Hello from Virginia

[proudflymom]

Hi,
My name is Linda and I live in Southwest Virginia. I have been a photographer for several years, nothing special just doing work locally and for my family.   I stumbled upon this group by accident while looking up information on photo restoration....AT first I was thrilled and excited but now I am afraid that I will not be able to do some of the awsome things I have seen here on the group post.  I have used paintshop for several years and have experience with photshop elements...but I don't think either one of my softwear programs can perform the things needed????I am excited about trying....Which program would be the best to work with?Looking forward to a great learning experience....and getting to know everyone. Linda

[Mhayes]

Hi Linda,

Welcome to the forum from Kansas. The best thing is to start off easy with a photo that you feel comfortable doing. As to softward programs that perform the best, that will depend more on the person using them. The majority of the volunteers will be using Photoshop, so more help will be available with that software. Photoshop Elements is similar, although I am under the impression that you won't be able to work in Channels, but that is not a big problem. Paintshop is a good program and we do have volunteers who will be able to offer you help. It sounds like you are more comfortable with Paintshop? Another thing you can do is to follow some of the threads on the forum and when a photo is posted, download that photo (maybe a low resolution) and practice on it. If you look on the "Forum Home," you will see the different categories of difficulty. I would also recommend Katrin Eismann's book on Restoration & Retouching. You would be able to use Photoshop Elements for most of the exercises and photos for each chapter are available for downloading from her website.

Look forward to seeing more of you on the forum.

Margie

[Hannie]

Hi Linda, welcome and thanks for joining OPR!

Another thing you can do is pick a photo to restore from one of the galleries and post your work on the forum, everyone will be happy to help out if you get stuck or need some tips.
What you shouldn't do is be afraid that won't be able to do some of the things that you have seen on the forum.  Just give it a try, you'll be surprised!

Hannie

[weewood]

Welcome aboard, Linda! Great people here as you will find out...

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Welcome Linda, glad to have you with us. I only use Paintshop Pro, have version 8,11 and 12 on here and have found it more than adequate for restoration work. The best thing to do is try a photo out.
Us distributors don't mind people sending back photos that are too hard. So pick an easy one if you can find one and play around with it.