Image Objects


Book Description

How computer graphics transformed the computer from a calculating machine into an interactive medium, as seen through the histories of five technical objects. Most of us think of computer graphics as a relatively recent invention, enabling the spectacular visual effects and lifelike simulations we see in current films, television shows, and digital games. In fact, computer graphics have been around as long as the modern computer itself, and played a fundamental role in the development of our contemporary culture of computing. In Image Objects, Jacob Gaboury offers a prehistory of computer graphics through an examination of five technical objects--an algorithm, an interface, an object standard, a programming paradigm, and a hardware platform--arguing that computer graphics transformed the computer from a calculating machine into an interactive medium. Gaboury explores early efforts to produce an algorithmic solution for the calculation of object visibility; considers the history of the computer screen and the random-access memory that first made interactive images possible; examines the standardization of graphical objects through the Utah teapot, the most famous graphical model in the history of the field; reviews the graphical origins of the object-oriented programming paradigm; and, finally, considers the development of the graphics processing unit as the catalyst that enabled an explosion in graphical computing at the end of the twentieth century. The development of computer graphics, Gaboury argues, signals a change not only in the way we make images but also in the way we mediate our world through the computer--and how we have come to reimagine that world as computational.




The Photo Cookbook


Book Description

This Photo Cookbook is your quick and easy guide to creating your own jaw-dropping pictures without complicated and boring explanations, using the camera or phone you already have. Award-winning Chefs use recipes to create amazing dishes, and if you follow their recipes, you can create the exact same dishes. This Photo Cookbook contains 30 recipes you can use to take amazing photos. Want to shoot a glorious sunset? There’s a recipe for that. Want to create amazing compositions? There are 8 recipes for that. Want to take a stunning portrait shot with a blurred out background? There’s a recipe for that, too. Every recipe is short, to the point, and stands alone. The Photo Cookbook was written by award-winning photographer Tim Shields with thousands of students in his photography programs. Take the best photos of your life using the camera or phone you already have And the best part? Every recipe comes with a how-to video! Just open the regular camera app on your phone and point it at the QR code on the page, or tap the QR code when reading on mobile phones and tablets. When the link pops up, tap it and the video will start. You don’t need any new software or apps.




Learn & Use Digital Photography in Your Classroom


Book Description

Seamlessly integrate technology into your classroom instruction with this new series. Provide a concise introduction to the software application, then use project-based learning lessons and activities to effectively incorporate technology into grade-level content. Teacher Resource CD includes collection grids, graphic organizers, sample projects, and rubric templates.




Learning Processing


Book Description

Learning Processing, Second Edition, is a friendly start-up guide to Processing, a free, open-source alternative to expensive software and daunting programming languages. Requiring no previous experience, this book is for the true programming beginner. It teaches the basic building blocks of programming needed to create cutting-edge graphics applications including interactive art, live video processing, and data visualization. Step-by-step examples, thorough explanations, hands-on exercises, and sample code, supports your learning curve.A unique lab-style manual, the book gives graphic and web designers, artists, and illustrators of all stripes a jumpstart on working with the Processing programming environment by providing instruction on the basic principles of the language, followed by careful explanations of select advanced techniques. The book has been developed with a supportive learning experience at its core. From algorithms and data mining to rendering and debugging, it teaches object-oriented programming from the ground up within the fascinating context of interactive visual media.This book is ideal for graphic designers and visual artists without programming background who want to learn programming. It will also appeal to students taking college and graduate courses in interactive media or visual computing, and for self-study. - A friendly start-up guide to Processing, a free, open-source alternative to expensive software and daunting programming languages - No previous experience required—this book is for the true programming beginner! - Step-by-step examples, thorough explanations, hands-on exercises, and sample code supports your learning curve




Popular Photography


Book Description




Practical Machine Learning for Computer Vision


Book Description

This practical book shows you how to employ machine learning models to extract information from images. ML engineers and data scientists will learn how to solve a variety of image problems including classification, object detection, autoencoders, image generation, counting, and captioning with proven ML techniques. This book provides a great introduction to end-to-end deep learning: dataset creation, data preprocessing, model design, model training, evaluation, deployment, and interpretability. Google engineers Valliappa Lakshmanan, Martin Görner, and Ryan Gillard show you how to develop accurate and explainable computer vision ML models and put them into large-scale production using robust ML architecture in a flexible and maintainable way. You'll learn how to design, train, evaluate, and predict with models written in TensorFlow or Keras. You'll learn how to: Design ML architecture for computer vision tasks Select a model (such as ResNet, SqueezeNet, or EfficientNet) appropriate to your task Create an end-to-end ML pipeline to train, evaluate, deploy, and explain your model Preprocess images for data augmentation and to support learnability Incorporate explainability and responsible AI best practices Deploy image models as web services or on edge devices Monitor and manage ML models




How Computers Really Work


Book Description

An approachable, hands-on guide to understanding how computers work, from low-level circuits to high-level code. How Computers Really Work is a hands-on guide to the computing ecosystem: everything from circuits to memory and clock signals, machine code, programming languages, operating systems, and the internet. But you won't just read about these concepts, you'll test your knowledge with exercises, and practice what you learn with 41 optional hands-on projects. Build digital circuits, craft a guessing game, convert decimal numbers to binary, examine virtual memory usage, run your own web server, and more. Explore concepts like how to: Think like a software engineer as you use data to describe a real world concept Use Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws to analyze an electrical circuit Think like a computer as you practice binary addition and execute a program in your mind, step-by-step The book's projects will have you translate your learning into action, as you: Learn how to use a multimeter to measure resistance, current, and voltage Build a half adder to see how logical operations in hardware can be combined to perform useful functions Write a program in assembly language, then examine the resulting machine code Learn to use a debugger, disassemble code, and hack a program to change its behavior without changing the source code Use a port scanner to see which internet ports your computer has open Run your own server and get a solid crash course on how the web works And since a picture is worth a thousand bytes, chapters are filled with detailed diagrams and illustrations to help clarify technical complexities. Requirements: The projects require a variety of hardware - electronics projects need a breadboard, power supply, and various circuit components; software projects are performed on a Raspberry Pi. Appendix B contains a complete list. Even if you skip the projects, the book's major concepts are clearly presented in the main text.




Learn Generative AI with PyTorch


Book Description

Learn how generative AI works by building your very own models that can write coherent text, create realistic images, and even make lifelike music. Learn Generative AI with PyTorch teaches the underlying mechanics of generative AI by building working AI models from scratch. Throughout, you’ll use the intuitive PyTorch framework that’s instantly familiar to anyone who’s worked with Python data tools. Along the way, you’ll master the fundamentals of General Adversarial Networks (GANs), Transformers, Large Language Models (LLMs), variational autoencoders, diffusion models, LangChain, and more! In Learn Generative AI with PyTorch you’ll build these amazing models: • A simple English-to-French translator • A text-generating model as powerful as GPT-2 • A diffusion model that produces realistic flower images • Music generators using GANs and Transformers • An image style transfer model • A zero-shot know-it-all agent The generative AI projects you create use the same underlying techniques and technologies as full-scale models like GPT-4 and Stable Diffusion. You don’t need to be a machine learning expert—you can get started with just some basic Python programming skills. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the technology Transformers, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), diffusion models, LLMs, and other powerful deep learning patterns have radically changed the way we manipulate text, images, and sound. Generative AI may seem like magic at first, but with a little Python, the PyTorch framework, and some practice, you can build interesting and useful models that will train and run on your laptop. This book shows you how. About the book Learn Generative AI with PyTorch introduces the underlying mechanics of generative AI by helping you build your own working AI models. You’ll begin by creating simple images using a GAN, and then progress to writing a language translation transformer line-by-line. As you work through the fun and fascinating projects, you’ll train models to create anime images, write like Hemingway, make music like Mozart, and more. You just need Python and a few machine learning basics to get started. You’ll learn the rest as you go! What's inside • Build an English-to-French translator • Create a text-generation LLM • Train a diffusion model to produce high-resolution images • Music generators using GANs and Transformers About the reader Examples use simple Python. No deep learning experience required. About the author Mark Liu is the founding director of the Master of Science in Finance program at the University of Kentucky. The technical editor on this book was Emmanuel Maggiori. Table of Contents Part 1 1 What is generative AI and why PyTorch? 2 Deep learning with PyTorch 3 Generative adversarial networks: Shape and number generation Part 2 4 Image generation with generative adversarial networks 5 Selecting characteristics in generated images 6 CycleGAN: Converting blond hair to black hair 7 Image generation with variational autoencoders Part 3 8 Text generation with recurrent neural networks 9 A line-by-line implementation of attention and Transformer 10 Training a Transformer to translate English to French 11 Building a generative pretrained Transformer from scratch 12 Training a Transformer to generate text Part 4 13 Music generation with MuseGAN 14 Building and training a music Transformer 15 Diffusion models and text-to-image Transformers 16 Pretrained large language models and the LangChain library Appendixes A Installing Python, Jupyter Notebook, and PyTorch B Minimally qualified readers and deep learning basics




Camera & Craft: Learning the Technical Art of Digital Photography


Book Description

Advice and insights from professionals working in a variety of fields, from photojournalism and portraiture to fine-art, landscape and commercial photography Technical explanations about how photographic tools work—so you can connect knowledge to your practice and work more instinctively and creatively Key steps for improving digital workflow Innovative exercises at the end of each chapter as well as on our companion website that encourage you to experiment with and understand the photographic process—from learning how far you can push your camera’s sensor to exploring the effects of neutral vs. creative color Interviews with technical and creative experts about developing skills and making images that matter




Sell & Re-Sell Your Photos


Book Description

Sell your photos again and again! Live anywhere. Pick your hours. Be your own boss. Earn more money. See your pictures in print. Discover the freedom of a profitable photo business by learning the secrets behind making and selling editorial stock photography. For more than three decades, industry classic Sell & Re-Sell Your Photos has been giving new and veteran photographers the tools to sell their pictures consistently to markets they enjoy. Rohn Engh's master text, with updates from independent photographer Mikael Karlsson, outlines the time-tested formula for successfully marketing your work to publishers world-wide. This completely revised and expanded 6th edition features up-to-date advice, brand new photos and charts and tables to help you achieve your goals. Learn how to: • Create enduring images--the ones photo buyers always need • Price your photos like a professional • Find your niche and corner that market • Take and market your work with modern technology • Confidently submit to agencies and publishers • Digitally store your archive • Protect yourself and your photos with basic copyright laws and regulations • Includes a detailed five-week action plan to get you organized and selling Master the stock photography market: Take pictures today that you can sell for many tomorrows to come!