New to OPR - First time Volunteer - And it just may save my life

[mark_webster25]

Hello all and greetings from Manassas, Virginia, less than 25 miles from the Capital of the USA and home to first and second battle of Bull Run.

I just thought I'd give a brief summary of myself and say that I am very humbled by this opportunity.  And that this is my first Volunteer position for a Non Profit organization.  My first volunteer position was joining the US Navy back in 1994.  Was born in '73 at San Diego Balboa Naval Hospital and Raised in Manassas, Virginia and Graduated Highschool in '92, started my IT career as a Programmer and Network Engineer in mid 1991 and attended Art Institute Atlanta Starting of 1998.  I have been around the world and have been in 3rd world countries.  Have been through my own personal hell (which I tell you about in private) and coming out on the other side for the stronger. While it may seem selfless to Volunteer for a non-profit, for me it's a little selfish, as in helping others I am indeed helping myself to grow and mature.

Again, I am very humbled to have this experience and cannot wait to help others out as I have been helped.  And I am here to lend my 20+ years of IT experience as well.

I read through several of the forums before posting this message, and was wondering if anyone was using the Opensource product GIMP within Windows, Apple MAC, or even Linux?  There just didn't seem to much mention about it and not sure how widely it's used here.

Thank you for letting me join your crew, and again very humbled and glad to help out.  God Bless.

Mark Webster

[Mhayes]

Hi Mark and welcome to OPR from Kansas. It great to have you and really nice to hear more about your background. I love your thoughts on volunteering and having been involved with OPR since July of 2007 I can't begin to say how much the experience has enriched my life. Not only the people we have helped, but the volunteers within that I feel privileged to have as friends.

Yes, at one time we had a few tutorials about using GIMP, but it never seem to have much of a following. The best part is that it is free. Photoshop isn't the only software around, but it is what the majority of volunteers are using--some use Photoshop Elements, but the full version Photoshop offers more on the really difficult restoration when using channels is needed. Basically it boils down to what tool you are the most comfortable with to get the job done.

Thanks for volunteering and hope to see more of you on the Forum.

Margie

[Tori803]

Welcome, Mark, from Minnesota. I'm sure you'll enjoy your experience here.

Just a thought, but whatever software you decide to use, be sure to work non-destructively. In other words, don't make changes that you can't recover from. If you use a program that offers layers and masks, be sure to use them. If you don't have such a program, then make frequent copies of different versions of your in-progress restoration. That will save you a lot of time, because restoration comes down to a lot of trial and error, backing up and re-doing.

Take a break when you get tired or frustrated, and have fun  :up:

[mark_webster25]

Thank you all. Yeah, I have mainly used Photoshop, I remember having my first copy of it from MS-DOS days way back in 1991. Yeah it's a pretty old program.  And have enjoyed it as it matured.  I received most of my college training on version 5.5 and 7.0 at AIA.  I had also used GIMP alot over the years as it has matured more.  GIMP tends to be the goto application I recommend for people with little to no budget as the latest interation supports a lot of the features of Photoshop, Layers, Levels, Rubber Stamp, Dodge/Burn, Heal, Curves, Filters, Plugins, Scriptable, History, and the list continues to go on.  And like you guys mentioned it's free and it supports most operating systems.

Thanks for the warm welcome.  And I'm definitely used to saving as I've been in the IT industry for over 20 years.  I know when I've worked on projects in the past we would use something with some Content Versioning.

I'm going to continue to read over the forums first and check out all the tips and tricks that you guys have learned over the years so I can apply them to my knowledge, before I get work on something.  I like being prepared.  Can't wait to get started.

Mark