Around 2008, one of my first jobs out of college was working as a photo retoucher for a retail fashion company. One of our main tasks was placing 3rd party product shots on a neutral background so that the photography would look consistent. I was pretty good with it and had a few tricks up my sleeve (Photoshop Actions FTW!) but it was still pretty time intensive.
Even back then, I was fearful of making a career out of that job. At worst, my company could have offshored a lot of that work rather than paying full time benefits in NYC. And while there were a few plugins back then, they weren't this good.
I'm fortunate I was able to move my career in another direction, but I did work with some amazing people who knew PS/photography inside and out. A part of me is sad that these skills are increasingly obsolete.
As someone who used to also work in this space, I don't really agree with the sentiment. The manual cutting part of the work was always the boring and mundane part and honestly I would've always appreciated better automation in that regard. Making the rote work automatic leaves you with more time to work on the creative aspects of the work, it doesn't make it obsolete.
Even back then, I was fearful of making a career out of that job. At worst, my company could have offshored a lot of that work rather than paying full time benefits in NYC. And while there were a few plugins back then, they weren't this good.
I'm fortunate I was able to move my career in another direction, but I did work with some amazing people who knew PS/photography inside and out. A part of me is sad that these skills are increasingly obsolete.