What's Your Level Of Experience?

[kstruve]

I don't know if this or a similar poll has been done before here, but I've been curious as to how long everyone has been using their software of choice, e.g. Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter, Fireworks, Gimp, Paintshop Pro.  I'll get it started: Over 12 years with Photoshop (started with version 2.0)

Kurt

[Ausimax]

Experience? What Experience? :-\

Hi Kurt, trouble with your poll is it will generate inaccurate info regarding experience, how long I have been using? I had to enter 10 years, how much real experience using it effectively? about 1 year.

Due to ill health and other considerations I got out of photography about 15 years ago, I got my first windows computer in 1996  and whilst I have had some form of Editing software ever since, mainly I only played about with it out of curiosity ( I'm a self confessed software junkie, had an old Amstrad from about 1980, and other than what I wrote in Basic, programs were almost non existent and as for graphics programs, forget it!).

The first graphics editing program I bought, was PhotoFinish 3, no layers, but it had a clone stamp. With it I carried out my first two restorations, A photo of my wife as a child with her father, and one of her mother as a young woman, both had been badly damaged by Silverfish, much of the damaged edges of the photos had been cut off and there were large areas of damage to the subjects, actually I thought the restoration turned out quite good, and to my shame I had another go after I got CS 2 and could do no better. :-[

Then about 2.5 years ago I bought a digital camera, and started to do more general image enhancement, I then decided to project and photograph about 1000 old slides that were deteriorating, That required a lot of work with colour correction, restoring around edges where the dyes were decaying and getting rid of all the dust spots and scratches.

I did most of the work with PhotoImpact 6 and the Gimp, with that amount to do it was quick and nasty editing, with an average of two minutes spent on each image.

By this stage I was using the Gimp to enhance my photography, and playing around trying to convert PS tutorials to work with the Gimp, and that is where I came unstuck! The Gimp didn't have Adjustment Layers. So then I had to have PS as I could see the benefit of being able to use Adjustment Layers, other than that I would still be using the Gimp.

I got CS 2 about march last year and was only playing around with it trying to improve my photographs, when I stumbled onto OPR in July, and thats when I first learned what Restoration was all about, and believe me it has been a steep, steep learning curve. I was probably capable of doing "Easy "  images, or at a stretch "Moderate", but there were none available, and you know the old saying about "Fools jump in where Angles fear to tread" .

Thats the story of my image editing life - now you didn't need to know all that did you? :crazy:


Max

[kstruve]

Max,

Good comment on my poll.  How do you think it should have been worded?  What I was trying to figure out was how long people on this forum have been using the photo manipulation software that they are currently using.  Then I gave an example response from me ... "Over 12 years with Photoshop (started with version 2.0)".

You definitely have a long and varied experience with photo software!  I have a really varied experience with other software, particularly when it comes to modeling and rendering, but when it comes to photo software, Photoshop is the only one for me!

Kurt

[cmpentecost]

Hi Kurt,

It would be tough to word your question any differently, other than a specific poll to the specific software.  I started with Photoshop 6, at the encouragement of my husband after I left corporate America.  I didn't know didly about Photoshop, other than we had bought our first digital camera.  I will say that learning Phothoshop was the best thing I did.  My creative side really came out after 15 years in the insurance and finance sector of corporate America.  I went from being miserable to loving life again.  I think it was around 2001 when I took my first Photoshop course (thru www.ed2go.com).  Ironically, my husband and I just sat with a cup of chamomile tea by the fireplace tonight, talking about Photoshop, where I've come with it, we talked about you and what you have done with your architecture/art background, and where Photoshop is going.  It's an absolutely incredible program, and takes years to learn everything (and be be good at it).  I'm now getting clients that actually pay me to restore their photos.  How cool is that?!!

Regardless of my rambling, I still think your poll is a good one, as it allows all of us to respond to how long we've been working with a photo editing program.

Cheers!

Christine

[Ausimax]

Hi Kurt,

I think whatever way you word something like a Poll it is hard to achieve what you want, had you worded it your "current " editor, for me it would have been easy, but for others who have been using one "brand" it then becomes "Which Version"?

For me I think the responses in the forum thread will be the most interesting bit, why I provided such a verbose answer, to hopefully get a good discussion going, personally I like these off topic discussions I fell they help bring us together as a community.

Max

[kstruve]

Yeah, I did hope this would spark a conversation about people's background and I was a little worried at first when people were voting but not posting.  I very much appreciate your verbose response, Max.  It's very interesting to me to hear about what everyone brings to the table.  I kinda went off on a tangent about my own background on another thread (http://www.oprworkshop.org/forum/index.php?topic=405.msg4103#msg4103) and I was thinking it would be good to start a new one that encourages a similar level of conversation.  I'M INTERESTED IN YOU PEOPLE!

The twists and turns that life throws at you sculpts your future.  If you had asked me 10 years ago where I saw myself being in 10 years, I would have been way off ... and it's for the better.  I've gotten back closer to my roots - my roots being my artistic side.  I'm sure the next ten years will bring a lot of unforeseen changes too.

Attn: Mac users.  For the record, even though I tease, I started out in the mac world.  I learned Photoshop on a Macintosh Quadro, that had something like 4 MB of RAM.  Then I got a job in the Architecture world, which runs on PCs, so I had to switch sides to use AutoCAD.  Slowly I became a PC guy.  Where I work now is mostly a Mac world and I'm in the minority again.  I'm one of 7 out of 50 total that's on a PC.  Believe me, the prejudice runs both ways.  I get a kick out of it.  :)

[kiska]

I've always been interested in photography. When my children were young, I became a traditional contract negative retoucher; mostly high school seniors. That evolved into print retouching also. Children grew; I dabbled with Autocad.
Later got a BW darkroom; really enjoyed that. My daughter is now a graphic designer, my son a photographer.

Christine, I took PS ed2go classes too. Sherry London your instructor???

I finally broke down a couple of years ago and got a digital camera. Am heavily into digital art using Studio Artist. My darkroom is now a 'catchall'.  :(

These restorations are a bit theraputic for me as they bring back the need for 'discipline' rather than the free and loose feeling of painting.

[RosyBijou]

OK--so I'll 'fess up that I mis-read the poll!  I've been editing photos & other images for 6-10 years, but have only used Photoshop for less than a year.  (Guess I misunderstood the intent of the question...)

I'm a pediatric RN by trade, worked 10 years in acute care medical/surgical pediatrics & about 10 more in inpatient child psych.    It was always my dream to pursue the arts, but because I found the sciences easy, was sort of pushed in that direction, with the final "pull" being an invite to a 5 year joint degree (biology/nursing) program.   So basically, I could graduate with an ivy league education,  2 BS degrees, very little student loan debt and most importantly, a job... or go against everyone's advice and step out towards the arts.  I wasn't good enough artistically or confident enough to do the latter.

Well, as we all know, life just kind of flows along, whether we're doing something we love or not...  As it turned out, I met the love of my life and in one of our post-marital heart-to-hearts, found out that his childhood dream was to be a lawyer--(at the time, he was a mechanical engineer).  Though he never had difficulty getting a job, he was really miserable (I was only a little miserable in my job)  and I pushed him into applying to law school.  Long story short, our family grew, I worked nights and weekends so hubby could go to school--pretty much supported us through that time.  He got his law degree and found that his engineering degree opened up some doors...

Though we couldn't justify my actually pursuing an education in the arts, my love of that world never faded & I found myself gravitating towards anything creative that came my way... My first digital editing software was a $30 clearance package and I went to town with it.   I found myself doing restorations for friends, family, neighbors and even for the air-conditioning guy!

Fast forward to 5 years ago, hubby (still the love of my life!) is a partner in the construction litigation dept of a CT law firm; I'm still a nurse but fortunate enough to mostly be a stay-at-home mom...  We're a licensed foster care family and we get the call from DCF about a baby who was to stay with us for 6 weeks while his mom got her act together...  As fate would have it, this baby is now ours and last year I officially left nursing. Signing that letter of resignation was like letting go of thousands of pounds of baggage and I decided to take a stab at starting this little photo editing & restoration business.  I justified the leap into the Adobe CS2 Suite, took a couple of Ed2Go courses (with Sherry too! :loveit: She's so wonderful!!), and the rest is still being written...

I've done what seems like hundreds of restorations, but have only been using Photoshop for just under a year.  My little business is supporting itself, but certainly not a huge revenue maker!  I love what I'm doing, have one huge project in process and a few smaller ones, (main job title is still stay-at-home mom though).  Right now, I'm learning some xhtml/css code and am re-writing my web site so I can get it off of Yahoo's free site-building tools.  I have GoLive, but for the life of me, just couldn't figure out how to use it!  (Now that I've got it re-written in html though, it's importing into GoLive and starting to make more sense...)

All this is very much a work in progress, but hey, aren't we all?!  ::)

[kiska]

Sherry London is one fantastic person!!! She still gladly answers my questions.....years later.

[cmpentecost]

Yes, Sherry London was my instructor also, and got me started in Photoshop.  I still have my lessons from her class in PS6, although I really don't reference it anymore.

Christine

[kstruve]

Sounds like a lot of people took the same class.  What a coincidence!  I first learned Photoshop in a college class I took that covered Photoshop, and a 3D modeling program called Form.Z.  Version 2.0 of Photoshop didn't even have layers and you couldn't make soft selections.  It was pretty rough compared to what we're used to with CS2.

I still don't have a digital camera, unless you count the 2mp camera in my phone (I don't count it).  My problem is I'm too picky with what I want:  A good SLR with at least 10 mp.  Those usually run close to $1000.  I'll eventually make the leap from 35mm to digital, but it may be a couple years before the prices come down far enough for me to justify it, and good lenses will always be expensive.  I don't do photography for a living, so I can't justify it that way.  I was hoping that Minolta would eventually make a 10 mp camera so I could use my lenses with it, but Minolta got out of the camera-making business last year, much to my chagrin.

Kurt

[glennab]

Hi!

The old lady is a bit late posting here, but if I gave you all my background, I'd be here for hours (because of longevity, not because of anything particularly impressive!)

While my co-workers kid me that I got into graphic design when people were still carving type out of stone, that's a pretty close assessment.  I was planning to be a journalist, and in high school I worked for 3 local newspapers as a typesetter.  I worked on a machine that spit out punched paper tape that was then fed into another machine that actually did the justification, etc. (Called- go figure- a Justowriter).  I moved to Madagascar after I married, and there wasn't much call for an American working stiff there.

Since I've been back in the States, I've been a production manager, typographer, consultant, art director, and graphic designer -- more through serendipity than anything else.  When I realized that if I didn't have computer savvy I'd be out of work, I went to college to learn in some depth the software I was working on at the time: Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop.  And I'm a compulsive, obsessive reader, so I've gotten much information from books I've purchased over the years.

The job I currently hold as a graphic designer has given me most of my Photoshop experience.  I've been here 9 years, and I've more and more become the expert.  Now that I'm in OPR I'm expected to be the guru -- and I guess to some degree I am.  I can manipulate photos and build ads in Photoshop as if it's second nature. I design a lot of our publications' covers and I'm finding that my creations are becoming more sophisticated as I pick up techniques from OPR.

Over the years I've restored a few photos for famiily and really enjoyed that challenge.  I jumped at the chance to join OPR, but boy, has this been a humbling experience!  There's a big difference between playing with a pristine photo and cleaning up the debris in these restorations.  I'm in awe of the experience and expertise many of the volunteers bring to the organization.  In the last year I've probably purchased at least a dozen books on channels, color, restoration, masking, etc. just to keep up.  It's been great!  I've learned more since joining OPR than at any other time in my career, as much as from the feedback being constantly offered by volunteers in helping each other as from my reading.

Each restoration is another wonderful learning experience.   I hope that when I grow up I'll truly be a Photoshop and restoration guru.

GG

[klassylady25]

Don't you just love the learning curve!! I'm self taught all the way around.  Homemaker first, one child married and one in college.  Had to do something while sitting with a heart patient who is also a very good friend.  I started working on pictures through Retouch Pro and that's where I heard about OPR.  Like Glenna, I jumped at the chance. I read daily and trying to improve a bit more every day.  What a amazing journey!!   

:loveit: Candice

[BeauW]

HI there,

I'm just joining this community- at the end of my first restoration. I swear, I thought I knew what I was getting into.
I taught myself Photoshop about ten years ago and thought I was pretty good until I went back to school for a graphic design degree about four years ago. Since then, I've been working in the field, and do a fair amount of retouching, both at work and at home for my digital art. But that is mostly working with good images to make them different, though I've done a lot of touch-ups of family pictures and such. I've just finished (I think) my first job for OPR and the learning curve was steep. I've already got a lot of advice from these forums. What fun!

[glennab]

Hi Beau and welcome!

Yes indeedy, these restorations will let you know in short order how much more there is to learn!  And you're right, sharing techniques, frustrations, and the joy of being part of this group is more fun than I'd ever have guessed!


Candy - if  you're self-taught you're one heck of a tutor!  Your restorations are amazing. Hugz, as always!

GG