Where to start

[Gorgieboy]

Hi I'm a total novice to all this retouch/restoration stuff can anyone advise on where to start, A lot of the pics in the challange area look far to hard to start with. Any help would be great, Cheers in advance.

Gorgieboy

[CJ Swartz]

Welcome to RetouchPro, Gorgieboy!

You could start by telling us what program (s) you have, whether you have learned the basic functions of the program yet, what led you to think about retouching/restoring photos (some folks have a bunch of family photos they want/need to work on, some folks like the artistic aspect of it, others want to learn what their programs can do, etc.).

That might help someone suggest something to start with here -- there's ton's of stuff here and a lot of it you haven't even had a chance to see yet, so there's bound to be something that would be suitable.

[Gorgieboy]

I am using photoshop cs2, still learning the basics. I am intrested in restoration/retouch because I think it is so amazing how old photos can be brought back to life and would like to learn more on how its done.

[DWThomp]

Originally Posted by Gorgieboy

I am using photoshop cs2, still learning the basics. I am intrested in restoration/retouch because I think it is so amazing how old photos can be brought back to life and would like to learn more on how its done.

I'd recommend reading Katrin Eismann's "Photoshop Restoration & Retouching". The 3rd edition is for CS2.

Dennis

[CJ Swartz]

Lots of the members here would second Dennis's recommendation about Katrin Eismann's book(s) -- she has a website where you can download some of the photos from each chapter and work on them as you read her explanations -- very helpful also. http://www.digitalretouch.org/

Right now, you could take a look at some of the tutorials here on this website --
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/

I think you might find some things of help and of interest to get you started. Just remember -- if you have a question about something (a tutorial, a technique, how to get around the website) -- just ask. Everyone started out new, and most folks here are friendly to anyone who's honestly trying to learn to improve their skills.