Hi! I'm excited to be a part of this worthwhile project having lost many personal photos due to a computer failure and being unable to ever retrieve them. :( (I know I should have backed them up better - hard lesson to learn!)
I've been doing commercial retouching for the last three years mainly in fashion and beauty, and it will be a welcome relief to do some retouching that actually gives something back to the world, instead of just making women feel like they'll never be thin enough or have perfect skin.
I've never done any retouching like this and look forward to learning new photoshop tricks to recover missing information in the damaged photos.
Sharon
Hi Sharon and a big welcome from Michigan. I'm so sorry you lost your photos in a computer failure.
Yes, you will find the work here quite different from the commercial retouching you are used to. Take some time to view past forum posts to become familiar with just how different restoring memories can be from commercial retouching. Don't hesitate to post your work in progress to get advice if you have any questions regarding the approach that should be taken with any photo you are working on.
I'm sure with your experience you will have a lot of advice to give us too and we look forward to exchanging techniques with you.
Pat
Hi Sharon, welcome from Kansas! You will love it here and you already have an advantage by doing commercial retouching. Like Pat said there are some differences, mainly we try to keep as close to the original as we can instead of trying to make people look better than they did. However, when a lot of information is missing it's nice to have a feel for what to do.
Sorry about loosing so many of your personal photo due to a computer failure, but is there no way to take your hard drive in to see if they could be retrieved?
Margie
P.S. One place you can always do some retouching would be on me. ;D
Hi Sharon
A warm (and I do mean warm) welcome from west central Florida. It's always wonderful to welcome newbies into the family, knowing that you can look forward to one of the most rewarding experiences of your life with OPR. I can't believe that in about a month I'll have been with the group for 6 years - probably the best years of my life. If you haven't seen it, check out the Weather Channel video at the upper right of our home page. If you have any doubts about the impact of what we do, that will convince you. Have tissues handy!
Your retouching experience will certainly help with restorations, but brace yourself for some real challenges, and don't hesitate to get on the forum if you need help or have questions. Someone is always keeping an eye out for volunteers needing help.
I'm so glad you've joined us. Will look forward to seeing you on the forum.
Cheers!
GK