Tutorial: An Introduction to Photo Editing with PhotoLine

[russellcottrell]

can you convert your tutorial to PDF?

Maybe when it’s finished . . . .

You can also save it as html documents.

[russellcottrell]

http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/Ph ... inting.htm

[bruce1951]

Thanks Russell. Just a couple of points. Well one really because I can't see myself actually using PL for printing!
You have Ilford mentioned/linked on the page. What is the current status of Ilford products? I always used Ilford but switched to Moab as Ilford changed hands and many stories circulated as to Ilford current status.

Regards

[russellcottrell]

Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk 24-inch rolls are avaialble from B&H. I don’t know much more than that. The roll I have is a handful of years old; I don’t know if it has changed since. Guess I will have to profile every new roll in case it changes somehow. I never cared much for Ilford’s darkroom papers or film, but I love GFS.

My favorite darkroom paper was Agfa Multicontrast Classic, which is long gone.

[russellcottrell]

Hello; had been thinking about this, the HDR discussion spurred me on.

http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/PhotoLine/HDR.htm

[photoken]

If PL only uses, at most, 3 images, why open 5 images in its HDR merge?

[russellcottrell]

To let it select the ones it wanted to use. Which in this case were the lightest, middle, and darkest exposures.

I made a few more discoveries. All five images may be used by combining the lightest three, then the darkest three, then combining these intermediates (a “daisy chain”). Detail is greatly improved. Also, the Dehaze filter covers a lot of ground.

[photoken]

To let it select the ones it wanted to use. Which in this case were the lightest, middle, and darkest exposures.

I made a few more discoveries. All five images may be used by combining the lightest three, then the darkest three, then combining these intermediates (a “daisy chain”). Detail is greatly improved. Also, the Dehaze filter covers a lot of ground.

Are you saying that PL does the selection and the combining of the intermediates automatically? If so, that's a rather stunning revelation....

[russellcottrell]

It made the selection of three from all five automatically; I don’t know if it was because it found what it was looking for in those images, or if it always goes for evenly-spaced members of a series. Then I opened only the lightest three and combined them, then the darkest three and combined them. I saved the intermediates (as RGB) and then opened only them and combined them. My understanding of how exposure fusion algorithms work is that they may look for things like optimal exposure, saturation, and/or local contrast to choose the areas of the images that they want, then basically layer and mask them, combining them automatically. You could do it manually if you wanted to. (I hope this is what you were asking.)

[photoken]

It made the selection of three from all five automatically; I don’t know if it was because it found what it was looking for in those images, or if it always goes for evenly-spaced members of a series.

Ah. I wasn't sure, either, how PL decides which 3 images (out of a series) to use. I hope one of the Hubers will comment on this....

Then I opened only the lightest three and combined them, then the darkest three and combined them. I saved the intermediates (as RGB) and then opened only them and combined them.

OK. So you did the selections and combinations manually. Phew! You had me scared for a minute, thinking that PL had devised a way to do that automagically!

[Pierrot12]

Hello; I have uploaded a tutorial to
http://www.russellcottrell.com/photo/Ph ... /index.asp transfers Amiens

“This tutorial is designed both for people who are coming to PhotoLine from another image editing application, as well as for people who are new to photo editing and for whom PhotoLine is their first application. It is intended to be a “walk-through” of the main tasks associated with photo editing rather than a comprehensive reference.”

Feedback is welcome. I admit I was teaching myself while writing it as I wanted to force myself to make the switch once and for all. And I wrote it with my kids in mind; I wanted to set down in writing what I had taught them about curves and so forth as a general beginner’s guide. Obviously there is more to it than this; the manual still exists. Mac users, please tell me if I missed anything.

—Russell

Thank you for this tutorial

[MikeFromMesa]

I would like to add my "thank you" for this tutorial. One of the problems I have seen with PhotoLine is that it does not initially seem to be inviting - that is, a quick check of the tool makes it seem like it has a very steep learning curve and that frightens many people away. Your tutorial should help to address that issue.

I am grateful for the effort you put into the tutorial, and it seems a bit crass to criticize such an effort, but some of the parts of the tutorial no longer correspond to the actual tools being discussed. For example your discussion of masking makes reference to controls that either do not exist or no longer exist (if they did in previous versions) and I was wondering if it would be helpful to make a list of those things that are either not clear or no longer correspond to the current version. I do not know if the tutorial is still being supported.

[Martin Huber]

(...) but some of the parts of the tutorial no longer correspond to the actual tools being discussed. For example your discussion of masking makes reference to controls that either do not exist or no longer exist (if they did in previous versions) (...)

I just had a look at the tutorial and couldn't find any controls, that don't exist in the current version. Can you be more specific about what's missing?

Martin

[MikeFromMesa]

I do not mean to make too big a deal about this, but when new users are going through the tutorial they may well get frustrated easily by their inability to find things referred to in the document. Here are some examples of things that I think may be confusing to new users. Some are very minor, some seem not so minor to me.

1) Toolbox page

The Brush Editor dialog box is somewhat different in the tutorial than in the tool itself. The difference is not large, but may be annoying when users are confused to begin with.

Brush Editor.jpg

2) L Curves page

The statement:

(If your version of PhotoLine adds layer handles by default, turn them off via View – Show Layer Handles.)

may make no sense to users when they have no idea what a Layer Handle is and the command to turn them on and off makes no visible difference in the tool display.

The Curves dialog boxes are different. The tools entry shown in the tutorial does not seem to exist in my copy.

LCurves.jpg

I have begun to have problems adding new images so I will post this as part 1 and continue with additional parts as I can. I hope this is of some use.

[MikeFromMesa]

Part 2:

Layer Masks

The tutorial contains the following statement:

(You may also right-click the thumbnail and select Use Adjustment Mask, or Show Mask.)

When I do this on my version of PhotoLine I get the following:

LayerMasks1.jpg

Here is an enlarged image of the context menu:

LayerMask2.jpg

This was the reference I made in the earlier post about commands that do not seem to exist.

I have not yet finished the tutorial and may or may not find more issues. If this kind of information is any help please let me know. If it seems to be nit-picking them I will stop bothering people. I am only trying to help.