Hello all,

I posted a question in the software forum and got some speedy replies so thinking that most of us need some advice in the digital imaging area I am putting up the link to alienideas who are the company publishing the new FocusOn e-book on DVD with video clips.

I'm buying for a club and have so far got some excellent feedback - they also have samples and endorsements form many well known people and companies so don't just take my word for it!

Alienideas. FocusON: a guide to digital imaging

Yep - thanks for that - have heard about it and wanted the info - good site - these boys will go far as most pro digital photographers are screaming out for this.

Used it and appreciate the link! - have ordered a copy, so I hope they are apying you for this!

Hiya Rory,

I just put this up in the open discussions forum thought you might like it too - it's the full contents table I copied from the front of the e-book (don't prosecute me Alienideas - I'm doing you a favour! :-)

SECTION 1
EQUIPMENT CHOICE
INTRODUCTION
DIGITAL VERSUS FILM
Common Concerns
Digital can surpass film quality
Colour and light - faithful colour?
Exposure accuracy and recorded light range
Is this the death of film?
Pros of digital imaging
Cons of digital imaging
Camera quality
Big pictures and megapixels
Printing
Image size
Resizing
Inks and archival permanence
Common problems
CHOOSING EQUIPMENT
Digital quality
Typical problems of cheaper equipment
CAMERAS
Chip with everything - megapixel magic
Will a cheaper camera do?
Chip size and use
1Mp (Megapixel)
3-6 Megapixels
12 Megapixels
Interpolation
Removable media
Avoiding common problems
SCANNERS
Drum scanners
Flatbed scanners
Measures of scanner performance
Film scanners
Optical resolution (O.R.)
Bits/bytes and bit depth
Resolution vs ruling
Density range
Software for scanners
PRINTERS
Commercial printing vs home user printing
Inkjets
Measures of printer quality
File sizes
Running costs
Output quality
Comparing printers
COMPUTERS
Selecting a computer
Operating systems
Monitors
Processors
MP – Multiple processors
Bus
Memory (RAM)
Hard disk capacity
Virtual memory
Ease of upgrade
Software
Colour management
Sophistication / utilities / support
Peripherals
Back-up (CD, DVD, Tape)
Connectivity
USB
FireWire
SCSI
Plug and play?
Serial and 10/100 base-T
Maximum number of units
LINKS (combined there are over 1000 selected internet links at the back of each section)

SECTION 2
PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIGHTING
INTRODUCTION
BASIC PRINCIPLES
Exposure
Shutter
Aperture
Under and over exposure
Reciprocity
Metering
Contra jour metering
Tackling metering problems
Exposing film and image capture chips
Exposure range / latitude
Film / chip speed
Shutter speed
Depth of field
Hand holding limits
COMPOSITION
Balance
Portrait
Triangles / diagonals
Duality
Rule of thirds
Cropping and viewfinder accuracy
FILTERS
Why filter?
U.V. or skylight filter
Polarizer
Black and white flm filters
FLASH
Synchronisation (shutter speeds for flash)
Flash control
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
Saturating backgrounds
Flash vignetting
Slow synch’ flash
Outdoor reportage
Indoor reportage
Dragging the shutter
Indoor fill-in flash
Colour balancing flash to available light
Architecture
Working at dusk / dawn
Reciprocity failure and noise
Windows / glass cabinets
Indoor events, bands, concerts
USING A DIGITAL CAMERA
Quality tips
Simple flashguns
Automated flashguns
Dedicated flashguns
Bounced flash
Professional flash techniques
Fill-in flash
PRO’ TIPS AND PROBLEMS
Flare
Cropping
The ‘best’ side to light people
Special subjects
Babies
High key
Low key
Young children
Groups
Controlling depth of field
Short subjects
Glasses
Sun-tanned and dark skinned people
Double chins
Narrow eyes / nostrils
Slimming or adding curves
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
Saturating backgrounds
Flash vignetting
Slow synch’ flash
Outdoor reportage
Indoor reportage
Dragging the shutter
Indoor fill-in flash
Colour balancing flash to available light
Architecture
Working at dusk / dawn
Reciprocity failure and noise
Windows / glass cabinets
Indoor events, bands, concerts
USING A DIGITAL CAMERA
Quality tips
LINKS (combined there are over 1000 selected internet links at the back of each section)

SECTION 3
COMPUTER SKILLS
INTRODUCTION
PREPARATION
Planning
The working situation
Electrical supply
Telecommunications
Ordering ‘kit’
Delivery
Read the manual!
Registration and support
Unpacking
Connectivity
Installing cards and drivers
FireWire, USB and SCSI
INSTALLATIONS
Scanners
Installing colour target data
Software
AntiVirus alerts when installing software
Photoshop
Installing Photoshop
Application aliases / desktop shortcuts
Making an alias / shortcut
Printer drivers
Extras on installation CDs
The confused computer
Managing a multi-use computer
Disk space
Dynamic memory and RAM
Uninstalling programs
MAINTENANCE
General advice
Keep a system log
Routine maintenance
Cleaning
Back-up
Disk maintenance
Disk wear
Restarting the computer
Operating system decay
Re-installation of the system
System messages / date and time
Defragmenting the HD
Sleep / scheduling defragmentation
Crash damage
Windows Maintenance Wizard
Scandisk
Windows Disk Cleanup
tmp file deletion - Win 98 and earlier
Deleting cookies
TROUBLESHOOTING
General advice
Processing times
Diagnostics
System maintenance products
System conflicts / extensions problems
Windows conflicts
Computer crashing / freezing
Sticky cursors and keyboards
CPU fan failure
Rebuilding the desktop
VIRUSES
General advice
Tackling infection
Spyware
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
APPENDIX
How computers work
SCSI
Memory allocations – Mac OS 9
Macintosh problems: conflicts
Desktop rebuild - OS9
PRAM ‘zapping’ - OSX and OS9
PostScript drivers
Macintosh printer drivers
Finder preferences - OS9
OS9 Installations
LINKS (combined there are over 1000 selected internet links at the back of each section)

SECTION 4
IMAGE MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
PHOTOSHOP BASICS
Navigation
Rotation
Flagging files
Custom thumbnails
The digital lightbox
Export cache
Renaming files and context sensitive menus
Meta data
WYSIWYG
Best practice and process limitations
Limitations of monitors
Profiling principles
Non-WYSIWYG issues
Comparing a source image to a monitor
COLOUR GAMUTS
Gamuts
Lab, RGB and CMYK
Process (CMYK) and spot colour inks
Limitations of CMYK inks
Colour variation due to paper stock
PHOTOSHOP SETUP
Colour settings
Black point compensation
Dithering
Working spaces
Importing images with attached profiles
Conversion options
Engine
Intent
Using profiles
Applying profiles from the printer panel
Generic media and printer profiles
Using working spaces
In house printer profiles
(s)RGB printers
Colour separations
Proof setup and gamut warning
RGB to CMYK and proofing
Dealing with labs and printers
IMAGE EDITING
Basic principles
Create a generic baseline image
Intellihance
Levels and level options
Automated corrections
Curves
The eyedroppers and colour picker
Fine tuning the colour
Converting a generic file for output
Batch processing
Actions / hot folders
Sharpening
Lens blur and depth maps
SCANNING
Scanner options
Lineart
Scanning stages
LINKS (combined there are over 1000 selected internet links at the back of each section)

SECTION 5
RETOUCHING
INTRODUCTION
SELECTIONS
Cut-out tools
Brush selection
Key factors for montaging
Path tools
Pen tool
Tips for paths
Curved paths
Moving bezier points to adjust a curve
The freeform pen
Adding and deleting anchor points
Changing anchor points
Magic wand
Lasso
Magnetic lasso
Polygonal lasso
Marquee tool
Selections / inverting selections
Selection problems
Eraser
Extract filter
LAYERS
Scaling and rotating
Maintaining proportions
Blending
Flattening layered files
Masks
Quick mask mode
Layer masks
Magic wand - grow and similar
QUICK FIXES
Underexposure
Overexposure
MONOCHROME
Greyscale
Hue / saturation
Channel mixer
Replace colour
Threshold
NOISE
Dust and scratches
Adding noise to mimic film grain
IMAGE REPAIR
Dodge, burn and sponge
Blur, smudge and sharpen
Clone stamp
Healing brush
Patch
SPECIAL EFFECTS
The importance of a good original
Duotone images from greyscale
Video and web images
Solarisation
Channel retouching
Selective colouring
Panoramas
Watermarking
Using the watermark
LINKS (combined over 1000 selected links at the back of each section)

SECTION 6
OUTPUT
INTRODUCTION
IMAGE SIZE & RESOLUTION
Interpolation
Cropping
Maintaining image format
Perspective cropping
Crop and straighten
Preparing for output
Save the original
PRINTING & OTHER OUTPUT
Contact sheets
Print
Specifying print size
Maximising print size on paper
Layered images
Positioning an image on a page
Picture package
Web photo gallery
PDF presentations
Save for web
FILES FOR THIRD PARTIES
Proofs: contract and aim prints
File formats
The digital negative (.dng)
Bit depth and file formats
JPEG (.jpg)
TIFF (.tif)
Acrobat PDF files (.pdf)
GIF (.gif)
Windows Bitmap (.bmp) & Metafiles (.wmf)
Special file formats
Photoshop (.psd)
MIME files (.mim)
BinHex files (.hqx)
Web file preparation
MEDIA & BACK-UP
Handling removable media
Back-up
Archiving
CD and DVD storage
Avoiding disruptions
Writing disks
Image and text CD’s
Music CD’s
INTERNET
The web
Search engines
Alta Vista search options
Boolean operators
Meta search engines
Yahoo / internet explorer
Other popular search engines
Popular meta search engines
URLs and browsers
Browsing
CONNECTION & E-MAIL
Selecting an ISP (Internet Service Provider)
Check list for ISP selection
E-mail
Flash sessions
Check list for e-mail services
Connection speeds
Standard modems
Satellite broadband
ISDN
Using ISDN
Cable modems
ADSL
Wideless
The speed of the web
Copyright and the web
LINKS (combined over 1000 selected links at the back of each section)

SECTION 7
JARGON

A-Z of Photographic and digital imaging terminology

Bloody hell - spent 30 mins reading this lot and had a good gander at their site - nice!

Mae

Good call on this thred - have been looking for months - there is nothing even remotely like this out there - thanks for the pointer. It looks very pro produced - the samples are good - loads of info on their site about what you're getting.

Paul

Yay - got it delivered this morning - definately the best ever 'Best Practice' guide I have seen. well worth a look - make you own minds up but so far they are getting 10/10 for reviews! - so nice to have it on DVD which stores well instead of millions of acres of manuals!

Alienideas FocusOn DVD website



Gazzer

Good call - copied this from their website...

FocusOn takes you through basic knowledge to explain the trade secrets of advanced imaging.

Illustrated with hundreds of photographs and over 90 minutes of video this product covers all the core issues and techniques of making quality professional images...

Welcome to advanced digital thinking!


It does exactly what it says on the tin!

got my copy today - handy to have without doubt - written with help from Apple and adobe!

CF

Might be worth mentioning to any budding photographic website guys out there making their own site that the Alienideas website has approx 1000 links to dedicated imaging web sites that is well worth copying!

:-)

Gary

Alienideas

hehehe - its also on e-bay at less than RRP!

Sian :-) - always glad to share a tip!

Just found for £3.00 on ebay from the publishers! - must be starting an e-bay shop and need to shift some stock.

A bloke on the EPZ website is copying and pasting sections onto their forum - before he get arrested its wort a peak - good format and useful.

Claire

[/quote]

Just found for £3.00 on ebay from the publishers! - must be starting an e-bay shop and need to shift some stock.

A bloke on the EPZ website is copying and pasting sections onto their forum - before he get arrested its wort a peak - good format and useful.

Claire

[/quote]

I like this 'sharing of info' forum style - looked at their website (Alienideas) liked what I saw (including the £29.99 price tag) but then used your recomendation and got it for a couple of pounds on ebay - yipee - thanks Claire

Sara

Yet another bunch of spam postings from this dodgy little firm, all from the same 2 computers. If it was really any good they wouldn't need to con people like this.

Whats the con? - I went to their website and was quite happy with what I've seen - I even called two of their 'endorsments' as I'm a member of two of the associations and you could not be furthur from the truth - excellent small business with a unique way of delivering some good training. - From my point of view I prefer this type of marketing as it allows me to have my say - which I will when my copy arrives on my doorstep!

Lightingman - you're too negative for this - do you have any useful comments to make or are you just bitter - an ex Alienideas employee perhaps?

best to all - make your own minds up

Philip

If it helps - I have just read a review in MENSA magazine where they sing its praises and it also the 'Christmas pick' on the Travel Photographers Network website - so its getting respect and for all its worth I've picked up enough bad habits for this DVD to help me out of a spot or two - or so I think - we'll see as I've found it on ebay at £17.50 and not the £29.99 RRP!

I'll post what I honestly think given the fact I've been 'digital' for 7 years now in commercial photography and for 17 years before that!

Best to all for the Christmas festive season - and if its not your bag I hope you like bright lights!

Tony