Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

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JamesInSanDiego
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Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by JamesInSanDiego »

Recently, having the luxury of lots of free time, I have been trying to learn how to manipulate photos and draw some personal clip art but I run across all the GC features which I just don't know. Honestly, I don't even understand what a mask is. I see things like Alpha Channels, Equalizers, Histograms and so much more and don't have a clue what they are used for. Could someone recommend a book or a few books or a web learning site which I could use to teach myself more about everything GraphicConverter can do to photos and graphics? I have the Hagen's Manual and that helps with GraphicConverter specifically but I just don't have a good enough background to even understand what some of the commands do.

So again, could anyone recommend a book, series of books, online websites or whatever to help me learn about digital photos and their manipulation as well as drawing things like clip art? Perhaps something like a Photo editing for Dummies, lol, level of book. I can gradually move to more sophisticated books etc.
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Re: Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by forum_adm »

Did you look into the help menu?
You find there the complete Hagens Manual with a lot of details and informations about each function.
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JamesInSanDiego
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Re: Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by JamesInSanDiego »

Hi Thorsten,

Yes, I use the Help menu and have downloaded the manual and use it frequently with the GC pic open in one window and the manual side-by-side in another window. I sometimes go through the manual just reading what commands do and checking out the examples. But frequently I find myself in a mental "Möbius" strip type loop where the definition of a command-x uses words, commands and example I don't understand. :? So before I can use the command-x, I end up checking out several other things which often leads me to a command-y whose definition has command-x in it. :x Hence the Möbius strip. I just feel I am missing some general knowledge that other GC users already know. Decades ago I tried using/learning Photoshop and ran into this same issue. Back then I didn’t have the time to spend learning PS because I was working 60 hours a week. Now being disabled/retired I have nothing but free time. BTW: I like GC infinitely more than Photoshop, ;) . I'm just hoping I can find and read some book where I can learn whatever I don't know.
27" iMac 14,2 (late 2013) 3.5 GHz i7 24 GB RAM 3 TB Fusion Drive macOS High Sierra 10.13.2
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Hagen Henke
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Re: Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by Hagen Henke »

Hello,

please read in my manual the section Processing Pictures from page 113 and skip the first chapter Non-destructive image editing with the Cocooner and all chapters you think you don't need. Once you do not understand a paragraph please quote the text for more help.

Regards, Hagen Henke
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JamesInSanDiego
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Re: Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by JamesInSanDiego »

Hi Hagen,

Thanks for your reply and suggestion. But I keep running into things which I don't understand so using a GC tool is also difficult because I don't know what I am doing.

Example #1:
Your manual is written very well and has great examples but I keep running into things that immediately stump me. I took your suggestion and started reading on page 115, specifically Color Correction with Color Balance. Thorsten has written a program which is very easy to use and your example is also very good. But I am so much of a rookie that I don't know/understand how one color affects others in a picture. I know there is something called a color wheel but I don't know how to use it. I'm sure a lot of understanding color correction will come from trial and error but I would like to read somewhere about colors, blending colors, balancing colors so I can have a better idea how to use GC while following your manual. How does a color affect another color right next to it in a picture?

Example 2:
On page 116, you write about Color Correction using Xe8472. But what is Xe8472? I don't know what is being discussed right from the title of the paragraph. So off I go searching the web for information about Xe8472 and find that Xe8472 is an industry-first color constancy technology for professional filmmakers and photographers and processes digital imagery to appear as it would as seen through the human eye. Xe8472 actually simulates the physiological and psychological processes inside the human brain. I had no idea that people have studied something like Xe8472.

Perhaps I am looking for a book which doesn’t exist. But if I don't know and understand what Xe8472 is then your example on using it is hard to follow.

I really do thank you and Thorsten for trying to help me. I think I might search the web for an online course on colors and the like. But if there is some reference tool you are aware of, I would sill like to know about it.

James
27" iMac 14,2 (late 2013) 3.5 GHz i7 24 GB RAM 3 TB Fusion Drive macOS High Sierra 10.13.2
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Hagen Henke
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Re: Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by Hagen Henke »

Do not think of the color tool. Simply try the functions. It really is a try and devolop as there is no way to measure wrong color.

Xe helps to do it even easier. Play with the controls and follow your feeling.
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s2art
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Re: Anyone recommend a Photo & Graphic Book to learn more?

Post by s2art »

Hi there. As an educator I understand where you are coming from.
Here are some resources that may help?
Joesf Albers book on colour is the easy to read and understand book about colour relationships, I highly recommend it.
Here's a link to it on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Interaction-Colo ... 0300018460
Adobe has a great tool for experimenting with colour relationships
https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
An intersting article on colour relationships also
http://luminous-landscape.com/color-har ... lementary/
Colour Management? What it is and why its important?
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutor ... ement1.htm
Colour concepts
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/learn ... ncepts.htm
Every link I have book marked on colour
https://pinboard.in/u:s2art/t:Colour/

Hope this helps?
Artist. Seer of Pictures.
http://stuarts.photos
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