Not a Photoshop expert? So what...

M

M like Leica M6

Guest
Outsourcing for people like me who are too impatient for Photoshop:

www.liveretouch.com

I tried that service, results were excellent, prices were moderate. These guys are in India, I believe... well, Photoshop was programmed there as well, why not... :cool:
 
And if you do shoot frequently, then the cost will be more than PS and a good book that teaches you the nuances.
 
As with so many things in photography, to quote George Harrison, it's what you value.

If you have a huge, intimidating volume of negatives and slides you've been wanting to have scanned (and been procrastinating over), then perhaps a service like this is almost literally what the doctor ordered. My main concern here is the need to pack up a goodly portion of film that's dearly important to you, and have it shipped, far, far away, hoping that (1) nothing nasty occurs enroute, (2) nothing nasty happens once the film is in the hands of this outfit, and (3) nothing nasty happens to either your negs or the accompanying CDs/DVDs of your digital files.

These are only three of the numerous reasons I'm strictly a DIY guy when it comes to scanning and archiving my film. It might take longer to get around to everything, but I'm in charge of what goes where. But different people have different priorities.

Your call. :)


- Barrett
 
How do the guys in India know your creative vision? Once you get beyond a "straight print" the creativity is in their ballpark.
 
I agree. You just have to learn it. It's not going away.
If it's intimidating, you don't have to understand/use all of it. I've been using it since the beginning, and i still don't use all of the features. Just about every time i do use it, it seems i see a menu item that i hadn't noticed before.... Start with the simple stuff, and only learn more as you need it. IF you need it.

I'm not sure i understand what you mean about being "impatient." Don't you have to send files to these people, describe what you want done, wait for it to come back, and then make suggestions/notes for revisions? How is that more efficient/quick than doing it yourself?
 
Photoshop is difficult and sadly makes no allowance for learners. While it is the creme de la creme of imaging software I cant help but feel that its much better for professional graphic designers than for anyone else, inlcuding photographers. As a result I gave up on it and instead use Paint Shop Pro Photo x2 which probably has about 80% of PS's functionality but is much easier to use in general, by dint of a whole bunch of wizard-based tools. Still has selections / layers and such like, so that complexity (and of course power) is there but in general its a lot easier than either PS or PSE and cheaper than either too.

I must agree that I could never outsource by post processing. Two reasons. One is that I actually enjoy it and enjoy learning the skills - still some way to go though with some higher end stuff but not bad on the basics. Second the way I use photography the image ex camera is only the raw material - most of the the final quality comes from post processing. As someone says - an outsourcer could never have my creative vision as I go somewhat beyond basic exposure tweaking and such. I suppose though, that there are some who are happy to have others finish the job for them, but my philisophy is different - I think that cameras and PCs are now part of an image making system and losing the ability to process would be worse than losing a camera lens.

Here is a link to some of my work. Not pro quality maybe..... but a long way from where I started and the images are much more interesting than the unprocessed shots straight from the camera:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80702381@N00/
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom