i'm training to be the best PSCer here and to take over the world!!! muahahahaha

....oh wait, did marco and reyrey already do that?

Mere... we output through Illustrator 100% of the time... i wish we'd use quark though, i miss using that program, and i always thought you got better results when printing from there... Our biggest clients include AmericanAirlines, RediServe, im doing a OJ label for Walmart right now (they have their own designers) just making sure its ok (which it wasnt) oh well. but yeah theres some wierd stuff that i run into with some of these designs, that i dont see till its on the press. tons of trapping issues... most times i have to manually trap a job because the 186 red chokes 109 yellow?!?! WTF! instead of having the 109 bleed over the red. still havent figured out how to fix that little doosy and its common for those two colors to be together for some reason here... so i just trap it myself 2 best things i ever got to do is for one client they wanted to use this plate, and it had a fork that they didnt want in the photo, so i had to chop it out. the client was impressed, because the plate was very detailed with all of these spirals in it... and i was happy to be able to use photoshop (for work) lol the other was making a cut pork roast look like sliced roastbeef Tons of color correction. came out really nice!!
cheers
sean

wow, sounds like you work for a pretty big company, sean. how many artists you got there with you? How many presses are you running? I'm the only one here. We have a 10 color 11" web press and a 5 color one, plus a dinosaur with nylo plates that we use for cheap one and two color jobs. funny how karma works out, I didn't become a photographer cause I hated the chemicals and now they use digital cameras and I'm using those chemicals on a daily basis. #1 on my list of least favorite things to do on this planet is cleaning out that processor. Hoepfully we get digital plates someday soon. By the time we retire, we'll both be pressmen as everything will be direct to press.
I manually trap everything, we had a trapping program once... a trial version of something or other about 5 years ago and it was really slow and I never trusted it. I output everythinhg in quark cause we still get some quark files that come in and it's easier to output illustrator eps files in quark than it is to output quark files in illustrator.

Hey, nice topic.

I got into Photoshop while working on a degree in journalism back in 2000. I self-taught myself a lot of the program and then, upon finishing my journalism degree, went back to school to get a degree in graphic design, with specialization in imaging (That meaning I can do a good chop but I don't know crap about art).

My roots are as a tramp artist.
I have created thousands of pieces of work, in many many mediums.
Out of them I have created four pieces of art.
Photoshop is a blast and the most forgiving medium there is.
This is a great time to be alive, if just for that reason...
Good LORD, could you imagine a guy like DaVinci with tools like
this to work with?

That's quite a thought. Turner, Michaelangelo, Monet, Raphael, Renoir, Botticelli, Degas, Pissarro, Cezanne... just think what they could have produced with PS, a damn good scanner and a powerful PC!

Aaaanyway... I took art in secondary (high) school and would've studied for a career in that area, but with the arrival of Z80s machines in the classroom in the 80s, I got bitten by the "bug" (ho ho.) and soon switched to computers!

Since then I've dabbled in graphics work, but mostly low-level stuff and not as an actual career option, so PSC is really a combination and extension of two personal interests...

I have been hooked on Photoshop / digital imaging since it first came out many MANY moons ago.

I've had some design training (though it sucked and i actually learned more from my fellow students - though it might not show in my work ) but mostly I've spent LOTS of money on books and magazines and taught myself. This site originally taught me a lot as well.

I just paid 9$ CAN today for a magazine with (hopefully) a good article on Up-Sizing and advanced RAW techniqes. If i learn even one thing from that magazine it will be a fuck of a lot cheaper than going to "college".

I say, take responsability for your "learning" in life and dig into some good books - then PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE (again, something this site is good for).

Okay - gotta go read that mag now!!!!

In a Sunday school class as a child I colored Jesus and his robe orange and purple respectively and then I was used as an example for the class as someone who didn't know how to color. I remember that I only had 2 crayons to choose from. I told my parents I never wanted to go back there again. I never had to.

A few years ago I came across this site and started editing pictures in Windows Paint which only had about 16 colors to choose from. After about a year of trying to do things here I got a legal copy of PS7 and my world was rocked. I get ridiculed for not being artistic enough a little less than I used to and I truly enjoy trying to make things that make people smile or LOL.

Oh yeah and I've been teaching Sunday schools for years and I bet I go a little overboard on encouraging the kids to color the crafts the way they want to

how many times do i have to tell you?
http://search.ebay.com//search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=adobe+tutorials
let the nice pirates at ebay educate you for next to nothing, cramb 3 years university into 3 months, no need for books and magazines, no need for the huge university cost, no need for all that pointless sex, drugs, beer and parties, just sit in front of the computer/dvd and let some over educated geek teach you everything they know.
why do i feal cheap and dirty now

YEAH!!! HTUK ROCKS!!!
I am so glad you left that hack Picasso off that list
I just know he'd be chopping animal PORN!!!!!!!
welcome to Picassodotcom--
"get ready to take the bull by the horn---HONK!"
Wett!!
That's a Beautiful story man!!!

Wett--that's a terrific and sad story. Look how far you've come now! Just goes to show you that opinions are like ....ahem.... everybody's got one! Gotta be careful if YOU"RE teaching Sunday school. Personally, I think orange and purple really rock! Don't ever let them pull you down, man!!!!

Okay, I'm finished now.

btw Scion, the technical term is "outside artist" not tramp artist. Although you can be all that you can be. I think we all really enjoy your work be it tramp or outsider.

As far as the masters having full rein of computer graphics...I'm not for it. Who wants to peer into computers to see artwork full of life and color--what if the computer's monitor isn't calibrated????? If you've ever seen a Van Gogh, Matisse, et al in person you know.

Now we're raising a generation who won't know how to spell or communicate due to computers and text messaging.

Eeeeesh!

I am what you would call a novice's novice. Took some classes, mostly computer stuff, internet, hardware, web design, etc... Fell in with graphic design about 2 years ago. I have no other artistic talent whatsoever, can't even draw a decent stick person! But I found that I can create in photoshop. My problem, and I've heard this before, is you are only limited by your own imagination, well, I'm very limited. I have a very hard time thinking outside the box, so to speak. Still learning so I suppose that will come in time. Still love working with photoshop above all other programs and I do a lot of graphics for my church and my community so I do keep very busy and am always discovering something new in photoshop!

This is so cool. I wondered what kind of stories I get in response to my poll. Keep them coming everyone! Don't be scared to tell us how you got to where you are now.

Personally I'm glad to see that I'm not the only "hack" here. It's good to see that there are so many kindred spirits. That's what makes this such a great community I suppose....