Without fail, during the teaching process, one of the obvious questions is: “How much Photoshop work do I do?”.  It may not be a stretch to say that some photographers may tend to exaggerate slightly.  It could be fair to say that in my past life, I may have been just like that person.  Lets get back on track.  I do extremely minimal amount of Photoshop.  Why you ask?  Because I’m not very good at it.  Why you ask?  Probably because I do not apply myself and I have a full day of photography, film making, and editing.  Id like to leave Photoshop to the experts.  Over the years, I’ve been blessed with several great assistants who are able to do absolute magic with the tools in Photoshop.  Scott Melanson is one of them, a graduate of CIA (Cleveland Institute of Art).  Enya Mommsen, also an absolute wizard.  Our newest assistant, Matt Tidridge has proven to be not only equal to the task, but in some ways, superior.  We had a friend come in who had a 1908 photograph of his wife’s mother as a child and wanted to rebuild the image.  I particularly thought of old-school in actually trying to restore the original print.  Not happening!  I pieced it together and shot the raw image, handed the file to Matt and he did his magic, which in my opinion is absolutely gorgeous.  So I take off my beret to Matt, who can generate an original piece of art from a tattered, 100+ year old print.  Knowing the tools, and how to use them, is a good thing.