The Fundamentals is back!

In this case, I'm hoping you can judge a book by the cover!

I haven't heard from Patrick since Tuesday, but this site was down for a period yesterday/today -- I've sent him word via this thread, PM, and his Educated Climber e-mail. Revised PDF is in his hands, as well as available to Jerry. So maybe after the weekend?
 
About improving the images, you can increase the resolution of the original pictures by using Alien Skin blow up. I tend to just "double" them as they call it, or quadruple the pixel count as I call it. But be sure to do noise reduction BEFORE blowing up the pictures, and maybe some sharpening too as these editing features will have generally an unpleasant outcome if done after. The main benefit of blowing up is to reduce the pixelly look and help smooth things together, and help it look sharper at larger viewing sizes.

After watching some of the DVDs, I'm thinking maybe I should have been a logger. Felling, limbing, bucking, walking on longs instead of the ground, running big saws, and cleaning it up with machinery is my thing. Walking on logs comes so naturally for me I find it hard to stay on the ground when there's a log near by. It all started when I'd cut firewood on my dad's land when I was 16; walking on 6-14" limbs 10ft up leaning against the pull of a Husqvarna 365 as I cut the other branches on the felled tree.
 

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That was back before I knew much about safety gear & riging but probably so I could chuck it if I fell. I had great balance then, probably still do. Thinking now, it probably was still a good idea because if I fell I wouldn't want a tethered saw chasing me.
 
About improving the images, you can increase the resolution of the original pictures by using Alien Skin blow up. I tend to just "double" them as they call it, or quadruple the pixel count as I call it. But be sure to do noise reduction BEFORE blowing up the pictures, and maybe some sharpening too as these editing features will have generally an unpleasant outcome if done after. The main benefit of blowing up is to reduce the pixelly look and help smooth things together, and help it look sharper at larger viewing sizes.
I haven't tried BlowUp, but I have used Genuine Fractals, SI Pro, and a couple other tools to up-size images that are low resolution, generally for offset printing work. Otherwise, Photoshop's Bicubic interpolation is generally fine for resizing photos bound for online work. For these images in the Fundamentals, I used Photoshop's Despeckle, Gaussian Blur, and Dust & Scratches commands for image smoothing. I also have Noiseware and Noiseless Pro for reducing noise and grain in images.

But for this first revision of the Fundamentals digital edition, it was just working with what was there. For my 2nd attempt in a couple of weeks, I plan on using the higher quality scans Patrick provided me with. So for now, it's mostly a contrast and sharpness improvement on the imagery. We'll get to the higher quality images version 2.0 just down the road a bit.
 
cheers2.gif
 
Bump. I was just wondering to what extent all of the photo editing ended up changing the original PDF? I bought two or three copies of the original, unmodified PDF, and am wondering if anyone out there owns copies of both the original and the newer ones, and can comment on the difference between them? Thanks.

Tim
 
If Patrick was up for it, I could send you the larger PDF (112MB) and you could have the updated version at good, printable resolution. I just wouldn't want to subvert what he's doing for the greater tree community....
 
Hey, Stumpshot! Thanks for that offer! It is well understood by me that Patrick has the final say on any issue of distribution. Every time I have wanted another copy of the PDF as a gift for someone else, I have gone online and purchased it from Patrick's website. I would not copy or share it without permission, as it is the biggest bargain on the internet, and well worth the money every time.

It is even ok with me if Patrick thinks I should just buy another one, as I knew what I was getting when I purchased it the first few times; no promises were made about free upgrades when the improved versions became available.

What I was most interested in hearing from you was about the current state of the edits that have been made to the PDF. Did you do just one revision, or have there been more after that? It did not get discussed further after about October of 2018, if I'm recalling correctly, so I am curious as to how far the document has come, and whether or not you feel as though you have completely finished making changes to it. Thanks in advance for any answers you care to provide, and for all of your efforts on behalf of all of us, to make improvements to this great book.

Sincerely,

Tim
 
I'm embarrassed to say it took so long but I'm the proud owner of the Fundamentals pdf!
 
Can't remember if the book brought me here, or here brought me the book, but I'm pleased regardless :^)
 
Searching the title after seeing a reference somewhere else. There's a good chance that's how I landed here.

edit:
That can go both ways also. I might have had the book, and wanted to know what people were saying about it. Hard to say. I've been all over the web looking for information related to tree work.
 
That's what I did the day I got my first computer... I found Arboristsite. 10,000 posts later, I started the TreeHouse!
 
I've spent some time lurking on AS as well as treebuzz. I'm a member at forestryforum. I'm picky about where I sign up for places. Forestyforum's focus is more on milling, and wood business. Good group of guys, with a lot of general life experience getting stuff done, but not so much the art of tree work. That's why I signed up here.
 
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