Photo Manipulation

[mvus]

Would I be correct in thinking you just need a little perspective to make those sorts of amendments?

You could AndyLucia, but in this case I would skew as the left wall looks OK. More than one way to skin a cat though. Far easier to call Jimbo and get the photos taken properly at the start!

[Normandy Cow]

Wow! Thanks for all the positive responses everyone!!!

I will sort out your converging verticals for just £9 extra

Thanks mvus, I hadn't even really taken much notice of the converging verticals and yes I should have fixed that - it is soooo easy to do in photoshop as this tutorial shows:
http://www.panoguide.com/howto/panorama ... ection.jsp.

removing a door that is sposed to be there makes the photo inaccurate doesnt it.....I mean zooming in a bit to lose the door would be fair enough...but it doesnt seem right...

Actually, mvus did not "remove" the door, but by fixing the perspective, the door is no longer within the shot - see the little dark object near the floor just to the left of the door.

getting people to actually pay for image correction would be a challenge. Everyone these days seems to have a friend, brother or teenage nephew who's a web designer or photoshop expert who'll do it for free.

Yes, I realise that there are many people who can do this type of thing, and many people won't need to pay someone. Similarly, there are already a number of websites that already offer this type of service. But I've not seen anyone marketing this service to Holiday Home owners?
I would not be looking to make a living just from doing this. I can't work full time anyway so I'm just looking to add another string to my bow. So if I just get a couple of commissions a week, that's fine.

As to whether you can market your skills NC, why not put up a simple website with some examples and prices and see how you go?

I'd already thought about doing this years ago, and I registered www.photoclinic.co.uk and www.thephotoclinic.co.uk , all I need to do now is to move the stuff I've "parked" on there and knock up a simple website.

One word of caution: if you're intending to manipulate your pix, always work off a copy and keep your original file safe. Sounds obvious but it's easy to forget. Many photoshop processes are destructive and irreversible and, when you get better at manipulation, you'll be pleased to have the original file to work on again.

Absolutely! And as well as keeping the original separate, I make all my changes on separate layers, so that I can peel them off if necessary.

I've just spent a few minutes removing the water from the picture. Is this dishonest? I'll let you decide.

Absolutely not! That is exactly the sort of thing I would do! My main shot of our house that features in all our advertising was taken in 2003 when we first bought it. The gravel was covered in weeds and I have cloned it all out, and the flowers were from a different photo that was taken in 2004. I don't think any of this is dishonest, because we do have a gardener now who comes every week so the gravel is kept weed-free and we do have lovely flowers now.

[AndyLucia]

Would I be correct in thinking you just need a little perspective to make those sorts of amendments?

You could AndyLucia, but in this case I would skew as the left wall looks OK. More than one way to skin a cat though. Far easier to call Jimbo and get the photos taken properly at the start!

That makes sense, thanks.

At this rate I can cancel the Photoshop course I start on Friday evening!

[Partridge]

I can assure you that photo manipulation has been done for years in most brochure work. My husband works on a well known 'beauty machine' non facelift brochure and I can assure you the models are always 'worked on' to look their best. Also holiday brochures with the sky bluer, grass greener, shadows taken out etc etc. Unless you're trying to represent something that doesn't exist then I don't see the problem.

[mvus]

Not striclty relevant to the topic but interesting to watch..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PWdW4BruF4

[Jimbo]

Absolutely! And as well as keeping the original separate, I make all my changes on separate layers, so that I can peel them off if necessary.

Sorry, NC. Having re-read my post, it does look as if I was offering advice to you when I'd really meant it for somebody having a first crack at Photoshop after having been fired up by this thread. Your manipulation expertise is only too obvious, apologies.

I like the 'Photoclinic' name - cool.

Jim

[Jimbo]

At this rate I can cancel the Photoshop course I start on Friday evening!

Andy, don't even think of cancelling.

Jim

[AndyLucia]

Don't worry Jim, I'm looking forward to it.