I was showing my boyfriend how the curves layer works and he asked 'What is it doing?' and I replied 'It's remapping the pixels' and he said 'yeah, but what is it doing?'. More than that, I didn't know.

What I'm asking here is are there any books or web sites out there that explain at all what happens when you move the slider of a levels adjustment layer to the left or right or what happens when you fiddle with the curves adjustment layer or colour channels and so on. What I've found so far describes 'if you do this, then that is the result'. I'd like to try to get a better understanding of how these things work, then I'll feel more comfortable about trying one technique rather than the other. It won't feel like such a guessing game to me. I'm not looking for formulas or calculations but just a better explanation of why things work the way they do.

Also, I'd also like a better description of workspace and colour management for the newbie who doesn't have any print press experience and only amateur photography experience.

What do you think?

Doh.

If you want the in depth knowledge on color and adjustments and levels, curves etc. get "Real World Photoshop 6 Industrial Strength Production Techniques by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser". There may be others that someone else can recommend but I found that one really went into depth on the subjects. These guys are at the top of the Photoshop guru list. It also gets into working with the numbers in great detail too. That one is still tough for me sometimes. Hope that helps.
DJ

Doh,

I like your way of thinking. I've always said that when you know *WHY* something works, and *HOW* it works, you probably don't need to know any more. Well ------ I need to know more :).

Ed

I was doing some web research on the color management and found at least one site that seems to try to explain things in a bit more detail.

http://www.creativepro.com/author/home/40.html

The fellow who wrote these columns (as you will see) is Bruce Fraser who co-authored Real World Photoshop. There's a whole series of articles. Having read a couple of them, some of the information is sinking in but I'm finding that the more I read, the more questions I have.

I also just had a peek at www.color.org which is the ICC site. You can get a copy of a document of the ICC Profile specifications for the real geeks out there :)

Anyway, having started this thread, I thought I would let you all in on the find.

Doh

:cool:

Hey thanks Doh,

Two very good sites with good information.

Appreciate the find and plan to study them a bit.

:)

Doh, Ditto the thanks. I've wandered around "Creative Pro" and its well worth the time to check it out. I am with you--I like to know "WHY" as well as "HOW TO". Seems that if I gain some small understanding of the nuts and bolts,as it were, of a technique or procedure, lots of other avenues open up to use them on. Thanks again, Tom

My thanks too Doh. I'll be checking them out for certain.

Ed

If you are interested in the technical aspects of color management Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers by Martin Evening is an excellent resource. There is a pdf download of one of the chapters on color management at the following url http://www.evening.demon.co.uk/photoshop6/ Couldn't agree more that it's always best to understand the whys of doing something.I'm starting to think that it might be time to hit the Physics101 books!

Thanks for the link Paulette. Looks like a real good one with lots of information and surprisingly enough, it's not one I have bookmarked. :)
DJ