CS5 calculations and apply image Books, Tuts?

[Tony W]

Not quite sure where this post belongs - so started here please move if not relevant.

I am trying to gain a better understanding of Calculations and Apply Image. While I do have a collection of PS books I cannot seem to find in depth information. Therefore I would appreciate your advice on books, or tutorials worth looking at.

Thanks
Tony

[mistermonday]

Hi Tony, I moved this thread to software / PS help.
I don't think you will find any books on Calculations and Apply Image since they a just individual commands in PS. However there are a zillion tutorials and video tutorials on the net if you jsu google Photoshop Calculations Command and the same for AI. Most of the tutorials will present examples of their application. When you distil these commands down to their essence, they basically allow you to combine / blend together the various color and alpha channels in an image to create new channels or replace existing ones. Without these command you would need to do a lot more work in PS. For example if you wanted to create a new channel which was the same as the R and G channels multiplied together, you would need to do the following:
- Go to channel palette, activate R channel or Ctrl 3
- Select All
- Copy
- Go to Layer Palette
- Paste
- Go to channel palette
- Do the above to copy and paste into a new layer
- Change blend mode to multiply
- Copy
- Go to Channel Palette
- Create new channel
- Paste results of blended R&G into new channel
- etc..
This gets done in one command with Calculations.

These are very helpful and time saving commands and once you understand what they actually do, they become second nature to use.

Regards, Murray

[Doug Nelson]

Chris Tarantino has two Calculations shows up on our YouTube rentals channel

http://www.youtube.com/retouchpro

[secretagents]

Best book that has a significant amount of information on those commands has to be Photoshop Channel Chops but it's out of print since a long time and rather expensive second hand generally for such an old book written for Photoshop 4. I bought a second hand copy of it a few months ago and it's a purchase I certainly do not regret.

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Chan.../dp/1562057235

[Tony W]

Murray, thanks for moving this into the correct slot - I just could not find where to put it. Must be spending too much time at the monitor .

Thanks also for the comprehensive reply. I have played/fumbled around with Apply image with good results (sometimes!). Calculations have tended to avoid but can see the attraction. I have searched on google and I suppose got lazy, as you say there are so many tuts trying to sort the good from the not so good difficult.

Doug, thank you for the link. I will have a look but I had thought that currently these not available in the UK.

secretagents, will keep an eye out for the book

Many thanks to all
Tony

[4personnen]

There is some hints in Kathryn Eisman Compositing book although it's not the core of her discussion, mainly on the purpose of making new channels and masks...

http://www.photoshopmasking.com/

chapter 9 if I remember well page 300-330.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photoshop-Ma...2&sr=8-1-spell

[Tony W]

Thanks 4personnen, I do have the book and like you from memory it is not covered in depth, but I think I should revisit this section

[NYBOB]

A couple video links that may help.

Bob

http://www.deke.com/content/photosho...3-calculations




http://www.howcast.com/videos/268645...cult-Selection

[Tony W]

Bob, many thanks for the links. I will be checking them out soon

[foresaa]

Tony,
Someone who seems (through lots of experience) to use calulations & channels instinctively at a practitioner/professional level

Personally, I've learned a lot from his web tutorials & DVDs

btw, have no commercial association with his company

http://www.guygowan.com

Originally Posted by Tony W

Not quite sure where this post belongs - so started here please move if not relevant.

I am trying to gain a better understanding of Calculations and Apply Image. While I do have a collection of PS books I cannot seem to find in depth information. Therefore I would appreciate your advice on books, or tutorials worth looking at.

Thanks
Tony