Is hand-retouching almost dead?

I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
seen for many years.

This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
ever done?

Do you retouch prints?

Sammy wrote:
> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
> seen for many years.
>
> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
> ever done?
>
> Do you retouch prints?

I haven't made darkroom prints in years. I used to have to spot them
sometimes; I never got good enough for more than the simplest
retouching. This seems to be another area where I'm just *better*
digitally than on paper.

I've probably still got Spotone and some brushes somewhere, though.

Talk about timing. It is done, but digitally. My wife and I have been
scanning and filing a bunch of OLD family pictures. Some are sepia and have
lots of scratches, blotches, etc. I just spent an hour working on one that
was about 80 years old.
RonB

"David Dyer-Bennet" <dd-b@dd-b.net> wrote in message
news:4621481f$0$952$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.ne t...
> Sammy wrote:
>> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
>> seen for many years.
>>
>> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
>> ever done?
>>
>> Do you retouch prints?
>
> I haven't made darkroom prints in years. I used to have to spot them
> sometimes; I never got good enough for more than the simplest retouching.
> This seems to be another area where I'm just *better* digitally than on
> paper.
>
> I've probably still got Spotone and some brushes somewhere, though.

RonB wrote:
> Talk about timing. It is done, but digitally. My wife and I have been
> scanning and filing a bunch of OLD family pictures. Some are sepia and have
> lots of scratches, blotches, etc. I just spent an hour working on one that
> was about 80 years old.

The book sitting closest to me is _Digital Restoration From Start to
Finish_ (by Ctein, published by Focal Press), which looks like it will
teach me a bunch of things when I have time to attack it systematically.
Luckily few to none of the old pictures I have access to are in as bad
shape as some of the examples in the book :-).

On Sat, 14 Apr 2007 22:14:51 +0100, Sammy <no-one@no-where.com> wrote:

> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
> seen for many years.
>
> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
> ever done?
>
> Do you retouch prints?

Yes. With Photoshop.

"Sammy" <no-one@no-where.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9912E2507EC02451E7A@127.0.0.1...
>I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
> seen for many years.
>
> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
> ever done?
>
> Do you retouch prints?

I still do it, if there is a small defect in an otherwise nice looking
print, or knocking red eye out of a drugstore print with a Sharpee.
--
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/

On 2007-04-14 17:40:56 -0700, "Mike Russell"
<RE-MOVEmike@Curvemeister.comRE-MOVE> said:

> "Sammy" <no-one@no-where.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9912E2507EC02451E7A@127.0.0.1...
>> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
>> seen for many years.
>>
>> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
>> ever done?
>>
>> Do you retouch prints?
>
> I still do it, if there is a small defect in an otherwise nice looking
> print, or knocking red eye out of a drugstore print with a Sharpee.

And that is about the extent of it these days -- the old Sharpee red-eye fix.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

In article <Xns9912E2507EC02451E7A@127.0.0.1>, Sammy
<no-one@no-where.com> wrote:

> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
> seen for many years.
>
> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
> ever done?
>
> Do you retouch prints?

I'd hate to count the hours I spent working on prints with Spotone and
pencils. I still have a nice supply of retouching spray and finishing
spray.

Sammy wrote:
> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
> seen for many years.
>
> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
> ever done?
>
> Do you retouch prints?
Funny thing -- this just appeared on my local Craigslist


http://rochester.craigslist.org/pho/311687338.html

On Apr 14, 4:14 pm, Sammy <no-...@no-where.com> wrote:
> I came across some of my old jars of photo-retouching dye which I hadn't
> seen for many years.
>
> This made me wonder if nowadays hand-retouching of the final print is
> ever done?
>
> Do you retouch prints?

The ease of retouching, and restoring old photos, is what attracted me
to digital originally.

There is little I can do digitally that could not be done in darkroom
in old days, but it is SO much easier today. Much faster, no smelly
chemicals, no mess to clean up in the darkroom.

I never used the darkroom since I went digital. I suspect the only
time I will clean out and use it in the future is just to demonstrate
to my grandkids the magic of watching a print appear in the developing
solution.