A fast howdy and thanks for the wonderful resource

[brecklundin]

I lurk now and then but really have not had a lot of time to devote to learning editing unless it's on the fly. And over the last year and a half have pretty much only used LR2.x and now LR3 for photo edits since I don't generally do anything interesting. Still I want to learn more about PS, and LR as well, but now that I get a lot more of the mindset of using layers as the real key to getting the most out of PS, I hope I can get more out of the info here.

And really, thanks to all the great info I have read so far...can't wait to have the cash and TIME for videos too. I do a fair amount of product shooting both for fun and business so things like working on jewelry shots is really of interest to me...a person can only go so far using the by-golly-or-by-gosh method of retouching shots.

Oh, I have tried skin retouching and, well, let's just say my results were less than....errrr...ummmm....flattering.

I have a sort of off the wall sense of humor so I hope if I ever befuddle or it comes across wrongly that the person lets me know so I can explin or fix whatever I might have written...and while this is a hobby for me and I tend to seem a bit cavalier even in my regular work, I am actually pretty serious I just have a hard time when someone takes themselves to seriously...but in my doddering years I realize, finally, that it's no different than me having a more relaxed outward demenor about whatever I am doing at that microsecond...

Otherwise, I expect to do a fair amount of just lurk mode for a while because there is so much info that almost all of my questions have an answer already. But I feel safe enough to ask a "dumb" question now after using the software for a while as well as that I really LOVE LR3 because it really is made for "the rest of us" while we learn to do the complicated & detailed edits in PS...and I might even stick in a joke or two...I'm pretty good at making sure it does come across as a true attempt at being light hearted...after all we all have enough to deal with everyday that is stressful and frustrating, places like here should help release that stress and anxiety not add to it...

Otherwise I love my photo hobby, used to be an IT director for an E&R 500 corp, owned my own network design & troubleshooting company and of course wore all the hats is the IT dept over the years, even as a developer. My other interests are antiques (family business and personal fun of researching pieces), baseball and reading (love ebooks a ton).

Ok...that's enough BS about me...so, just howdy....and again, thanks to everyone who has helped build such a great research tool as well as place to just chat about image/graphics editing. Oh, I am NOT artistic at all...a buddy's wife tagged me as being "ahhhhhh-tistic" as in "....ahhhhh, at least you tried..."

[mistermonday]

Breck, Welcome to RetouchPro and thanks for the great intro. Feel free to dive right in and enjoy you visits here.
Regards, Murray

[brecklundin]

Hi Murray,

thanks for the warm welcome...I really do like the feel of the "community" here...nice, friendly and casual as well as very diverse which I feel helps keep things interesting. And thanks for the encouragement to post!

BTW, here is a funny story behind my avatar...see I have a friend who is a PS graphic artist and she does wonderful work, really top notch stuff. Well, one day I was feeling silly and "complemented" her on her work by telling her that she "....does pretty good work for.....a girl..." Sigh, you would think I would have known better, anyway she dug up a head shot of me and gave me a quick Minnie Pearl make-over...hehehehe...I ran across a site that let me create the avatar using the image on the cover of the comic book which seemed to work considering the picture!! I dunno the moral of the story but I do know i still laugh about it after about 10-years...