Professional, Amateur, Hobbyist?

[Neve]

I've just voted Enthusiast/Hobbyist as this is certainly true to date however changes are in the wind I hope. I took early retirement due to my husband's poor health at the time a few years ago and am self-taught re PC, Internet, graphic design using PSP3 shareware version through to 8.01. The past few years have been fulfilling, challenging and always enjoyable. With encouragement from family and friends I'm now trying to venture, on a part-time basis, into photo restoration etc. I'm a long way off from feeling confident about it but certainly I'll give it my best shot. I've designed and printed my own bus cards, also an A4 sized ad which local (friends) shopkeepers have offered to display. Fortunately I already have my own website and have now incorporated a new section into it advertising for restoration work. I decided definitely not to tackle my own printing and have been trialing other sources instead.

I'm very grateful to this site and all contributors far more than I can say.

[andrea31419]

Hi, I'm also new to this site and ametuer. Dabbling in photography with touchups and digital art, mostly of kids and youth sports. Working on starting a part-time business, but I'm now in the process of getting a website put together along with brochures etc...

I've got a website I've done of for our scuba club www.savannahscuba.net, but now am venturing to topside photography, but still working on my underwater photography.

Andrea
Sav.GA.

[Mark Adams]

Okay, here you go -- once again you will have the opportunity to learn more about me than you ever wanted. Feel free to not read any more than you want to read.

I quit playing football my senior year in HS. I committed to playing because it was fun. It stopped being fun, I stopped playing. Besides I was an aspiring musician (HA!) and had plenty of other stuff to do. Of course this left me with my last class period (formerly Athletics) open. I wound up a photographer on the Annual Staff. We had cameras, a darkroom, chemicals, the whole nine yeards. I really enjoyed it.

Photography was something of an artistic outlet for me. Now, I have always had problems just writing my name, so drawing/painting was out of the question. But I had a girlfriend for several years whose mother was a serious artist (painter mostly). We would talk about her work as it progressed and it seemed really interesting. Photography allowed me to do some of the things she was doing; photography was an artful endeavor for somone who can't draw.

I saved my money and bought a Pentax ME Super and some lenses, along with a lot of other equipment and squeezed a couple of photo classes around my music curriculuum in college and really enjoyed them. I then started working, took up golf and let photog. fall by the wayside. Later, I got a computer for wordprocessing in grad. school and started learning a lot about computers.

Now I have kids and take really bad 35mm pics of them. My endeavors with R&R mostly involve trying to improve my seriously rusty skills with a camera. But I've also learned that I can create seriously cool looking stuff with this software! It's exciting. I guess that makes me an "enthusiast".

[v.bampton]

Oh, it's interesting reading about how everyone spends their time. It's lovely to see so many people doing retouching and restoration for the fun of it.

I'm fortunate enough to work all day every day using Photoshop (CS), doing something that I love! We have a photographic studio (family business) doing mainly weddings and portraits, and I've spent the last 5 years bringing the business into the digital arena. We finally went fully digital in January, which has tripled my workload. I now spend most of my time doing all the processing on all the digital files, as well as the retouching and more detailed manipulation. Restorations are a bit of light relief!

I wish there was more Photoshop training at a pro level in the UK. There's an odd few seminars around, but they cover familiar stuff. Some decent training courses would be a major bonus. Many pro photographers went digital, and are now reverting to film, because they just don't have the training to be able to do it properly, and don't want to spend their time sat behind a PC screen.

[camexpatu]

Hi all.

I worked at photopages for 2 years. ( The NZ firm that restores for walgreens ).

I restored photos there for over a year at a rate of about 15 images a day
( what the company required to be profitable ), and was promoted to a supervisor / trainer / quality control role.

I was made redundant from my supervisor role about 6 months ago, as they decided to try and automate the work that I did to cut costs.

I found this site when I was searching for photo restoration companies, as I am thinking about setting up my own business and doing it properly.

[Jenni]

Just found this board, I call myself a hobbiest at the moment. In January I am hoping to get back to school and have been looking into web graphics. I love taking photos and I love fixing them and changing them in photoshop. I have never been paid for my work, but my favorite thing to do is restoration. I have a picture from the late 30's of my father, I restored it (not as well as some I've seen on here) but it looks so much better than it did! As soon as I can I will post it in the gallery to get some fellow members opinons!

[Janet Petty]

Welcome Jenni. Nice to have you around. I hope you enjoy this site and the hard work the moderators and "janitor" put into it. Of course, it is enhanced by the wonderful work/playing around the rest of us do. It is a wonderful place to meet and greet others with the same photo passions.

Janet

[jayk2]

I'm a professional photographer that's just started taking interest in color correcting my photos. It's CRAZY at how difficult this is! for a while I was happy to just give them stuff right off the camera onto a cd, now I want to make sure it's acurate and I spend more time in ps then I do shooting them!

But I enjoy it. Never in a million years did I think I'd be able to work my way around photoshop, now I'm pretty good at it!

[Jin]

Hi,

I checked Professional because I teach Corel Painter classes, though before retiring I worked as an illustrator, graphic artist, and technical writer.

I use both Photoshop and Painter, but Painter's my love. I use almost all of Painter's features in all kinds of ways, including an occasional bit of photo or image retouching, enhancement, manipulation, and collage.

If you don't know what it is, Corel Painter is a Natural Media® software most well known for it's advanced brush technology. It provides drawing and painting tools that simullate traditional media oils, watercolor, chalk, charcoal, pastels, pens, pencils, and more.

Among it's favorites, Painter IX includes the new Artist's Oils brushes and greatly improved Digital Watercolors, just lovely to use. Earlier versions (as well as Painter IX) also include Digital Watercolors, Liquid Ink, Impasto, and many other brush categories, too numerous to list here. A listing of all brush categories and brush variants included in Painter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, and Painter IX can be seen on the site linked below:

Atelier dddo

Corel Painter, among it's other capabilities, is used for fine art painting, image manipulation, web graphics, photo retouching, turning photos into paintings, animation, textures for 3D and other art, post rendering of 3D work, text treatments, mosaics, kaleidoscopes, and more.

So, I guess one could say I'm a professional mixed bag.

[bogart]

I'm a complete novice! Just starting to get involved with photography and retouching. Love the site!

[Lasse]

im on my way into the photographpy buisness. i shoot all kinds of stuff. i do some retouch, but havent done any restorrations jet.

But i also just found the site so ill ´proberply learn alot of restorrations.

/Lasse

[zip022]

After seeing this post I thought perhaps someone might give me advice. I live in a very small area that consists of tourists and families. We have an amazing 7 veterinary clinics and I would like to start a pet photography business. I want to only do painting; watercolor, impressionist etc. on a part time basis. Offer sittings, but also offer work to existing pictures. One of my best friends is the valleys best portrait photog...so it all looks possible for me. Any advice on fees, getting started, etc.

[swanseamale47]

I'm not a professional retoucher, but I am a pro photographer, and I'm getting more and more requests for retouching work, the usual things, uncle Georges wartime pic etc, etc.
I now find more of my time is being spent in the office on the PC, than actually shooting (not sure I like that?) it's reaching the point where I'm going to have to seriously consider reducing the number of weddings that we take on (I only have a small staff) to have the time to do all the post production, and retouching work. Wayne

[photony]

I'm a professional photographer, but get the control I want on my images via careful lighting and camera control, then the final work in Photoshop.

[www.retouch.ca]

Hi Gang:

I am new to this site, but I have been retouching for over 20 years. I guess I would be considered a 'high-end' retoucher. If anyone is interested in my work, feel free to have a look! Enjoy.

http://www.retouch.ca

Glenn

[winwintoo]

Yeh, well I had a look eh, and I could do that too eh

Not on your life. I have spent many happy hours doing things like removing a person from a photo or moving a window on the side of a house, but since I don't get paid for it, I kind of dropped it - you've reminded me that I should start doing it again just for the joy of doing it.

Wonderful work, Take care, Margaret

[mediacop]

Hi,

I've loved photography since I was 14 (I'm now 50) and am transitioning away from my day job (advertising) to move completely to portrait photography.

I have done a few jobs that produced signed wall-sized portraits and that is where I want to concentrate.

I'm first and last a photographer, but much of my work involves placing my subjects into backdrops or situations that call for extensive retouching. I truly enjoy that part and want to keep that with me.

Printing, mounting and framing, I farm out. I also sometimes hire freelance stylists for hair, makeup, and clothing when the situation calls for it.

I love this site and have gotten terrific advice here.

Best,

Larry

[terivon]

I know I know, several years later, and I'm just now posting AND am confused about hi-end, low-end. ::sigh::. I'm a tad slow.

I've been restoring photographs privately for a number of years now, and only went "Public" per say, after the Breck commercial effect kicked into high gear. The vast majority of my work involves vintage, antique/heirloom images. Usually 100+ years or older. Originally, I started as a consultant dating photographs for local heritage societies based on my knowledge of period clothing, backdrops, techniques, etc.

On a humorous note, Genealogy is a passion, and it got to the point where I couldn't walk into our local genealogy library without someone coming up to me and saying "aren't you that old photo lady?" Which, you know, as a Texan, you can take one of two ways

Photoshop was a tool for me initially, to clean off years of residue and contaminants, and take a look at what lay in wait under it, if anything. It evolved, photoshop evolved, and now.. here I am. I don't know if I'd be considered "hi-end", but my husband seems to think so!
Teri

[LeAnne]

Glenn / www.retouch.ca,

Your work is AMAZING. Your portfolio gives me something to aspire to! LOL

[Swampy]

I'm an "Other". I'm a professional, but true retouching is not in my portfolio although I've had to do some from time to time. Mostly manipulation, cleanup, color correction etc. are the work of the day and what pays the bills.

[1d2]

I am a professional photographer shooting RAW digital files on a Canon 10D and a 1D mark 2. I still shoot medium (6x4.5cm) and large format (4x5inch) film and scan the resulting slides or negatives on an Epson 4870 photo scanner. I use both Silverfast Ai and Vuescan scanning software.

All of my digital imaging is run through Adobe CS suite to prepare images for clients, web, pre-press and printing. I have some skills with PS and InDesign but they are all related either to photograph (re)production or pre-press layout and paste up.

I use a 3 stage sharpening workflow courtesy of Pixel Genius. I also use their PhotoKit and Photocolour software. They can be found at... http://www.pixelgenius.com/ and examples of their programs with test images can be found. they also have a good resources link here... http://www.pixelgenius.com/tipsandtechniques.html and you will see from the listed names that Pixel Genius is a collection of some of the planet's best known names in digital imaging circles.

I have used Convert to B&W pro from The Imaging Factory. However, I still prefer to use the Lab colour lightness channel technique of monochrome conversion. The Imaging Factory can be found here... http://www.theimagingfactory.com/ and you may find that they too are worth a visit.

Everything I use runs on a 17inch G4 1.33 Apple powerbook and 2GB of RAM with an external .5 TB firewire drive as the secondary scratch disk. All my images are archived to DVD. I use iView MediaPro to manage my image archives.

[Karyn]

Wow there is so much talent on this site!!

I am totally and Enthusiast/Hobbyist. We needed a new camera a few years ago, and my husband bought a digital. He is so sorry now . I fell in love with the thing. Someone told me to enter some pictures in the local Fall Fair, but being somewhat of a perfectionist, I needed help fixing a few things. I found this site - I'm hooked and now I spend far too much time checking things out. Most of the time I do retouching for family and friends. There is no money in that . My husband keeps telling me I need to put my new found love to use and make some money at it. (He is really very supportive of me, but he and my children also like dinner and clean laundry ) I think I need to learn to take better pictures in the first place, then I would not need to spend so much time fixing them.

Yeh!! Totally a Hobbyist.
Karyn

[creeduk]

GuessI don't know where to class myself. I use PS at work professionally have done for years on and off. I work in design and engineering and I use it for presentation prep work, fixing images for video for use in premiere and after effects. A lot for web site design, mainly intranet. I also do product placement. Fix up scan work for ad's but also for use in CAD taken from designer sketches. But I never deal with a client who wants an image fixing it just part of my process to get my job done. At home I do a ton of PS work for fun, family friends and other web sites. I have been asked if I would do it as a job but I live in the US on a visa at present and so I cannot deviate from the work I do so for now those that know me get to barter for my work.

[Swampy]

Hi Karyn and Creeduk, welcome aboard

Creeduk, I put you in the "pro" class. <wink> Sounds like you spend a lot of time pushing pixels.

Karyn... Anyone can take a picture. But making a photograph is truly an art. I'm still learning, but some key things to keep in mind... Capture a focal point, the textures, paterns, shapes, get a good (or unusual) angle, and, when dealing with people, capture personality. The history of photography, all the way back to the caveman who discovered phopherus on the walls of the cave generated "pictures" when lighted struck the surface, IS all about light. Not enough, too little, behind the subject, or at the wrong angle. Bend, stoop, twist and contort to get the shot. :-)

[Karyn]

Originally Posted by Swampy

Hi Karyn and Creeduk, welcome aboard

Creeduk, I put you in the "pro" class. <wink> Sounds like you spend a lot of time pushing pixels.

Karyn... Anyone can take a picture. But making a photograph is truly an art. I'm still learning, but some key things to keep in mind... Capture a focal point, the textures, paterns, shapes, get a good (or unusual) angle, and, when dealing with people, capture personality. The history of photography, all the way back to the caveman who discovered phopherus on the walls of the cave generated "pictures" when lighted struck the surface, IS all about light. Not enough, too little, behind the subject, or at the wrong angle. Bend, stoop, twist and contort to get the shot. :-)

Thanks Swampy I eagerly accept any hints or advice. After I have taken the picture, I know what I wanted it to look like. I need to take more time "looking" before I take the picture - just as you mentioned -light, angle, focal point etc. Thanks again for the help
Karyn

[akj]

Much to my husband's despair I have yet to make any money doing retouch work. I am most interested in working with images of pets because it revolves around what I do "professionally" (veterinary technician). Plus you have to admit that they are pretty darn cute. I used to know my way around Photoshop 6.0 pretty well (although I am currently in need of a refresher course) and am interested in learning more about Painter. So much to learn, so little time! Luckily this forum makes things a bit easier.

[JayNads]

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?

I'm actually a Letter Carrier by trade, an enthusiast photographer by hobby, and attempting to become a professional retoucher by education.

[RichardBrackin]

I'm a professional photo retoucher, art and pre-press director. If I do my job correctly you won't even know I've touched the picture but it will look LOTS better than when you first saw it. I'd like to join in the challenges you have here - neat idea. I'm just usually too busy to take the time to do it.

I've used Photoshop professionally in college since 1991 or whenever v2.0 came out. I was an advertising major so I went in debt (temporarily) and bought a big scanner and really nice printer and had several people in my apartment complex paying me to do my magic and it helped pay for my Mac II fx, which at the time was a monster.

I found out my uncle was a professional decal installer and partially-owned a huge printing company. I moved up to work at his company. He left. I stayed. I'm still here. He's still gone.

We do a lot of large format print work and some design and consulting work for Fortune 500 companies.

I'm a hobbyist photographer.
Equipment includes a little Nikon N80, Kowa Super 66, Graphlex Graphic View 2 4x5 with Schneider optics, Beseler 45MXT II with Minolta 45a color head, Jobo CPP2 processor for E-6 (exclusively). I'd burn it all right now if a Canon 20D would drop out of the sky into my hands.

[wbcarey]

I am not a professional retoucher. I greatly admire the talent that is on this site.
My interest is as a hobbyist. My current position is operations manager for a photolab in california. I started working with photoshop around 1989 or 1990 as a manager in a prepress/service bureau. We became pretty adept at troupleshooting files prepared in quark,pagemaker,etc. The files where created by ad agencys and had imbedded eps files generated in AI, Freehand etc. At times it was a real nightmare. Our primary goal was to get them to image,sep and trap correctly when running down to our rips. Long nights to meet morning deadlines.I have strong troubleshooting skills with most of the Adobe Creative Suite and Quark as well as FCP but I am really a tech who loves to read sw manuals. (I know get a life) an artist I am not. I stayed in the pre-pres industry until 2000 when I went to work for Creo/Scitex as applications support. Lots of travel. I now have a nine to five job and can come home and enjoy working in PS. I check this site everyday and love to read and see what people are doing. It is great.
Bill

[Tigron]

just trying to improve my PS skills..

I've been playing with PS for 18 months and I just loving it...
Practicing, trying, playing...for the fun of it...

and getting better n better with retouchpro !