THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411290103
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
JERAMY GILBERT SPENT four years working with beautiful women. After photographing between 400 and 500 of them, he began to burn out. Not only did he want to attract more families and couples into his photography studio, he wanted to do something different.
``I wanted to balance it out more,'' said Gilbert, a graduate of the Hallmark Institute of Photography in Cape Cod, Mass., and one of the first photographers in this area to offer boudoir photography in the early '80s.
Now he's developed another business idea. This time he's not taking the photographs, he's recreating, retouching or transforming someone else's photography. He opened PhotoBytes, a photography restoration and enhancement service, out of his Thalia home in October.
With the help of a sophisticated computer program, Gilbert can record Kodak moments that never were.
Once he scans a photograph (up to 8 1/2x14) into his computer, he can change black and white pictures to color, erase a background, add a background, smooth facial lines, tan lines and even add and delete people, drawing in body parts as they're needed.
``I like the idea that I'm doing something that's beyond me,'' said Gilbert, a native of Cape Cod. ``It's something that will outlive me for someone else.''
Gilbert was commissioned to combine the individual pictures of three brothers, one of whom is deceased, into one, single family portrait. He accomplished this using separate pictures of each boy, tinting the backgrounds to match and then moving each boy's likeness into place side by side.
He's been paid to erase the image of a black van directly behind a bride and groom in a wedding picture. He's taken former wives and husbands out of family portraits and even transposed the image of two friends holding fish into the back of a fishing boat.
Once the picture is finished, Gilbert prints a proof and a negative from a film recorder (instead of a regular computer printer) and then customers can go to the developer of their choice.
Gilbert charges $30 an hour. Typically, depending on the customer's order, it takes anywhere from one to three weeks to finish an order.
Gilbert says his business ``walks a fine line.''
``I mix together and create something unique,'' he said. ``I don't see anything unethical about that as long as I've changed the total content. Of course, it's a fine line. It's a judgment call on most things.''
Once Gilbert was approached by a man who wanted him to transpose one woman's likeness with another's in a bathtub. Gilbert refused.
``I would never take a photograph (or mix one) that I wouldn't show my mother,'' he said.
Gilbert is being cautious about this new service. He decided to work out of his home, rather than risk money on another studio, to be sure the business will work.
``I thought instead of jumping in, not knowing what kind of business it will become, it's better to work out of my home,'' he said.
He came across computer photography when he was working in a Norfolk camera shop after closing his first photography business. He first experimented with photo CDs. He has since spent between $5,000 and $6,000 on computer programs.
``I think its uses are unlimited,'' said Gilbert of the computer program. ``There are all kinds of situations it can be applied to. For instance, there's document scanning, architectural applications where I can add a room addition to a picture of a house or add shrubbery, etc.''
The majority of Gilbert's work has been in picture restoration. He's done about 200 restorations of old pictures that are faded, cracked or torn.
The second most popular service is adding or removing someone.
In his spare time, when he's not doctoring someone else's pictures or taking boudoir or family photographs by appointment, his hobby is shooting black and white photographs of aging farm equipment and crumbling barns. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
Jeramy Gilbert opened PhotoBytes, a photography restoration and
enhancement service, out of his Thalia home in October.
by CNB