Mary V

Photo Restoration & Color Correction Specialist | By Rim Dragonfly

Jan 2026 - Present • 7 mos

Nearly 30 years of hands-on Photoshop work, going back to 1997, now formalized into freelance restoration and color correction work on damaged and aged photographs, spanning color film from the 1960s through 80s and earlier black-and-white and instant-film formats. Work includes correcting color casts, recovering shadow and highlight detail, removing damage from folds, tears, and woven paper texture baked into old scans, and rebuilding fine detail like flyaway hair by hand when automated tools fail. I recover what is actually present in the photograph rather than inventing plausible detail, restoration, not AI generation. Performed manually in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom using frequency separation, targeted dodge and burn, and manual selection work, no presets or one-click tools.

Textile & Surface Pattern Designer | By Rim Dragonfly Workshop

Aug 2025 - Present • 1 yr

Sewing since age 8, taught by my mother, now applied to designing repeating and panel fabric patterns for print-on-demand production. Work directly in pixel math to hit exact printed dimensions across yardage and panel formats, and build original tiled repeat art from source photography and digital compositing rather than using pre-made pattern assets. Creative range: design across multiple formats, from full panel yard illustrations to seamless repeat coordinates, each with different technical and visual constraints. Detail orientation: work in exact pixel math to hit precise printed dimensions, since a pattern that tiles or scales incorrectly fails at production regardless of how it looks on screen. Project orientation: manage each design from source photography and compositing through to a finished, sellable product listed and sold through Etsy.

Fine Art & Stock Photographer | Multiple Platforms

Mar 2025 - Present • 1 yr 5 mos

Licensed across Adobe Stock, Dreamstime, Shutterstock, and Fine Art America, spanning portrait, pet, and landscape work. Years culling and editing my own full shoots taught the skills a client's gallery needs: consistent color, honest but flattering retouching, a finished product ready to deliver. Creative range: shoot across portrait, pet, landscape, and macro subjects, adapting light, composition, and post-processing to each genre rather than working one visual style. Detail orientation: built and maintain a metadata and submission tracking system to manage platform-specific keywording, licensing terms, and quality standards across four platforms simultaneously. Project orientation: manage the full pipeline end to end, shooting, culling, editing, submission, and quality control against each platform's own acceptance standards. Photo Restoration & Color Correction Specialist | By Rim Dragonfly January 2026 – Present Nearly 30 years of hands-on Photoshop work, going back to 1997, now formalized into freelance restoration and color correction work on damaged and aged photographs, spanning color film from the 1960s through 80s and earlier black-and-white and instant-film formats. Work includes correcting color casts, recovering shadow and highlight detail, removing damage from folds, tears, and woven paper texture baked into old scans, and rebuilding fine detail like flyaway hair by hand when automated tools fail. I recover what is actually present in the photograph rather than inventing plausible detail, restoration, not AI generation. Performed manually in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom using frequency separation, targeted dodge and burn, and manual selection work, no presets or one-click tools.