What skill level needed?

[Doug Nelson]

We all know learning retouching and restoration can be hard. But how hard is it? Which of these items comes closest to matching the skill and knowledge needed for retouching and restoration?

[Ed_L]

I wasn't sure if you wanted replies to this thread or not. If you did, I'll just say that I've been trying to cook for 40 years, and the dogs still won't eat it! But - I think I could learn Japanese if I have enough years left, so that's my choice.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

I guess we think alike Ed. Sionara
DJ

[T Paul]

I chose police training, because only a few decide to do it. It is also a service that people want especially when they are in dire need. But most importantly although you can be trained to do the job, it’s the ones that have the natural talent that survive the longest! *grins*

[airubin]

I think that cooking and R&R require a very similar temperament. Both require patience and a desire to experiment. One must follow certain rules and develop the required skills, but there is unlimited opportunity to experiment.

[vogonpoet]

brain surgery.. attention to detail, steady hands, and knowledge.

in a nutshell ~Vp~

[thomasgeorge]

Rocket Science--Part physics,part mathematics, ever evolving, exlposively fun. Tom

[chris h]

You didn't put in witchcraft as an option and with brain surgery you can kill the patient, suppose you could be killed by the Customer !!!!

I'll have to go with with cookery as my results rarely conform to the supposed recipe.

[Chris W.]

Well I went with gardening.

A little research, patience, and of course tender loving care and you will have a beauty.

Now if you just throw it in the ground or in this case up on the screen and just mess with it a minute or two chances are you'll have a sad looking thing staring back at you.

I just keep telling myself, patience is a virtue....and I'm feeling very virtuous..LOL.

[John Philip]

Hair Styling! most definitely.

You can never stop learning new creative solutions to make something look good.

... and there is so much opinion involved.

Its the unnoticed attention to detail that differentiates good from bad.

fickle?

[Vikki]

Amazing. Just yesterday I was having a discussion about this very topic.

I compared it to "woodworking". It takes a lot of patience, attention to detail, practice, and the proper tools. And if you can throw in some artistic talent, even better!

[FrannyMae]

I've never really thought about it, but I think the learning curve with R&R is similar to a foreign language. When you start out you are pleased as punch when you can utter a few phrases. Before long you think you're doing great because you can carry on a simple conversation. But then you realize it will be a very long time before you are anywhere approaching fluent! So you keep practicing and try to learn from the masters...sound familiar?

[ajcutler]

I'd have to agree with Vikki about wood working. First you learn some basic skills with basic tools, and your work is pretty basic. Then you gain experience, read some books, learn from others, and then you are able to use more tools, and with a lot of practice you are producing much nicer work.

[Neve]

Being tone deaf and learning to play the bagpipes.

Seriously though, I heartily agree with Vikki, she put it perfectly.

[Robt]

I like playing with images almost as much as cooking and I think R+R vs. Cooking a great match. Both require a certian amount of knowlege but both are forgiving and not at times.

In cooking there are who knows how many different ways to get to the more or less same place. Same with R+R.

If you pick the wrong choice it leaves a bad taste in your mouth in both.

But, If you make the wrong choice in R+R, you don't have to go out to eat.

[PixiePirate]

Nobody has yet mentioned stamp/coin collecting!

Seriously, I also say its akin to cooking. Cooking is something that anyone can be taught the basics of just like R&R. But it takes more than just technical knowlege to make a great meal or a great R&R-I feel it also takes someone with patience, instinct, and intuition and most importantly the guts to experiment!

R&R is much like making chili-sometimes you make a pot of WOW! and sometimes you just wish you had never opened that first can of beans.......

[Izku]

I think that all those ithems are very close to matching the skill needed for R&R
1. cooking - to make nice retouching good taste is needed
2. hairstyling - sometimes you have cut
3. sewing - sometimes you have to paste
4. cosmetology - when you retouch acne in face in the portrait
5. gardening- for nice colors composition
6. police training - to catch right software, interrogate, to keep it after or let it go if not important
7. computer programing - you have to know heart of your computer to make it beats right for you
8. sleeping - after 10 hours of R&R you are sleeping even if eyes are open
9. brain surgery - this is precision you need for work you do and for way you eat japanese food upon a keyboard
10. learning Japanese it's exactly what you do after , you're looking at empty sushi box and while you are waiting for a sign from heaven you read jookimiiiizuuurrriiiii kimmmoooooniii
11. rocket science come after you read nice work contract
12. and at the end comes coin colecting

[MaryLynn]

I chose sewing because of the attention to detail necessary in construction of a finished product. Thanks for helping me make that correlation. I've been struggling with layers to the point of abandoning them all together. If I approach them with the same mindset as I do sewing or other needlework, I may be able to make more sense of them.

[MrChevy]

For me, I would say cooking does it... just about exactly. Take just one item (a steak or a photo). Now, how many ways can we fix a steak to eat? 1? 2? 20? a thousand? How many ways can we fix a photo? 1? 2? a thousand? Ahhh yes.
What does the steak need? Some of this spice, some of that, this temperature, that sauce etc.
What does the photo need that needs restored, retouched? A little cloning, a little healing, a little cropping maybe, some lighting, some smoothing.

Turns out about the same, whip up a nice steak (or whatever you are cooking) and WOW, does that look/taste great!

Do a nice job on a photo and WOW, is everyone happy now!

Ken

[twinkissed]

Wow these posts are so old but someone must have just voted in it. What the heck I will too. I would say cooking definately... So many different foods (photo damage), so many ways to cook them (different methods), and while you may think the dish is great (final product), the person eating it may have a completely different taste (client preference in retouching style, smoothness, darkness, etc.)

[Jim Conway]

Tom said it all!

[cardmnal]

I went with sleeping since it was the only option on the list I am intimately familiar with and both can be interupted by the kids, the dog, and the phone.

[blue dog]

Funny you should ask, I began the professional phase of my life as a computer programmer and ended up being a rocket scientist! That's all analysis and logic with lots of wrong answers and only a few correct ones. R&R is nothing like that! For me, anyway, computer skills are easy. Developing something that is visually pleasing and tastefully done requires an artistic eye and a light touch. These are the things that attract me to R&R as an alternative career, the things that I struggle with the most, and the things that ultimately bring the most satisfaction.


I'd go with wood working like Vikki suggested.