In one of Hud’s recent posts he alluded to using the channel mixer in photoshop in a way I had shown him . . . so I thought I would share. Tutorial is below:
The images above are respectively before (original), after channel mixing, and final (few curve adjustments later).
To begin, make a selection of the rocks in the foreground. I am going to adjust the channel mixer for the rocks, the water and the sky separately. After loosely selecting the rocks, feather the selection 250 pixels (select>feather or ctrl+alt+d), then enter the quickmask (press Q).
In the quick mask, I painted over the water with a soft edge brush at a low opacity, and erased the rocks with a soft edge eraser until I was happy with the selection. Next exit the quickmask (press Q). Click on the icon at the bottom of the layers palette to create a new adjustment layer and select “channel mixer.”
In the channel mixer controls, check the box at the bottom which says “monochrome,” then adjust the various color channels until you have the desired look (I purposely took things a bit far in my example).
Next, select the sky of the image and feather the selection 250 pixels.
Again, create a new adjustment layer, select “channel mixer”, check the “monochrome” box and adjust the various color channels until your heart is content.
I wasn’t happy with the contrast in the sky (again I was trying to take it just as far as possible). So, I used the same selection I had used for the channel mixer and made a “curves adjustment layer”. (You can load the selection from a previous adjustment layer by ctrl+clicking on the layer mask thumbnail.)
Next, I repeated the channel mixer process with the water. Once I was happy with the results I duplicated the background layer, and turned off the visibility of the original background layer.
With the duplicate layer selected, merge all visible layers together. Next, change the blending mode of the layer from normal to luminosity. I decided to make few curves adjustments until I was happy with the contrast. Whenever you are happy, flatten, save and publish to your favorite blog, or email it to me and I’ll publicize your creative genius!
Okay, that makes my mixing seem immature. Very informative. I guess I ought to start trying all these wonderful techniques that you teach me.
Immature? I would have said sophomoric . . . Seriously, if you are getting the results you want there is no reason to make it more complicated. I just thought that taking it a little farther than normal and showing how you can separate out different areas would make for a better tutorial.
Man, it does make a better tutorial. I’m a one filter pony. I don’t know if I am getting the results I want using a single pass but I am getting results I accept.
Actually, this makes me think. I have been thinking along the same lines in a lot of different places recently. Simplify. I’m trying not to complicate much of the stuff I am doing these days. I have actively chosen not to use the other lenses which came with the camera I am borrowing. I have ignored the 28mm and the 24-150mm (or whatever its precise numbers are) lenses. I’ve claimed that I want to get the camera figured out before I start having to make choices that include which lens I would rather use. Though, I did bust out the telephoto the other day and became annoyed quickly; it required more light, was clunkier to move around, and when I wanted to zoom it didn’t zoom nearly enough. In my head, I made the same argument about my use of photo shop. That is, I told myself ‘focus on getting the picture you want first.’ I think I am getting lazy and justifying that with arguments for not doing more.
Thanks for the tutorial.