[smiley guy]

I just recently registered on this site and have visited a few times before to lurk. I just have to say that there is so much information on this site it is truly unbelievable. It will keep my busy for a good long time.

On to the meat and potatoes part of this thread. I'm a 36 y/o professional musician with a keen interest in photography, r&r, editing etc. I am starting up a business and I am taking the approach of jumping in with both feet. I bought a scanner last week to complete some projects for family. Scanning and retouching of slides and negatives to burn on to CD and print some via a nearby lab. I am doing the "jump in with both feet" approach knowing full well that I am not a professional at this but feedback from my work has been overwhelmingly positive and I know that the average person may be able to do all this but they lack the tools or expertise. Fear or lack of knowledge of computers is a big part of people not doing it as well.

I probably have too many questions to put into one post and some have been answered by browsing the forum but here are some just off the top of my head.

What are equipment are people using for their home-based businesses? I am currently using a Canoscan 9950F with an 20" iMac G5 and will farm out any printing that needs to be done. However, would love to do some printing at home as the next logical step. What do people have for printers?

I am using Photoshop Elements 2.0 and GIMPshop for my editing etc.Any advantages to switching to Photoshop full version?

I plan on doing some research locally for price points and services offered. Trying to find something that is not readily available locally. What are people charging for some basic services? (BTW, I am living and working in Southern Ontario in the Cambridge, KW area.)

Those are some of the questions right off the top of my head. Some more will come up throughout this thread I am sure and I will try to keep this going with more questions. Thanks for all your help and I look forward to your advice.

[Ken Rogers]

I started out with Photoshop elements, but eventually took the giant leap up to Photoshop 7. Just off the top of my head, I believe Elements does not allow you to work with channels, and has a limited number of filters. Are you even able to create masks in Elements?

Welcome to the forum. I agree, there is much help here.

Ken

[emarts]

Just be sure to look before you jump.