Advice Please

[WildcatOne]

As most of y'all know, I've been in a semi-retired situation for a while now. I'm looking to find something I can do that will restore my income level to a facsimile of what it was before I decided to take the early retirement package and move on from there. Recently, I have been doing some photo restorations and adjustments to pictures for friends. I did one of my buddy Bill's grandmother from a wedding she was a bridesmaid at in 1912. The result made huge waves in Bill's family in a positive way. His sister took the picture to a Hobby Lobby in Little Rock to have it framed, and the people at the frame shop there flipped over it. Bill contacted me and told me that I should be doing a photo restoration business. I can post the before and after versions of that picture, but I thought I'd ask y'all if you might have some advice for me as to how I should go about getting this business going...No biggie, but any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, WC1

[WildcatOne]

Here is Bill's grandmother, originally I cropped her out of the wedding picture. She is all but camouflaged by the bride's head and veil.

I went to the right side of the big picture and sampled the lady standing there's arms and bouquet and put it in front of the bride, sized it down to fit Bill's gram, and did an overall cleanup and level adjustment...

I'm thinking about making a little web page and putting it somewhere that shows examples like this, and doing an online search and finding out what folks charge for this kind of stuff. I did this for Bill as a favor, but he came back at me and told me how big of a hit that picture was and that I should look into starting my own business doing this...
Any advice...thanks, WC1

[WildcatOne]

Motorsports:
Mike's 60 BelAir from a pic he sent to me a while back:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/548 ... 4301HlyvcH
I did a 3 1/2" chop on it to see what it'd look like:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/548 ... 4301XWPIUq
Here's Lippy's Funny Car, fresh off the trailer:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/548 ... 4301vSwIdb
I flipped it horizontally, also flipped the lettering, put in a custom background and dropped Rapid's engine in it...good to go:
http://community.webshots.com/photo/548 ... 4301NbhXKI

[wheelzman]

Cat another idea along the lines with the photo business is pet photos. A friend of a friend started doing this to augment his retirement income and it has blown way out of proportion on him. Pet owners pay him a minimum of $50.00 for one photo of their pet. He uses the same software as you, shows them a proof sheet to allow them to pick the photo or photos they want and then goes to Walmart to blow them up to 8x10 or 10x12 or whatever size they want. Take some pics of your critters and attend one of the dog shows in Huston or what ever is closest. He has a landscaped backyard, bought some props and uses part of his home as an office so the people come to his place to do the pics so if you start the business you can write it off. Where I live it costs $25.00 for a vendor's license and your good to go. You need to consult a good tax account for the proper procedures.

[Gator]

Cat another idea along the lines with the photo business is pet photos. A friend of a friend started doing this to augment his retirement income and it has blown way out of proportion on him. Pet owners pay him a minimum of $50.00 for one photo of their pet. He uses the same software as you, shows them a proof sheet to allow them to pick the photo or photos they want and then goes to Walmart to blow them up to 8x10 or 10x12 or whatever size they want. Take some pics of your critters and attend one of the dog shows in Huston or what ever is closest. He has a landscaped backyard, bought some props and uses part of his home as an office so the people come to his place to do the pics so if you start the business you can write it off. Where I live it costs $25.00 for a vendor's license and your good to go. You need to consult a good tax account for the proper procedures.

Great thoughts..
the website is a great idea John..
We all can help in then sending the link all over the place..
Man, You are talented!

[Mtn.man]

WC has the energy of a 9 year old and the talent of a Master!!!!!

[draglist]

I'll be happy to promote whatever you come up with, John. I'll bet we can get some business from guys who have old car shots, etc. However, there are guys up on the newsgroups who do this for free (at least online shots), so there might be some degree of whining about having to pay for it... certainly, if you can come up with a new photograph folks will flip over this. My sister Judy has a photoshop in Ohio and gets lots of requests for this sort of thing, but hasn't taken up the photo manipulation end of it (she just fixes bad color, etc. with existing real photos). I'll put you in touch with her off post and maybe you guys can work something out. No doubt she'll have an idea of what the public wants. bp

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, y'all, I appreciate that...I don't want to start charging guys who usually get their stuff for free...I remember doing a fix on a Top Fuel match race picture from the early 60s a while back and I did it for free because it was going in here in an article for a guy who is a buddy of yours, BP...I wouldn't charge anything for that stuff...this would be stuff like the Bill-Grandma picture, from John Q. Public. I did an internet search on "Photo Resotration" and thousands upon thousands of links appeared, all great, all doing what I just showed here (well, not like the cars, but with people and stuff)...it is a highly competitive market. I'm gonna think about this for a while...thanks for the tips and advice, guys. Cheers, WC1

[Bob Kraemer]

W/C
In my opinion photo restoration and photo manipulation are the difference between night and day. Anybody with free software and a decent scanner can restore photos. What you do is a work of art. Your pictures of Rapids "Far Out & Bad Ass" AA/FA designs are proof of that.
I would look into placing some adds or a link at Antique web sites or trade shows.

[WildcatOne]

That's a very good point, Bob, and thanks for that...there are indeed two sides to the photo work...shoot, I'd love to see that car (Rapid's 57 Chevy AA/FA) out there. I can't imagine what Rapid must feel about it...well, making a picture/conceptual rendering of it and actually building that body are certainly not the same amount of expense and work, but once that thing got done, it would be the most exciting dadgum hot rod on the planet. I've tried to figure out how to raise the dough to build it, but what I could come up with probably wouldn't come close to the actual expense that the project would need to realistically achieve that goal. A sponsor would be needed...but yes, I'll look into the Antique show circuit. That'd be where a lot of those pictures would exist and be in need of work...Thanks again, WC1
http://community.webshots.com/photo/548 ... 4301NjjwPK