Color Channel and Blending Mode Manipulation

Hello Students,

Fine art photography and experimental photo techniques like infrared photography can be created with Photoshop to expand your ability to use digital photo manipulation for creative expression. Part of the key to tapping into the power of photoshop is understanding Color Channels, and how layers can be manipulated with Blending Modes. In this project you will convert your Color Channels to Layers filled with the colors of your choice, and then experiment with different blending modes. The results will be surprising. The idea here is to be creative and try to achieve an artistic exposure effect. Essentially replacing the standard RGB values with your own values/gradients/images etc. Next we will follow a tutorial to create an "Infrared" photography effect.

Digital images are created with 3 channels of color, Red, Green and Blue. You will convert the color channels in your image into colored layers, and then manipulate them with blending modes.

This image was separated into color layers in PS and the blue layer was replace with a blur orange gradient

Experiment with filling red layers with blue colors, or green with yellow and then changing the blending modes.  In this image I used a Gradient to achieve my desired effect of drawing the eye into the center of the flower couples with blending mode to enhance the effect.

Channel Mix - Color Channel and Blending Mode Experimentation Assignment:

To set up a color mixing experiment you will convert color "Channels" to color "Layers". Follow the steps below, arrange your layers and explore blending modes for a creative effect. When complete post your photo and move onto the Infrared tutorial:

• Open a photograph of your choice. Chose a photo that shows rich colors.
• Open Layer palette and Channels Palette side by side
• Select Red Channel to view that channels value in greyscale
• Command-Click the Red Channel Icon to turn it into a Selection
• Click on the RGB Channel to restore to full color
• Make a new layer, click your Color Icon and create a new Layer. Fill that Layer with Red.
• Hide that layer and repeat that process until you have a layer that represents each color in the Color Channel, Red, Green and Blue

Your Layer Palette should look like this when complete. You can change the white layer for a black one to achieve different results

• Create a layer of white and place behind your Red, Green and Blue Layers
• Change the Blending Mode of the top Layer until you find a desirable result
• Continue changing blending modes and re-arranging color layers and save 3 different versions that you find artistically pleasing
• Repeat this process with a second image of your choice and upload to the flickr page

Original

Mixed Channels

Infrared Photography Tutorial:

Infrared photography is a way to see a spectrum of light that isn't visible to the human eye. It requires special filters, methods and sometimes equipment modification.

In this exercise you will create an infrared effect with your own image using Photoshop. Follow the steps below or read the tutorial link to complete your own example. Compare your results to the example below, are they similar in effect? Make sure you follow the steps carefully:

• Open your image and duplicate the background layer, relabel it "infrared".
• Open the Channels Palette and click on the green channel, your image will appear black and white, this is the color "data" for the green channel. An RGB image has 3 channels to make a single color image.
• With the green channel selected, apply a Gaussian Blur to the Green Channel. The Gaussian Blur Radius can be set to about 35 pixels.
• Change the Blend Mode of the infrared layer to "Screen".
• Add a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer, set the Red value to -50, the Green value to 200 and the Blue value to -50.  Also make sure the Monochrome checkbox is checked. 
• Lower the Opacity of the infrared layer to 35%.
• Add a new blank Layer to the top of your layer stack and fill the layer with white. Change the name of this layer to "Grain"
• Apply a "grain" effect by using the Add Noise filter under the Filter Menu / Noise.
• Change the Noise layer Blend Mode to "Multiply".
• Duplicate the background layer and place it between the Grain layer and the Channel Mixer layer and lower it's opacity to 50%.
• Save a JPG and post after you make any final adjustments, compare your results to the one below.

Photo before processing. Fall Creek, 2015. Photo by S.Wilson

Photo after Infrared process with Photoshop using blending modes, filters and adjustment layers.

Have fun!

- Mr.W