Salon - - Operation Photo Rescue

skipc · #1 02-03-2006, 10:27 AM

This looks like something where forum members could make a valuable contribution. My intial thought was "how does this effect the incomes of retouchers woking in the area, and whom are equally effected". Your thoughts..skip The article [1] and the blog [2]

[1] http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...nter_friendly#

[2] http://web.mac.com/fiftyeggs60/iWeb/Site

videosean · #2 02-18-2006, 01:47 PM

One of the things I asked OPR was what they were giving once the restorations were complete. Just an inkjet print

Sure it's on good paper and they're using archival inks, but the customer walks away with something that is (hopefully) a replacement for their damaged photo. Anytime someone pays me to do work I'll give them a CD with whatever they want and more on it. If they want prints I'll have them printed on a Fuji Frontier up to 10x14. I'm also likely to keep a copy of the files archived indefinitely because I'm a bit of a pack rat.

I have 2 friends locally that are capable of doing this kind of work and I told them about OPR too. They both responded with "I don't work for free" basically. That's fine by me.

It's a dog eat dog world. The internet is changing things. It's a race to the bottom. There are people around the world who can and will work cheaper. What's that going to do to the income of local digital artists? Imagine having a restoration business where all you do is digitize hi-res images and then email them off to to someone in a foreign country to be retouched at a rate 1/2 or less of what you would charge to do the work yourself. I think OPR has proved it's more than possible to do this but there's a tremendous amount of risk involved for the person who's going to be dealing with the customers face to face since they're outsourcing everything, no?

On an unrelated note... the nearest MediaPlay to me closed it's doors a few weeks ago. Oh wait... that IS relative to this I think

It's all about competition. If you can offer something the competition can't or won't then you might just be okay in the long run and maybe you'll still be around in 10 years.

JMO

Skyarcher · #3 02-18-2006, 02:13 PM

So, people shouldn't help OPR out, because they aren't getting paid?

Not sure I understand correctly.

Cameraken · #4 02-18-2006, 03:00 PM

Have you seen this thread

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-retouching/12742-all-retouchers.html

Ken

videosean · #5 02-18-2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

So, people shouldn't help OPR out, because they aren't getting paid?

That wasn't my stance but I can understand people thinking that way. I was sent one of the ultra hard ones and almost regretted signing up. I don't think anyone does anything that doesn't benefit them in some way. I saw it as a challenge, something that might help me improve my skills, etc. It's not money but it was something I saw as beneficial to me just the same. The idea that I was helping someone in a bad situation didn't hurt but it probably wasn't the main thing that made me want to do it.

I don't think it's too far off the point to compare it to what's happening with the music/CD industry. I find the media play thing ironic in a way because at one time they were hurting the small record stores and now there's something bigger hurting them (the internet perhaps) because they aren't able to give the customer what they want. So the customer stops going there. I don't know specifically what it is but it is at the root of the whole thing - give people what they want and they'll come back for more. Seems logical to me anyway. Maybe if media play could have found a way to make the internet benefit them at the store level they'd still be in business. Imagine being able to go into a store and make your own CD using any songs you wanted downloaded from their network. The reason you can't do that is out of the store's control, but it's something I thought would happen someday and it hasn't really. Why hasn't it? Maybe because there's someone at the top of the distribution chain who makes alot of money selling things packaged a certain way and won't do it any other way. That's fine until someone comes along who isn't going to play by the same rules as you do.

Is OPR going to hurt local artists? Most likely. What's to stop someone from taking the OPR model and moving into your area and turning it into a business? Not much. Once something like that hits home you'll need to figure out how to compete with it if this stuff is your main source of income. I'm not looking to change anyone's opinion... which is why when someone says to me 'I don't work for free' I just leave it at that and respect their opinion. I have NO problem doing something for free if it still benefits me in another way. Did I just hurt my friends by doing that? Probably. Does that mean I don't like them? No.

I don't know a whole lot about anything in particular but OPR's done something that hasn't really been done before that I know of and it looks to me like it was a success. I could be wrong...

Skyarcher · #6 02-19-2006, 04:30 PM

Thanks Ken, I had not seen the thread.

Videosean - I wasn't directing the question at you specifically.

My question was more a generic one to anyone that would answer. So I thank you for giving your thoughts.

I was just wondering out loud really.

I've been a volunteer with them since the day the original story came out in the newspaper. I do it for personal reasons.. because I've been in that situation. Where literally the only things we had left after a hurricane were the scraps of pictures, torn and tattered, and they were very precious.

Am glad to see that the other group I belong to aren't the only large group with members that care.