Hi all,
I'm ecstatic to have found this site. I'm trying to get into Photo Restoration and don't have a clue at what I'm doing. I just finished a quicktime tutorial from vtc.com, but was a bit disappointed in it. I did get the hang of the patch and heal tools from it though. I've got Katrin Eismann's 2nd edition of Photoshop Restoration and Retouching from the library, but haven't really gotten into it yet. I know she's got a 3rd edition coming out in November, so wanted to hold off till then to buy it. I'm using Photoshop 7. I'll let you know how I stumbled into this restoration thing.
I started out being interested in making collages from our digital photos. I made a couple of family events and people seemed impressed. I'll be "liberated" from corporate life in a few months and have been toying with starting some sort of business. Was going off on all different directions and getting pretty frustrated and stuck creatively when I woke up one morning and the choice had been staring me in the face for months, I just didn't see it. You see, my mother passed away in June and my brother mentioned that we should get all the old pictures restored and put on disk for safe keeping. So I called a studio and asked how much it would cost to scan, restore and put on disk about 100 or so pictures. I don't know what I was thinking, but I figured he'd come back with a quote of a hundred or so dollars. WRONG! $62 PER pic! WOW! Politely ended that conversation. Don't anyone be offended. Someone must have slipped something into my coffee that morning. Well, since I've got Photoshop 7, and had been playing with making collages, I told my brother "I'll just do it myself." To make things worse, I've always got to make a hard task harder, so I get the idea that I want ALL the pics from ALL the surviving relatives (actually not so many now) and I want to make a coffee table quality bound book. Of course, first I've got to learn photo restoration. And Lord knows if binding a book of photos is even a feasible idea. I can get around in Photoshop, but usually use it for web images. I did find a resource at Digital Scrapbook Place that does book binding. So the end goal is possible to my surprise. Well, I'm looking at all these photos that are
literally destroyed and thinking by the time I get these done I might have acquired a new skill. Now I know it will take time, but I am determined, and, like I mentioned, I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands shortly.
I have some questions though. How long does it take (generally speaking) to become skilled at photo restoration if you're really motivated? Are there any other books other than Eismann's that are dedicated to photo restoration? Does anyone know of any schools (community colleges, etc.) in the Chicago area that offer courses? I've only actually found one school that offers a 3 day seminar, and that's Rochester Institute of Technology (NY). I know that's got to be a good one because I know that RIT is the preeminent school of photography. Kodak is headqauartered in Rochester, correct? It's not that it wouldn't be impossible, but I don't have that kind of cash right now. It seems as big as Chicago is that there would be something. I'd even be interested in an apprenticeship type relationship. I'd love to find a "Master" restorer. Would a general Photoshop course be beneficial in respect to restoration? I've considered investing in Photoshop Elements since it seems a little less complicated. Does it have any features for repairing old photos, or should I just stay with Photoshop and suffer the vertical learning curve? Sorry for such a long post. Will be more consise in the future.
I think this is the right place to be. I'm glad I found it. I was getting a little frustrated hanging out in the scrapbooking forums. Thanks in advance.
RamonaMarie
I'm ecstatic to have found this site. I'm trying to get into Photo Restoration and don't have a clue at what I'm doing. I just finished a quicktime tutorial from vtc.com, but was a bit disappointed in it. I did get the hang of the patch and heal tools from it though. I've got Katrin Eismann's 2nd edition of Photoshop Restoration and Retouching from the library, but haven't really gotten into it yet. I know she's got a 3rd edition coming out in November, so wanted to hold off till then to buy it. I'm using Photoshop 7. I'll let you know how I stumbled into this restoration thing.
I started out being interested in making collages from our digital photos. I made a couple of family events and people seemed impressed. I'll be "liberated" from corporate life in a few months and have been toying with starting some sort of business. Was going off on all different directions and getting pretty frustrated and stuck creatively when I woke up one morning and the choice had been staring me in the face for months, I just didn't see it. You see, my mother passed away in June and my brother mentioned that we should get all the old pictures restored and put on disk for safe keeping. So I called a studio and asked how much it would cost to scan, restore and put on disk about 100 or so pictures. I don't know what I was thinking, but I figured he'd come back with a quote of a hundred or so dollars. WRONG! $62 PER pic! WOW! Politely ended that conversation. Don't anyone be offended. Someone must have slipped something into my coffee that morning. Well, since I've got Photoshop 7, and had been playing with making collages, I told my brother "I'll just do it myself." To make things worse, I've always got to make a hard task harder, so I get the idea that I want ALL the pics from ALL the surviving relatives (actually not so many now) and I want to make a coffee table quality bound book. Of course, first I've got to learn photo restoration. And Lord knows if binding a book of photos is even a feasible idea. I can get around in Photoshop, but usually use it for web images. I did find a resource at Digital Scrapbook Place that does book binding. So the end goal is possible to my surprise. Well, I'm looking at all these photos that are
literally destroyed and thinking by the time I get these done I might have acquired a new skill. Now I know it will take time, but I am determined, and, like I mentioned, I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands shortly.
I have some questions though. How long does it take (generally speaking) to become skilled at photo restoration if you're really motivated? Are there any other books other than Eismann's that are dedicated to photo restoration? Does anyone know of any schools (community colleges, etc.) in the Chicago area that offer courses? I've only actually found one school that offers a 3 day seminar, and that's Rochester Institute of Technology (NY). I know that's got to be a good one because I know that RIT is the preeminent school of photography. Kodak is headqauartered in Rochester, correct? It's not that it wouldn't be impossible, but I don't have that kind of cash right now. It seems as big as Chicago is that there would be something. I'd even be interested in an apprenticeship type relationship. I'd love to find a "Master" restorer. Would a general Photoshop course be beneficial in respect to restoration? I've considered investing in Photoshop Elements since it seems a little less complicated. Does it have any features for repairing old photos, or should I just stay with Photoshop and suffer the vertical learning curve? Sorry for such a long post. Will be more consise in the future.
I think this is the right place to be. I'm glad I found it. I was getting a little frustrated hanging out in the scrapbooking forums. Thanks in advance.
RamonaMarie
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