I know this is a forum basically for complaining about Photoshop
Not really. Just right after new releases. After a while (or a .01 patch! <g>) it’ll die down and the REAL value of this place will become more apparent, if you stick around. The regulars here are some of the best designers in the business and if you hang out here for any great length of time, you’ll learn more about PS and design than you could in any college course.
And I agree with your post completly. No problems here from CS and it’s a great package.
if you hang out here for any great length of time, you’ll learn more about PS and design than you could in any college course.
Whenever I can, will do. Best regards.
May I also add my unoriginal ditto to this. I tend to believe there is a quiet majority of satisfied users out there as well. Lots of folks like to stay out of the fray.
VES
I used to work in the field office for a well respected instrumentation firm, one whose instruments directly impact electronics as we know it today. If you examine the Field Engineer’s reports to the firm, you would imagine that we were making that absolute worst instruments in the world. That is, until you put it in perspective. The complaints, all of them, represented but a tiny minority of both the volume of instruments produced and the number of users from which the complaints arise.
We took them seriously. The FE’s were highly trained (6 months at the factory. I was one of them)and could provide enormous support for those unfortunate instances that caused the complaint. In many cases, the FE’s could and did get directly involved in the application and "rolled up their sleeves" so to speak, to help in even suggesting design changes which enhanced the performance, or signal acquisition of the DUT.
Of course, these notes also impacted mods and new instruments as they became needed.
I miss those days!
PS. I am mostly thrilled with PS. I haven’t come up against an imagined visual outcome that somehow, I was not able to attain. I say mostly, because I do come up against limits, and chafe against them. I am off doing things with PSCS that were, if not impossible, then enormously tedious, and iffy in their execution.
I have a suggestion, and if this isn’t the best place, then I will post it elsewhere. I chose here, as I suspect that the Adobe boys and girls are sneaking a peek at this thread! 😉
I would like to be able to use the brush while invoking Levels, Curves, and other correction tools. The reason for this is there are many times I need to correct a value that needs a small touch with a brush, and all I can do is lighten, darken, or clone. What would be brilliant is if I could change the contrast as I brushed. Then, blending would be available as well.
Or, can it already be done?
Lawrence,
Is what you are describing not the same as painting on an Adjustment Layer?
MatLovesPhotoshop
I would like to be able to use the brush while invoking Levels, Curves, and other correction tools. The reason for this is there are many times I need to correct a value that needs a small touch with a brush, and all I can do is lighten, darken, or clone. What would be brilliant is if I could change the contrast as I brushed. Then, blending would be available as well. <
Nice to know there are like-minded folks here.
Lawrence, this is how I would go about the brush technique you wished Photoshop had. How to have a "Levels Brush"
1. Apply the Levels command on the target layer-that is, the pixeled layer not the adjustment layer. AS expected this will affect not only the portion you wish to "Level" but the whole layer itself.
2. Click History Tab and take a snaphot.
3. Click the edit box of the new snapshot.
4. CTRL+Z to undo the Levels command you just did.
5. Now choose HIstory Brush. Select brush type and that brush is now your very own custom Levels brush.
6. Paint only those areas you wish to Level.
7. If I wish to keep the "unleveled layer" untouched then I’ll paint on a copy of that layer.
I would do the same thing if I wanted to have a "Contrast Brush." Perhaps others have a better way. I would be glad to read about it. Thanks to all who shared info!
Thats one way. I just wondered if not
1) Make Levels Adjustment Layer
2) Invert
3) Paint with brush on adjustment layer (white color, differing opacities).
Would be simpler.
Mathias
Finn,
I know this is a forum basically for complaining about Photoshop
Glad you like photoshop. It’s a mission critical app for me and I love it too. But as Dave said, this is not a place to complain, although some do. When people have problems, they come here. The regulars straighten them out.
If you read through the posts, what you’ll find is that folks donate their time here, and if someone asks a question, you get these incredible answers. Not only do they answer the question, but show at least three different ways to do it.
You can feel sorry for Adobe all you want, but if you want to see a brutal forum, go to macromedia and ask a newb question. They slam you against the wall and grab the back of your hair – well, nearly.
Peace,
Tony
It’s fairly typical to see the negative reaction, and think that people are truly unhappy with software, but you have to remember that this is a user forum.
This is WHERE people come to when they have problems.
99% of the users never come here because they dont have a problem. Of the remaining 1% who do come here, probably 70% is here to help/learn/troll.
Adobe knows that.
Yes, and the response I got to my levels/contrast brush is a perfect example of what is being said.
Thanks for the feedback. I will try it soon, after I figure out why my computer blues screens occasionaly at startup.
99% of the users never come here because they dont have a problem.
Or 99% of them don’t come here because they don’t know that the forums exist.
Also, upon first viewing when I began work with PS, I found U to U slightly intimidating, as I could see that improperly framing a question could meet with a flame. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
That’s too bad.
I was lucky enough to find most of the answers I was seeking by searches because yes, to a newbie, it WAS intimidating.
if you want to see a brutal forum, go to macromedia and ask a newb question. They slam you against the wall and grab the back of your hair
You’re not kidding either. That’s why I still sit silently there. I don’t have enough hair for that.
Oh man – I went to the MM forum and left a scathing rant on Freehand 10, they didnt like it that much, one guy told me to ‘sell my computer and buy a monkey – I’d have more fun’.
thankfully I was able to throw some of it back in thier face using tried and true examples of how crappy FH is.
most of them agreed with me, the rest shut up.
one guy told me to ‘sell my computer and buy a monkey – I’d have more fun’
he’s probably right!
The Photoshop Album forum was pretty rough for awhile. A lot of really nasty rants, and if you tried to defend the product, or show that some of the problems were user ignorance or unreasonable expectations for a first release of a $50 product, you were flamed as an "Adobe Flack"…"How much did they pay you to write that?"
Most of the invective came from a few really irate people who tried to disrupt any thread that was trying to help users or solve problems. We did a "user survey" and about 80% of the responses were from satisfied users. Considering that most of the satisfied users are in the "silent majority" that was a pretty clear indication that most people were happy with the product.
There were some real problems with the initial releases of PSA…still are some…but the ranters sure didn’t help Adobe solve any of them. The people who carefully documented bugs and reported them in detail were the ones who contributed. I reported one, and it was fixed in the next release.
Some of us started really flaming the flamers, and they finally got discouraged and left…or resorted to lurking. Things are quieter over there now.
Bert
dave – I agreed with him, but explained that isnt going to get this piece of crap FH 10 file off my desk.
‘sell my computer and buy a monkey – I’d have more fun’.
LOL. That’s great! Ask him if I can use that someday.
Yes…Link?
Lawrence, If you commit for instance a contrast adjustment then paint/hide the layer, the adjustment is applied to the duped layer, and the only way to change it, is to reapply the same filter…
But if you do Mathias’ way, you have the adjustment layer partially masked… you can fine-tune the adjustment layer’s settings, or the mask, without further degradation to the image, that resides intact on the lower layer…
dave – I’ll have to look it up, it was over a year ago.
I bet if you do a search for PO’d Prepress (that was my login) you may find it.
"…If you read through the posts, what you’ll find is that folks donate their time here, and if someone asks a question, you get these incredible answers. Not only do they answer the question, but show at least three different ways to do it…"
Yap. I’m beginning to see that now. As for the 3 ways to do it, I think this thread is a perfect example for that.
"…as I could see that improperly framing a question could meet with a flame. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
That’s too bad…."
I agree. There’s really one forum I frequented, and that’s the Sony Vegas 4 forum (formerly Sonic Foundry.) where I learned tips and tricks on video editing. Only a few flamers dared light a match there since they got "straightened out" (that’s a clever one) immediately although I’m not one to do it. The reason I didn’t look for Photoshop forum before was that I usually find the answers to my questions on my Photoshop reference books (I got none on Vegas 4.)
It’s good to know that level-headed regulars also donate their time and expert advice here. I’ll do what I can to help out.
Thanks, Pierre. I am scanning an image shortly, and I’ll give it a try.
Jason, I was a bout to say don’t bother, I thought it was recent, but thanks. i’ll have a gander.
Jason: Slagging CorelDraw, tch, tch.
dood, I remember corel draw before it ran on windows, AI 88 blew it away – and (aldus)FH wasnt that bad then either.
Funny, it seems to be that a lot of Corel Draw interface stuff has been slowly slipping in to Illustrator.
And remember the hoo-ha when Illustrator (v9?) got transparency support? That’s been in Draw since version 7.
And how many tools do you need to select, rotate and skew an object? 3 or 4 in Illustrator but only one in Draw.
Still, Illustrator has come along a fair way.
Andrew Smith
<jumping back in to the trench :->
…. ps – I’m an absolute InDesign fanatic!
Andrew
jason, who are you? po’s_prepress?
ok that was pretty funny. 🙂
Jason: A member since Illustrator 1 (which everyone claims doesn’t exist but in fact I have the bill and serial number that indicate otherwise) and CorelDraw (which has come a long way, easily eclipsing Illustrator in many ways). DOOOOOOOOOD.
All I’m saying is I’ve seen the evolution of the three apps – I actually *preferred* freehand back then. Corel wasnt even close.
Matt, I tried your method, and it’s the exact opposite of what I want. What I want to see when painting with Levels, Curves etc is the current image that changes only where I am drawing. When I am done, I would like to be able to tweak the curves or move a slider and see only the painted areas change. I can get there most of the way using and hiding a dupe layer, getting the tool from Image. But I lose the actual settings value as soon as I accept the settings, so no change is possible except to change the blending values for the dupe layer.
I am still a babe in the woods about Layers, masking techniques and such. I read about some of the things people do with these tools and go "Really? You can do that? I am a traditional darkroom photographer that appreciates and uses methods and tools that extend what I am able to do in the analog darkroom, which is huge in itself. I guess I’ll have to make that final step away from darkroom thinking and really grasp the comprehensiveness of PS. I’m not sure I can ever get my arms (or brain!) around it.
