Professional, Amateur, Hobbyist?

[hizaam]

I'm a hobbyiest, avid filtermonkey, and amateur photographer (I have a canon G3 and I know where the shutter button is).

If I had good hand-mindseye coordination I might not need my plugins

[gyrgrls]

Originally posted by Ant
RE: Retouchers

Just trying to figure out who's who and what's what here at RP as I only found the site about an hour ago.

Where would you put yourself?

Is there really a difference between amateur and hobbyist?

[Vikki]

To me, an amateur is someone who is new to this, a hobbyist may have been doing this for years, but doesn't make a living or career out of it.
Someone could actually be both.

[gyrgrls]

Originally posted by Vikki
To me, an amateur is someone who is new to this, a hobbyist may have been doing this for years, but doesn't make a living or career out of it.
Someone could actually be both.

Hmmm,

I would tend to think:

Novice = 'new', or 'less experienced',

as opposed to:

Amateur = 'one who does [it] for enjoyment',
rather than specifically for gainful income.

A personal analogy:
I used to be a professional mechanic.
Now, I am just an amateur, because
I no longer work full time at it nor do
I make sunstantial income from either field
(my two main professional fields were
electronics
and major appliance repair).

Therefore, "Expert", as opposed to "Novice",
has little relative bearing on "amateur", as opposed
to "professional", in this context.
Many serious amateurs have little chance to
turn pro, because they are caught in their ruts
(the nine-to-five kinds).

A final analogy of this comparison is:
Take your car to a real expert, and get it fixed
[right] the first time. On the othe hand, take it
to a "pro", and it's likely to be done wrong.
Sadly, there is a lot of "professional incompetance"
out there - -
(no oxymoron is intended or implied here).
Furthermore, I am not implying that any backyard
mechanic is just as good as a certified professional.
You have to take the bitter with the sweet -- or,
in other words, you can't toss out the baby with
the bath water.

[Vikki]

Hmmmm.. "novice" I agree with.
Your analogy reminds me of photographers, but this is how I'm thinking...

I've been doing this for years, and only in the past few years have been doing it as a profession, yet I didn't consider myself an amateur, although I did consider it a hobby.

Speaking of mechanics, I needed both my front and back brakes done. I took it to the dealership for the front, and a friend who has his own business for the back. Both front and back were squealing like they never had been fixed. Now I have to go back to both places.

[winwintoo]

Hmmmm!!

Does it really matter.

When I first saw this survey, I assumed the author was asking what I consider myself to be - not what others think I am.

Margaret

[CourtneyConk.Co]

The esential difference can be summarized as follows; an amateur takes pictures, while a professional makes pictures.

[grafx]

I have no idea what to even call myself. I am a graphic designer first off (the "day-job"), but I have always done digital manipulation and retouch. Two years ago, I was asked to do a pageant retouch. Word spread, and now I do a whole bunch of pageant retouches, some regular retouches, digital art (putting people in fantasy settings), and now restorations. I don't know if I'm hi-end or low-end. I average about $35/hr.

[midnitejam]

I'm a once-upon-a-time photography enthusiast who cooled down after my children grew up. Grandchildren and the age of digital has rekindled my enthusiasm. In photo shop, I achieve in 20 minutes what once took an entire Saturday afternoon in my darkroom. I've recently purchased my second digital camera--moved up to an SLR Digital. Just can't describe the "feeling of accomplishment" derived from this hobby.

Good luck and happy shooting
MNJ

[Blues_X]

I'm an amateur, very much wanting to go pro.

I've had a just a bit of photographic experience (shot and developed b&w photos for junior-high school newspaper, and did a science fair project on photographic special effects). But since that time it's just been personal photos.

I've kept myself busy by posting entries in the photoshop contests at www.fark.com. They are much more irreverent and fun-oriented (as opposed to going for quality as with a serious restoration job) and I use many of the same techniques I would use on important work. I've become pretty good at head-swaps and matching skin tones. I think my enjoyment of this comes from seeing things like faked photos on the Weekly World News and Nat'l Enquirer covers.

I've reached a point in my photoshop skills that I cannot find any photoshop or digital imaging courses/programs around here where I do not already know over half the course content. I checked into a 4000 level Photoshop course in our Fine Arts college, and the instructor told me that I knew more about this than she did. I looked into a digital imaging program at the Oklahoma School of Photography, and it looked like I've already covered 95% of the course topics on my own.

So I'm just trying to find out what steps I need to take to increase my skills and confidence so I can try to make a living at this.



Lance

[midnitejam]

Originally Posted by Blues_X

I'm an amateur, very much wanting to go pro.

it looked like I've already covered 95% of the course topics on my own.

So I'm just trying to find out what steps I need to take to increase my skills and confidence so I can try to make a living at this.

Lance

Blues_X,
The Course Titles may seem to be similar, but there are so may different methods to arrive at the same result in PhotoShop, that I garuantee you will find different approaches and techinques enlightening.

I usually apply seveal different techniques to the same project just to compare the end results. Rarely do two different approaches to accomplish the same goal render the same result

If it's certification you're after, take the courses. If it's your horizons that you wish to broaden, take the courses (all of them). If you have a deeper well of resources and techniques to choose from, you'll be able to mix-and-match to achieve a finer degree of finesse.

Good luck.
MNJ

[DavidC]

I'm new to this forum and an amateur (I don't make money from what I do - wish I could...). I am not sure exactly what I do is called, but this is what it looks like...
www.davidcolepictures.co.uk

David

[tom ingrassia]

Part time professional photographer who shoots digitally and uses photoshop CS for retouching

[FrannyMae]

I am a self-taught Photoshop hack! My brother introduced me to the power of PS a couple of years ago, and I recently decided to get serious learning the program. This site has been a wonderful way to learn and share with some exceptional people!

"Photoshopping" is a wonderful creative outlet for me. My day job is as far away from the arts as you can get...I'm a 9-1-1 operator/dispatcher for a municipal police department. Even the term "day job" is a misnomer, as I work the midnight shift.

There may come a time when I consider myself something other than a hobbyist, but in the meantime I am having a wonderful time learning!

[mdavis]

Both amateur photo enthusiast and professional. I am a forensic chemist working in a crime lab with a specialty in latent fingerprints, shoeprints, tire tracks, check forgeries and such.

My work related photography prevents ANY so-called retouching because evidence cannot be "manipulated" other than to "enhance" (the usual contrast, brightness, etc. available in a wet darkroom). In addition, I do some extreme enhancement work in eliminating distracting colors or background patterns to better visualize some of the images.

SO, I love to get home and switch to my hobby hat so I can do whatever I like with my photos.