That depends cynlee... Every time they lock me up in the psych ward they make sure I cannot get at anyhing sharp, but when the let me out... (well you can guess the rest)

BTW... The original photo was a street art painting of an old man. This was stripped of its color and reworked using some sketching techniques and a wacom tablet. The color blend is from a photo of a CD reflecting daylight. The glass shards is a technique I am currently working on. I am pleased with the ones here, but I think I can take it farther with some more time and effort.

The duck or the dude with the hat?

While the web is one way to approach this, and IMO a web site would certainly help for displaying your skills, I was really thinking of people marketing their talents in the communities they live in as their primary source of business. I have been after my son (the human sloth) to do this for a while now.

The plan is fairly simple... Take an old photo and restore it to pristine condition. Now layout a design that shows the before and after along with contact information and anything else you think is important (IE. we also make custom greeting cards, calendars, etc.). Make about 20 prints of this on high quality photo paper, and mount those on some single weight matt board. If you want to get real fancy allow enough space on the board to attach a business card holder, so your cards are easily available to potential clients. Now make a trek around your community to find all the places that allow people to post personal, and/or small business ads on a public bulletin board. Make sure you ask permission and find out any pertinent details. Usually these type of bulletin boards are found in supermarkets, drug stores, libraries, etc... My guess is that a project of this nature would cost about $30.00 to $50.00 in materials plus your time. This is a really low investment for the potential return.

I would also consider advertising in whatever small weekly papers are in your area. Generally the rates in these papers are quite low, and (more importantly) the are well read by older persons (the people most likely to want this type of work done).

Now add a web site into the mix that focuses only on the services you are going to offer, and displays them well. I do not think that I would try to sell this service directly online at first. The site would be more of an online portfolio that emphasizes you talents, and provides contact information for potential clients. Again this is a low investment (except for your time) proposal. Setting up a commerce site is fairly involved and is something I would rather see people grow into as opposed to attempting right off the bat.

The only area left is your pricing structure...

My suggestion here is that you call around to any local businesses that offer this service and get some quotes. The best way to handle this is to go to their establishment with an old photo in hand, and ask for a quote. Armed with this information, you can set your pricing to be competitive without screwing yourself, or your clients. Keep in mind that aside from your time there is also materials involved, and that all businesses have a markup on the materials they sell as part of a project.

Well that's it for now. I think if anyone is interested in this, there is enough here to start the wheels turning.

I am with azy on this... #3 is my winner :-)

Wouldn't it be nice if he was done... Unfortunately, he is still in the begining stages.

I really like the last one a lot! It gives the viewer a real feel of the atmosphere there. Well done...

Misha is right on this... In PS 6&7 you have adjustment layers. These can be found under the layer menu as New Adjustment Layer. Basically, these are the same filters as you would find under Edit/Adjust. The difference is that they create there own layer which applies the effect to the layer below without duplicating the layer.

Many traditional camera filters can be simulated this way, and by adding several of these layers you can mix and match to get the effect you are after. The other beauty of using adjustment layers is that they remain editable until you flatten the image. For example, if you had two adjustment layers (one for Curves and one for Hue/Saturation) you can go back and forth between them to tweak their properties until you have the end result you are after.

You can also use these adjustment layers on individual channels. Subsequently they are very useful, and are worth taking the time to really learn. I can honestly say that I have been using this technique for a long time now, and I am not sure what I would do without it.

One last thing... If you come across a combination that you really like, and/or is really useful, you can always record it as an action and save it for later use.

However, this is now getting closer to what the final image will be. I still think it is missing an element, but I haven't been able to decide on what that is yet. At any rate, this is getting much closer.

Opinions, comments and contructive criticism are welcome.

Your situation is not uncommon. Many malls do not allow photograhy oin their premises. Because they are owned by either a private individual, or a corporation they are private property, and the right to allow people to photograph is their choice. In the USA you can still legally photograph anyone at any time in any publicly owned space. However, private property is a whole other ball game.

So what scanner did you decide on? Curious minds want to know :-)

The sculpture belongs to a graphic artist friend of mine. (yes despite popular beliefs I do actually have some friends) She asked me to photograph it so she could use the shots in a Christmas card design. Of course I now have the shots also to play with as I see fit. The BG is a different shot of the statue that had focused just on it's head and hands...

Did you have some warm water in the cup? That helps in activating the effect you were after. @ Chuck... Does the $50.00 include the real life Vicky? If so send me the number ;-)

Nice effort...

It seems to me that not to long ago someone posted a message asking about how people here in the forum can make some money to support their photo habits. This is certainly one way to do that. The trick is in getting the work to begin with.

With some well planned self-promotion, home based marketing and a reasonable pricing structure one could easily go head to head with local color labs in their area. Just as an FYI... Here in Central NY (middle of the state) the going rate at most professional labs for restoration is between $60.00 and $80.00 per hour.

In answer to your question... B&W film would not have made a difference. But like the others I think it is fine the way it is.

#1 is is a great idea for framing the shot. good use of the visual elements. My only wish is that I could see a bit more of the interior. Based on what I am seeing though, that would have requires a tripod, two shots and some photoshoping or negative sandwhiching. #2 Doesn't float my baot (no pun intended. I have seen much more creative work from you, so this just seems to basic. #3 Good stuff! Maybe just enough crop on the bottom to remove the flat horizontal surface in the lower right would help. Somehow that keeps pulling my eye down to that corner.