigned zones...or neatly collected in their own special habitat...

Welcome aboard Collin
It is good to see another member from the Old Country, though I now live in Australia, was born in Portsmouth, and my siblings still live there. It has changed enourmously since I left. Hope to see more of you.
Nick

Hi everyone,

My name is Rosemary, but Im Rose to my friends.

A friend gave me the address to this site today as I have just been given a digital camera for christmas (so ok .. I got it early!) and I was looking for sites on how to use photoshop to enhance my images.

One of my other interests is family history, my husband and I have been researching his family for several years, and we have many old photographs, some in really bad repair. Needless to say I found your section on restoration facinating. I cant wait to give it a try.

I popped in to take a quick look and ended up spending about 3 hours looking around the site. The restoration challenges taking up most of that time. I am a definately a beginner, but I really am interested in learning the techniques needed to do this sort of work, though I am not sure I will be confident enough to enter the challenges to start with:tongue:

I live in Tasmania, Australia, I am 47 years old and in the last 4 or 5 years have started a new career as a web page designer. I am finally beginning to make more than a little pocket money from it, which pleases my husband no end! All those hours sitting at the computer paid off!! I have a 19 year old daughter and a mongrel called sam.

I look forward to learning from you all, and hope I can eventually contribute.

Rose .. tassie

Tassie

Welcome! I'm sure you'll find it as amazing here as I have (and still do!). You gotta be careful though . . . . this site is addictive!!!

I worked out that in about two weeks I've spent something stupid like 19 hours surfing this site alone and trying to do some of challenges.

A mongrel called sam? Is that really any way to speak of the love of your life :D Just kidding!

Collin

~lol~ .. sam is the dog... the other mongrel is my husband !!

not really ..Im just kidding too

thanks for the welcome!!

Hey Rose, Welcome to RetouchPro (from another major addict :D *sigh* it's 3am here and I still can't make myself leave here.. )
Re challenges: hey, no need to feel insecure about submitting your work, we love to see anything you come up with!!

- David :)

Thanks for the welcome dave, I already have enough addictions, do I really need another!! ~lol~ .. oh well .. looks like I might have just aquired another.

Looks like everyone here is helpful and friendly, over the Christmas break when work is a little quieter and I have finished cooking for the hoards, I just might have a go at one of the easier challenges. As I said, I am a complete newbie when it comes to restoration work .

Rose

Hey, Rose:

Let me add my welcome. So you got that dig camera as an early present, huh? Was that for being naughty, nice or both? :)

Your first experience at RetouchPRO reminded me of mine... just popped in and the first thing I knew it was several hours later. There's just a huge amount of good info.

You'll fit right in... The people are nice and we especially enjoy helping each other regardless of experience level. There are always new questions and things to learn.

Again, welcome. Glad you found us.

~DannyR~

Hi! Rose
Welcome aboard, from another Aussie :) . Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year
Nick

Hey Danny and Nick

thanks for the welcome!

I hope you both have a great Christmas and a safe and happy new years.

Nick, Ive been keeping my eye out for other aussies... thanks for the welcome!.

Rose

Oh .. and Danny .. Im not telling if I got the camera for being naughty or nice!!

Welcome aboard Rose. The kind folks on this site are really gems. I hope you will find as I have that they are warm, friendly and very helpful.

Do digital cameras work that far below the equator?

~poking my tongue out at Kevin~ ... thanks for the welcome! ... I think ~lol~

So far .. most of the people I have met here are very nice ~looking askance at you~ .... just joking .. I can take a joke, they make us Aussies tough you know!

I am really looking forward to getting into some restoration work, I just tidied up an old photograph for my aunt for Christmas, and its given me the bug. I certainly didnt do as good a job with it as the challenges I have seen here.

Rose

I know what you mean about getting the bug. It seems the more I do, the more I want to do. I've come here with many problems over the past month or so and they always come through for me with exactly the right help. Hopefully soon I will get good enough to contribute. I know I have grown a lot since comming here.

DesertFoxx AKA Dave Gunderson here. I'm 50 yrs old, Married, and have two Poodles.

What can I say? I'm a rookie [or feel like one] with PS 6.0 . I'm a technical minded person. I've been working on Computer Systems since the mid '70s. Actually, a multitude of Systems. Computers, Communications and Control. I'm both a Ham [KB7ZZV] and commercially rated in Comm systems. My job[s] over the years have taken all over the USA and Europe.

My hobbies? Ham Radio, although I am not too active since I've discovered the Internet. I mostly tinker on stuff around the house. I've built -many- computers over the last 10 years. My kids get the castoffs... As I said, the Internet is a hobby that I got involved in [much like all of you]. I find it the perfect medium to exchange ideas and meet like minded people. I also have found it to be an area to be creative. Sometime back -- I figured if a 10 year old kid can make a website -- I could make a website. My latest creation focuses on the wife's Poodle (http://www.redpoodle.com/ginger) . I have a
family (http://www.citlink.net/~ginger2001/dave) site as well. Too bad I can't master the content aspect of building a good site.

Living in a small town [Lake Havasu City, AZ] presents somewhat of a problem in Learning things... My web building training being mostly self taught. Forums such as this one has been invaluable in my never-ending knowledge quest.

What brings me here? Mastering my Digital Camera. Picking up Photoshop tricks. Learning from you... I'll be listening mostly. I'll shut-up and sit-down now.

Dave

Welcome, Dave! (aka DesertFoxx)

Glad you found us and shared a bit about yourself. You and I have many things in common, I see. Technical background (programming, mainframe, mini, microcomputers), 50 years young, having a lot of fun with the net and learning the ins/outs of digital imaging.

Nice to have one with PC hardware background join us. With the ongoing changes in technology, having someone off of whom to bounce questions will be a real bonus. We'll be learning from YOU! :)

Again, welcome aboard.

~DannyR~

Welcome aboard Dave! Wow there seems to be a lot of us around here that are the same age. We share the same interests also. I'm a HAM, KA5PFB, but haven't key'd a mike in several years. I had to choose which of the expensive hobbies I would like to remain active in and Ham Radio lost. Actually it was Ham Radio that introduced me to computers back in 81. Bought a Commadore Vic-20 so I could do RTTY. That's all it took, started as a professional in IT in 84. Nice to have another tinkerer around.

Hello , just discovered this great site tonight. Just time to say hello (5.24am), and i'll look forward to a longer visit next time. Posted a couple of images in the Gallery, hope someone likes them :wavey:

Welcome to RetouchPro Murray! I love your gallery images...especially the "Red Baron". :)

Murray,
Welcome to Retouch Pro. I saw your gallery shots and they're excellent. I really liked the one on the bicyle. I thought you colored that one so good it looked like it was taken as a colored image. Awesome job!! Look forward to hearing more from you once you've had a good nights sleep. :D
DJ

Hi Murray, welcome :)

Welcome to RP Murray. I didn't get a chance to see your images yet, but I think you'll like it here, whether you're into art or restorations.

Ed

Thanks for the welcomes, it's a fascinating website, and thank's to everyone that's had a look at my pics and the feedback, this is the first chance i've had to show them to anyone who does Image Manipulation/resoration. *[ Added a larger pic of the Red Baron to Gallery ]
Cheers
Murray
:dizzy:

Welcome Murray,

Nice images. I hope to see more in the future. :)

hello all - just discovered this forum
seems to be agreat place..where have i been???

cheers
heathrowe

And "Howdy" back to you.....Heathrowe

A great place to keep warm, & cozy on these long Winter nites..having fun and learning at the same time. A bit of something for everyone & lots of sharing.....

Welcome.... :)

Welcome aboard Heathrowe. Kick your shoes off, grab a drink, and enjoy. This site has quite a few nooks and crannies that take time to discover. :)

Ed

Hello to All,

My name is Jenny and I currently live in Brisbane, QLD in Australia. I am originally from the Pacific Northwest.

I discovered this online community about three weeks ago when looking for information on how to colourise black a