Great job! And without a pad - ugh!

My first Photoshop job was by accident - I started working in a lab that just lost its retoucher - I was the only one who knew anything about PS - and all I'd done at that point was take a 2-day crash course! Also did it all with the mouse (rubber ball bouncing around inside and all), and had a bunch of them come through with textured papers as well - I could have cried!

I have a coupla great retouching stories, but this one took the cake:

And older Polish woman came into the lab with a fragile picture in the little frame - her mother taken before WWII. It was the ONLY pic she had and was terrified of taking it out of the frame, but it was damaged and she wanted it cleaned up.

I got her to leave it with me and VERY carefully took it out - it was packed pretty tight in there BECAUSE THERE WAS ANOTHER PIC OF HER MOM BEHIND IT!!! Apparently it was her mother and a friend, both young (maybe early 20's?), leaning against an apartment wall outside, smoking cigarettes.

It was also pretty badly damaged by years and humidity - didn't tell the boss about it (I knew he'd be out on vacation when she came back) and didn't tell HER. When she came back, I presented the one she knew about, and slowly pulled out from behind it the second one.

She couldn't stop crying - and NO I didn't charge her. It just felt too good to do it for her, and I almost cried with her by the time she left.

Anyone got any good stories like that to share?

-Lew