GIMP Version: 2.8
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: 7


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O man!! Experimenting with curves tool:
1) I decomposed image to rgb layers
2) I brought up the curves box.
3) Starting at bottom, blue, layer, with Preview clicked, nothing happened to the image when I adjusted the line. It remained in grayscale.
4) I tried to get the channel box (in the Curves box) to click to blue value, but nothing happened.
5) In the meantime I somehow made a vertical line appear in the curves window, which I couldn’t get rid of without closing it & reopening it.
My, my, my, it is so tedious learning to do the simplest things!
Can anyone help me with this?
Thank you, thank you!

To be able to see what the curves is doing to a layer you must have all the layeres above it turned off. You do this by clicking the little eye ball in the layers pallet.

By the way it might be good to respond to your previos post instead of making a new one.

Now you may have noticed that when you decomposed it created a whole new canvas the old one is left unaltered so you may try it all over again if you wish.

When your working with a decomposed file it always shows the channels in greyscale. It turns back into color when you compose after editing with curves. And it will make a whole new canvas file when you compose also.

Alan

You don't need to decompose the image to play with the color channels in the Curves tool. It can be used on a RGB image... and you select the channel you want to play with using the channel selector. Then you can see your results in real time on the RGB picture.

Alan, Thanks very much. I haven't replied to previous post messages because I'm not sure how to do it right. This reply box is directly beneath a message sent by ofnuts. There's no reply box under your message, so I'm winging it.

I'm as much a beginner on how to use this forum as I am with gimp. I know I'm bumbling around - it's embarrassing, but that's where I'm at now. I apologize for the inconveniences I cause and I much appreciate tips & suggestions on how to use the forum sveltely.
Thanks again for your useful input on how to improve images.

Relax. Everything has a learning curve. The reply button is a 'general' reply to the whole thread in general. You can either hit the quote button to the bottom right on each person's post, or you can just use the Reply button (there's only one) and put the persons name/handle with a dash and we all know who you are talking to.

I generally prefer the latter so as not to include everything that was quoted or posted especially if it was a lot. Another option is to uste the Quote button and edit the quoted part leaving the [quote] brackets on each end.

Don't fret, you'll get the hang of it.

as Draconian said, dont be embarassed because you are learning

this is a very friendly forum with very nice people

everybody here, started just like you

pertiniate, my first week on this forum i seemed to leave my dirty footprints everywhere - i know just what it's like ! you'll learn, don't worry.

I beg to differ offnuts. I have tried to use the curves on each individual channel without going into decompose but I do not get the same results. I don't know why. I can do the curves on the first Red channel and then go to do the Green and the channels information has changed. I think that is one of the reasons I had problems figuring out why the channels weren't working for me before I found out how to do the decompose and then compose thing. When I do the decompose and do curves on each individual layer I find that the curves information is different for each layer as it should be. It almost seems like when you do a curves on a channel it changes all the channels no matter which one you have selected.

But then again it did work after restarting GIMP. I think this may be a glich that I am having on my system or something.

Alan

Thanks everyone for your kind, encouraging & helpful words!
Now I'm going to experiment with both Alan & offnuts' ways of working with curves and see what happens. . .