Mono, with a Touch of Colour - New Tutorial

[Darren Rowse]

Hoping to add forum RSS feeds at some point in the next week or so ryan97ou. Consider it on the 'to do' list.

[BusShooter]

Thanks for posting this Darren! I've always wondered how that's done (and now I can do it myself!).

ETA: Here's my hand at it.

[Trav-man]

I was wondering if there is a major difference between just adjusting the hue and saturation of an photo vs. using the channel mixer (I use both adjustment layers on my photos)

Just tried the spot color... pretty cool stuff.

[googlit]

@Trav-man:

Go to the channels palette. Click on the red, green, and blue channels, looking at the difference each makes on the pic. There's your answer right there. With just about any pic, the channels all look very different. One section that may have no contrast in red may have a lot in blue or green.

When you desaturate, you're sucking the color out, but you have little control over the contrast. You almost always get better results when you use the channel mixer or do some selective work with the channels.

hope this helps.

[BusShooter]

^So to do a nice mono picture with a bit of color, one should try channel mixing instead of desaturation to get the best out of the picture?

[henryscat]

there are loads of ways to do EVERYTHING in photoshop. Experiment and find your fav!
This tutorial is aimed at beginners - starting to wish I had stated that at the start after some of the abuse I seem to be getting.

[googlit]

@henryscat: people are just born to gripe.

@BusShooter:
If you want more control over the b&w conversion, definitely try channel mixing or something similar. Remember that what you're after is a shot that looks good to you. If you like the way it looks when you just desaturate, then rock on! I personally prefer the control, but I'm picky.

[Darren Rowse]

henryscat - don't let the snarkyness get you down.

Your tutorial got the the #1 position on Digg.com which is one of the hottest websites on the planet. Unfortunately there is a small element of Digg users who are renowned as being cynical and vocal.

However there are another 99% of Digg users who will have found your tutorial really helpful. I've had quite a few emails asking me to thank you for the tutorial. Focus on those comments and not the vocal minority who are just out to stirr the pot.

[Rory]

Great tuitorial thankyou Henryscat,

Personally i found this much easier and les hastle than messing with the rbg channels, im a super newb in ps tho, added bonus for me was great also to learn what the history brush was for thankyou

Googlit, absolutly fantastic job with the butterfly,
Ryan97ou is that a bearded Dragon? Ive never seen one soo orange!

my attempt...

[BusShooter]

I hope I wasn't considered one that's trying to "stir the pot". I only asked above because I'm relatively new to PS and I never knew what those functions are... I usually use PS just to crop stuff/copy and paste/resize photos.

So if I'm offending anyone in anyway, I apologize.