|
After a photographic expedition in Honduras, photographer
Howard Pyle transformed a color shot of a surfacing turtle into
black-and-white fine art by mixing layers, blending channels,
and simulating film types.
|
|
 For a sense of distortion similar to infrared
film, Pyle duplicated the image layer,
applied a slight Gaussian Blur, and set the
blending mode to Screen at 5% Opacity.
Using Screen allowed him to manipulate
the distortion through Opacity at any time
instead of applying additional blurs.
|
|
 Pyle added a Channel Mixer adjustment
layer and checked Monochrome in
the dialog box to mix the color channels
into the Gray Output Channel and display
the image as Grayscale. He increased
the Red and Green Source Channels, decreased
the Blue, and used the Constant
slider to lighten or darken the overall adjustment.
This affected tone and texture
in the way black-and-white filters would
for traditional black-and-white film.
|
|
 Pyle enriched tonality by adding a
Selective Color layer below the Channel
Mixer layer. In the dialog box, he chose
Yellows from the pull-down menu and
reduced the Magenta and Black values.
He increased the values in the Cyans and
decreased the Greens slightly—like a
blue filter effecting tonality on a black-and-white film negative. For deeper
contrast, he chose the Blacks and set
the color values to +1 and Black to +2.
|
|
 Pyle added a Levels adjustment layer
above all other layers. He moved the white
slider to where the Histogram started on
the right, then set the Output Levels to 0
and 250 to make white areas printable.
|
|
Digital cameras can limit photographers
who want to overexpose—light areas
end up too light with no data (unlike film
where highlights can be salvaged easier).
For an overexposed digital image, open
the Info palette, roll over the image’s
light points, and check your RGB channels.
Pure or “blown out” white appears
as 255 in all channels. It’s best not to
have highlights over 250 in more than
one channel or images may print with
unpredictable results. Similarly, dark
values shouldn’t be less than 3 in each
RGB channel.
A simple way to correct this problem is to
add a Levels adjustment layer and set the
Output levels to 3 and 250. Pyle’s Levels
adjustment layer restored data in the
sunlit upper right corner.
Watch the numbers in the Info
palette as you make adjustments
to an image. For example, say you
increased the black point in Levels.
Without closing the Levels dialog box,
open the Info palette and roll over the
image’s dark points. The Info palette’s
channels will show two numbers. The
first is the original value; the second is
the new value based on your changes.
Tip: Working with thousands of images,
Pyle saves adjustment time by making
Actions. He created one to open a file
with a duplicate layer set to Screen
with a Gaussian Blur. It then added
three adjustment layers ready to be
tweaked individually.
|
 Don't miss the next Photoshop tip on Graphics.com. Get the free Graphics.com newsletter in your mailbox each week. Click here to subscribe.
|
Howard Pyle IV is a commercial photographer based in New York.
|
