My Name is Aida

Hi!
I'm new here. My name is Aida.

I'm a high-end retouch artist and photomanipulator.
This is my portfolio:
http://www.bgagraphix.com/

Thank you,
Aida

Welcome Aida!

We would like to see some pictures from you yourself. After all you do have the capability and the steps you take would be instructive! Plunge in so people can really get to know you!

Also you can reversion other people's images where they allow that.

Asher

Note: If you are interested in working with Aida check here

Also, I did make a rare and reasoned exception and allow a pseudonym here that satisfies our needs.

Hi, Aida,

Aida BGAgraphix said:

Hi!

Click to expand...

Celeste, Aida! (Sorry for the bad operatic pun!)

Stunning, exquisite work, and a very stylish Web site.

I'm usually not impressed by "cute" Web navigational metaphors, but the page turning metaphor there is just wonderful. It pales, though, in comparison to the work it shows off.

Your description of yourself as a "high end" retouch artist and manipulator is certainly not unearned!

I look forward to seeing more of your work here. Welcome aboard.

Asher Kelman said:

Welcome Aida!

We would like to see some pictures from you yourself. After all you do have the capability and the steps you take would be instructive! Plunge in so people can really get to know you!

Also you can reversion other people's images where they allow that.

Asher

Note: If you are interested in working with Aida check here

Also, I did make a rare and reasoned exception and allow a pseudonym here that satisfies our needs.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much, Asher !
I'm currently in a 2 week vacation, so posting my pics will have to wait a little. I'll be giving advices and try to help. As far as re-editing others people's photos, I work only on RAW(or high quality jpeg) and I would do that just for selective Trade For Portfolio, as I don't have time ( comissions + university in the rest of the year ).

But I'll try my best to give advices.

Doug_Kerr said:

Hi, Aida,



Celeste, Aida! (Sorry for the bad operatic pun!)

Stunning, exquisite work, and a very stylish Web site.

I'm usually not impressed by "cute" Web navigational metaphors, but the page turning metaphor there is just wonderful. It pales, though, in comparison to the work it shows off.

Your description of yourself as a "high end" retouch artist and manipulator is certainly not unearned!

I look forward to seeing more of your work here. Welcome aboard.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much! You are very kind!
You will see me giving advices, trying to help with the editing as far as why and what to add/remove, enhance.

Hi Aida

Welcome I'm glad you've joined us, great to have you here, your work and website are most impressive, I look forward to seeing and hearing more...

janet Smith said:

Hi Aida

Welcome I'm glad you've joined us, great to have you here, your work and website are most impressive, I look forward to seeing and hearing more...

Click to expand...

Hi Janet!
I checked out your website and I love the way you photograph Nature! Beautiful !
I'll be back from my vacation after 2 weeks, maybe you will want to send me a file. I would like to try my effect of "Colored Pencils retouch" on one of those photos. I think the bright colors and clear shapes would fit the style.

Aida BGAgraphix said:

Hi Janet!
I checked out your website and I love the way you photograph Nature! Beautiful !
I'll be back from my vacation after 2 weeks, maybe you will want to send me a file. I would like to try my effect of "Colored Pencils retouch" on one of those photos. I think the bright colors and clear shapes would fit the style.

Click to expand...

Hi Aida

Thank you very much, I would be delighted to send you a file, let me know which shot you would like to work on, I'd be very interested to see what you can do with it. Thanks once again for this lovely offer, I really appreciate it......

Welcome to the website. With your amazing Photoshop skills, I'm expecting to see some interesting photographs from you.
Cheers

Marcus Peddle said:

Welcome to the website. With your amazing Photoshop skills, I'm expecting to see some interesting photographs from you.
Cheers

Click to expand...

Hi Marcus,
Thank you ! I'm currently a student in an art university. I'm in the first year. I study computer graphics, but in the next year I'll also have photography classes.

I'm currently not at my PC. I'll post some photos I took when I'll get to my computer, after 2 weeks.

I have a digital cam, Olimpus X-775, nothing too expensive to start with. I love natural light, but I want to learn about artificial lighting too.

You can see one photo I took in my website, in the page nr 2. I have it uploaded in a smaller size in photobucket too.

I took the pic in the living room and tried to position my cam so that I get the "contre-jour". My photo skills are not that evolved, but I'm trying my best to learn. Would you recommend some books ?

Here are a few books that were very helpful to me:

Freeman Patterson, Photography and the Art of Seeing
Bryan Peterson, Understanding Exposure
Bryan Peterson, Learning to See Creatively
Ralph Gibson, Ex Libra (not an instruction book - I use it for inspiration)
Michael Freeman, The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
(I actually have an earlier version of this book that is out of print. This one is hard to find as well)

@marcus:
Thank you very much! I'll search for these books.

As far as the books I read about Photoshop :
*Adobe Photoshop CS Classroom in a Book (It's very complete for understanding the interface, my first one )
*The Photoshop Channels Book
*Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching (3rd Edition) by Katrin Eismann
*Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook: 62 Easy-to-Follow Recipes for Creating the Classic Styles of Great Artists and Photographers (O'Reilly Digital Studio) by John Beardsworth


I did photomanipulations for 2 years and nothing can replace practice, as theory is never enough.

I ordered in December these books from Amazon:
*Photoshop Masking & Compositing By Katrin Eismann
*Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies by Lee Varis

They still didn't show up I wonder what are they doing at the post office
After I'll read them, I can make a personal review ( I mean after I'll finally get them ^^)

Welcome Aida. Your website and your obvious skills are staggering. I am relatively new to photography and find out every day that there is always going to be something new to learn. Recently the opportunities have come up for me to photograph people (it's usually nature and wildlife for me) and that has been a new experience. I am getting better with the exposures but am still a real newby when it comes to any of the post processing needed to give them that really special look. Of the books that have been mentioned, which would be the best to start out with, in your experience, that pertain to the retouching skills needed when working with portraits? The skin softening, lighting effects, just plain glamour type processes are what I am talking about. Again, welcome to this great site and I look forward to hearing your input and advice on these things.
James

@james

Hi! Thank you very much !

Retouching is not something you can learn in a few classes. You will be confrunted with a lot of different things to add, remove, enhance etc. You need to have patience and practice a lot. So my advice would be to start understanding how PS works, every tool. I recommend you all the books above.
It's a complex software and portraits are complex too, because you need to do it without people saying: Oh, it's a retouched face!!! This is why high-end photographers hire retouch artists, it's their job, they have the skills and experience to do it.
I would also like to mention the fact that lighting needs talent. As in every domain, every job, one has to be naturally skilled. It's like painting watercolors for example: one can know all the techniques, have the most expensive and wonderfull brushes, and still paint badly.

This is how I can explain why Amy Dresser is so amazing , and she uses the same Photoshop as us.

Hi!
Please send the RAw file from "Crab Apples". I'll try to simulate the watercolor in PS.

Aida BGAgraphix said:

Hi!
Please send the RAw file from "Crab Apples". I'll try to simulate the watercolor in PS.

Click to expand...

Hi Aida

I've sent you a PM, will do, thank you very much, I really look forward to seeing the results...

wow!

Aida, Welcome to opf, this is a great place! I am utterly astonished at your photoshop skills, i myself am majoring in Graphic Design at the moment and could really use any advice you would be willing to throw my way, im not as good at photoshop as i would like to be but after looking at your portfolio it looks like you have some amazing talent. Keep up the good work i'm looking forward to seeing more as well as learning from you.

BJ

Hi Brandon !

Thank you very much ! I was thinking of writing some tips on color profiles I read in PS books. I'll do that as soon as I have some free time to properly focus and try to make them as usefull as I can.