Thanks Greg....

[mikemeister_admin]

Hey there Greg!  I wanted to make one last post to thank you for all that you have done to try and help me understand CM.  I'll never get it, but that's no reflection on your teaching abilities, it's just that I am a beginner and CM is for advanced users.

I see that this is the last week of the class, and what this week is about isn't anything that I'd be interested in, so I decided not to bother with it.  Oversaturation isn't what I am interested in, so this week's class isn't for me. :)

I just wanted to thank you for all of the extra time you've spent trying to help me understand CM.  I do understand a little bit about CM, thanks to you, but I will never understand enough to use CM in any useful workflow.

CM may be a very useful tool for advanced users, but for a beginner, it is still a mystery.  I guess I am too stupid to understand it.  I prefer to use my own methods to work on pictures, and if I get a hard to adjust picture, then I 'll try CM to see if it can help me.  I will always see CM as a last resort when I can't get the results I want with my own methods.  CM is just too complicated for the average user, like myself.  I can see that when I look at the questions that the others here have.  CM is a very difficult program to understand, much less master.

I do think that I have reached my goal of understanding 1% of CM.....that is with the help of you Greg, and I thank you for working extra hard to get me to that point.  I don't see where I can exceed that 1%, but that was the highest goal I was shooting for, so I guess I have achieved that goal.

I always work in RGB, and any other color space is foreign to me.  I'd never use CMYK or whatever it is called, I'd never use HSB, and until now, I'd never use LAB.  I just don't understand them enough to use them.  I'll stick with RGB.

I would like to thank all of those who have also tried to help me.  I do appreciate the time you took to make your posts.  I know you wanted to help me and the others here, and that was very generous of you.  Thank you.

One thing I think should be mentioned is that this class should be advertised as being for advanced users.  It should be mentioned that beginners may experience a lot of difficulty if they take this class, so beginners should be aware that this class might not be for them.  At least, that is what I felt this class entailed.

So, to all involved, I again thank you.  Your efforts are not entirely in vain.  I know I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so hopefully, the others in the class were able to learn more that me. 

I prefer to edit pictures so that they look good to me, and CM doesn't follow that philosophy.  CM works by correcting by numbers......something that is foreign to me.  If it looks good, then I am satisfied.....as I know the recipient of the final picture will be, and I will always believe that.  That is probably why CM and I don't get along very well. :)  If it looks good, then that's enough for me.  If a hue clock disagrees with me, so be it.  I prefer what looks good.

Something I feel I should mention....I have used CM to try and edit some of my own pictures, and I didn't like the results.  Because of that, I have no confidence in using CM, since I don't feel that the end results will be satisfactory.  I found that I could do better using my own methods that didn't include CM, so I'll stick with my methods.  It's the same old idea that you use what works for you and CM doesn't work that well for me.  Of course, I don't understand CM that well, so that might be why I don't trust it. :)

Anyway, this post is getting too long so I'll just say, thanks again to everyone, and I appreciate all that you have done to help us beginners.

[ggroess]

Art,
I would also like to thank you...

I have begun writing a document that will become a part of the CM101 class.  In it I bring together most of the explanations and some additional information for the beginner user.  Your questions and comments have raised my awareness of the content in the class and have made me realize that we need to re-edit this class and take a few things out that are too far ahead of the students we might be seeking to attract.  This document will be helping me every time I run the class. 

I'd also like to thank you for giving me the chance to help you.  I know that sounds odd but,  really... you made me stretch a bit to find answers to your questions without relying on jargon or complex terms.  A good reminder indeed.

Lastly, I would like you to remember that CM is not all about the numbers.  Something I need to remind myself frequently...

I use CM in a much more "organic" way than you might be perceiving.  You do not need the numbers to make choices...they are just sign posts along the road to help you when you are lost.  We focus a large amount of time on them because they are confusing at first and people need time to absorb the information.

As for the goal of 1%...I can tell by your posting over the weekend you have much more information about curves than you started with.  I would say it's closer to 25% or more.  For that I am certainly glad...It was my goal to at least be able to get you to understand something more than you started with...

If you try CM again in the future do it your way...You might be surprised at your results...Some of the images you posted were very well corrected.  Just something to keep in mind.

Please lurk for the rest of the week...It's more about correct saturation not over saturation...brighter more colorful images are not all bad....

Greg