A Book on General Image Editing Concepts?

halftrack asks: "Someone I know wanted 'Photoshop for Dummies' for Christmas because she wanted to learn how to use it properly (who hasn't struggled trying to draw a simple line?) However, having a strong disliking for any sort of vendor lock-in I went searching for a book that would teach image editing without tying it too strongly to Photoshop (or Gimp for that matter). However, all my searches turned out blank. Thus I was wondering if there exists such a book, or is the field too diverse? The ideal would be a (thick) book that would cover the basic concepts (layers, paths, selections, channels etc.,) before presenting how these concepts are implemented in different applications. Such a book should provide the reader with a portable skill-set and give her/him the ability to objectively choose the right tool for the job, at the right cost. Does this book exist?"

Comments

Doesn't matter.

[digerata]

Just get the book on Photoshop. It is the industry leader. Adobe is the originator of each of those concepts you describe, I believe. Once you know Photoshop, being the complex app that it is, you'll be able to figure out any other app quickly.

If she is thinking about persuing a professional career in graphical editing, Photoshop is it.

The only reason I could think of to look at the other apps/books is if and only if this is for personal use only.

Re:Seems to me...

[Arandir]

There are tons of filters for image processing, but I'll be damned if I know what they all mean. Instead of telling us which buttons to push in Photoshop, maybe they could stop and tell us the concepts behind them. What exactly is a convolution matrix? What is an unsharp mask? What's a gaussian blur? What is laplace edge detection? Etc, etc.

Filters are but one example. I would also like to know how to lighten an underexposed picture without making it look washed out. And other things like that.

Re:Seems to me...I like being a geek.

[Anonymous Coward]

For a busy professional "how it works" is not really going to be in most books.

Which goes a long ways towards explaining why busy professionals are always in danger of layoffs.

I've wanted a book just like that.

[daviddennis]

Not because of vendor lock-in - I really don't care about that and I do own a copy of Photoshop. But because it would be nice to understand the concepts. For instance, I'm told to blur something in step by step directions, but not told why blurring is a good idea and what kind of effects it performs.

Something that described how to draw or how to paint, but with emphasis on how to do it electronically instead of by hand.

I really think I'd have an easier time with something that was a blend of conceptual ideas (which are rare in these books) and concrete examples (that are everywhere, of course).

So if anyone can suggest such a book, I'd love to hear ideas.

D

There is a really simple solution.

[wcb4]

find a host, start a wiki and lets write the book. (When its done, we publish and split the profits among those involved ;-), no, not really)

I know there have to be some folks here on /. who know these programs in and out. I am no GIMP expert, but I spent 12 years in printing doing photo retouching with Photoshop. I think I know it pretty well...Just from having done so much of this, I know the theory behind a lot of it. I would contribute to such a site. I get tired of having people ask me how to do something, or how something can be done, and of course they do not have Photoshop. They may have GIMP, but I can tell you the keystrokes in Photoshop, not GIMP. If I could point them to a place where they can learn the theory, with notes on the implementation by the different programs, it would be great. If you really are interested in this, then do more than just ask slashdot, set upa project and lets get started.