PS: Catching Up to 1998

[fhaber]

Amazon jogged my memory yesterday by cancelling my (!October) order for "Photoshop Channel Chops" by Monroy. I'd ordered it on an impulse buy, since two friends had suggested it as the best answer to an idle question.

What idle question? Something like, "You know, I'd give my eye teeth to understand what an alpha channel really is/was, and what the Photoshop designers were thinking of when they invented Overlay, Multiply, and the other stuff from, what was it, the PS4 era? Know anything that would give me some background?"

Should I bother reordering it somewhere else? Blasted Amazon US still has it for sale NEW, at the price I (didn't) pay. What is this, flypaper for new suckers (g).

To expand a bit, I'd like to know how Adobe got from the basic CG math of this stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_compositing

to the tools we have now for layering and masking - from both the RGB and paper sides of things. I just missed rubylith, but have some early experience with video masking. I sometimes have a hard time guessing what tool at what opacity and polarity will give what effect, but I assume I'm not alone in that.

[terrie]

It's a good book...a bit old at this point but still useful...I believe it's out of print...you might check abebooks.com to get it 2nd hand...

Terrie

[ktinkel]

Amazon jogged my memory yesterday by cancelling my (!October) order for "Photoshop Channel Chops" by Monroy. I'd ordered it on an impulse buy, since two friends had suggested it as the best answer to an idle question.

What idle question? Something like, "You know, I'd give my eye teeth to understand what an alpha channel really is/was, and what the Photoshop designers were thinking of when they invented Overlay, Multiply, and the other stuff from, what was it, the PS4 era? Know anything that would give me some background?"

Should I bother reordering it somewhere else? Blasted Amazon US still has it for sale NEW, at the price I (didn't) pay. What is this, flypaper for new suckers (g).

To expand a bit, I'd like to know how Adobe got from the basic CG math of this stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_compositing

to the tools we have now for layering and masking - from both the RGB and paper sides of things. I just missed rubylith, but have some early experience with video masking. I sometimes have a hard time guessing what tool at what opacity and polarity will give what effect, but I assume I'm not alone in that.I am not enough of a Photoshop jock to advise you.

However, I can say that Bert Monroy gave his all to explaining this stuff in the early days — he withheld nothing, really — so if you can find a used copy of his book, I would have to think it would be useful, even though out of date in Photoshop terms.

Monroy is one of the great good guys.

[Scott Southerland]

Channel Chops is near the top of the favorites list in my PS library. Definitely worth searching down!

[Andrew B.]

Channel Chops is like an introductory course to intermediate/advanced techniques. A fairly well-rounded starting place upon which you can build.

[TheGraphicsReport]

If you can't find the book, which is a real education if you have not used these, you may want to start with perhaps the oldest tips for Photoshop: Kai's Power Tips (http://www.study.centersti.com/oboi/index-11.htm). These were a forerunner to Kai's power Tools, back in the days of Photoshop 2, I think. They use channel operations extensively. Although it is all VERY out of date, and seems somewhat ordinary compared with the present tools, it will explain the thinking somewhat. Really the best way is to jump right in. They are now called Calculations (Image menu) and they names have changed and new options are now available.
John

[terrie]

>>pcgraphicsreport: Kai's Power Tips (http://www.study.centersti.com/oboi/index-11.htm).

There's some nifty stuff there...thanks!

Wonder what Kai is doing these days? Do you know?

Terrie

[fhaber]

Wow, thank you. Those Kai tips are first class. He is hereby forgiven for the fuzzball, Exploratorium interface on Power Tools (g, and personal opinon).

[fhaber]

And for completeness, let me recommend that all owners of Monroy's "Photoshop Channel Chops" take out additional insurance. Note the following quotes for "good, readable" copies:

Strand, NYC - $425

Amazon - $475

-f

[ktinkel]

And for completeness, let me recommend that all owners of Monroy's "Photoshop Channel Chops" take out additional insurance. Note the following quotes for "good, readable" copies:

Strand, NYC - $425

Amazon - $475Yeegads!

[ElyseC]

Yeegads!No kidding! You'd think those kind of prices would tell some book publisher somewhere that it would be worthwhile to pay Bert to update it for them to republish! I should think there'd be no problem selling them!