Portage Indiana Graphic Design on Facebook
Sunday, August 23, 2009
My face on Facebook
I recently noticed the Facebook fan box widget. It is pretty cool. I think it is a little big for a page though. Here it is. It appears to be somewhat customizable, but if you change the height in the code it cuts off the window. I put it in a div here with overflow set to auto.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Create a Rich Black and White RGB
Today I am going to go through how to make a black and white image from a color photo. Let's get to it. First start with any color image. Here is mine:
The next step is to open the photo in photoshop. I am currently using CS2, mainly because I didn't feel the need to upgrade, but it will still work in CS3 or CS4.
Be sure to convert the image to RGB by Image>Mode>RGB color. This does work in CMYK, but not all of the time. After you have converted the image to RGB open up the Layers Palette by clicking Window>Layers or by clicking F7 on a Mac. At the bottom of the layers palette you have a collection of buttons that allow you to mask your image, duplicate your layer, choose layer styles, and more. There is one button that we are going to use. That is the "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer" as shown in this picture:
After you click on it a list appears, as pictured above. In this list you will see "Channel Mixer..." Click on this and a Channel Mixer window will show up and also a new Channel Mixer layer is added to the layer palette. As Shown here:
In the Channel Mixer window you will see an Output Channel dropdown at the top, RGB Source Channel sliders in the middle, and a Constant slider at the bottom. You will also see Monochrome selection box at the bottom. Check the Monochrome box and your image becomes black and white. Mess with the sliders and see how your image changes.
Now the fun begins, if you move the Constant slider to the right your image becomes brighter. If you move it to the left it becomes darker. I am going to move mine to the left so the box above the slider reads -8%.
Next I am going to move the green slider to the right to about +138%. Next I am going to move the blue channel to the left to read -4%. Last I am going to move the red channel to the left -18$. If I look at the photo I now have a very rich black and white photo from my RGB photo and it is still in RGB mode.
Some more tricks you can do with this way to create a black and white photo is to hit ok on the Channel Mixer window to save your changes to the photo. Then go back to your layers palette and click on the white box on the Channel Mixer layer (which should already be selected). Next select the selection tool and select part of the image. After you have your selected part click on the brush tool. (Make sure you are still on the Channel Mixer layer and that the white part is selected) Now select the color box at the bottom of the tools palette and make sure your foreground color is black. Start painting in your selection in the photograph. Because you haven't converted the image to black and white the RGB colors are still saved underneath the Channel Mixer layer.
Let's look at the use of changing the image mode to black and white vs. this option. See below:
The next step is to open the photo in photoshop. I am currently using CS2, mainly because I didn't feel the need to upgrade, but it will still work in CS3 or CS4.
Be sure to convert the image to RGB by Image>Mode>RGB color. This does work in CMYK, but not all of the time. After you have converted the image to RGB open up the Layers Palette by clicking Window>Layers or by clicking F7 on a Mac. At the bottom of the layers palette you have a collection of buttons that allow you to mask your image, duplicate your layer, choose layer styles, and more. There is one button that we are going to use. That is the "Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer" as shown in this picture:
After you click on it a list appears, as pictured above. In this list you will see "Channel Mixer..." Click on this and a Channel Mixer window will show up and also a new Channel Mixer layer is added to the layer palette. As Shown here:
In the Channel Mixer window you will see an Output Channel dropdown at the top, RGB Source Channel sliders in the middle, and a Constant slider at the bottom. You will also see Monochrome selection box at the bottom. Check the Monochrome box and your image becomes black and white. Mess with the sliders and see how your image changes.
Now the fun begins, if you move the Constant slider to the right your image becomes brighter. If you move it to the left it becomes darker. I am going to move mine to the left so the box above the slider reads -8%.
Next I am going to move the green slider to the right to about +138%. Next I am going to move the blue channel to the left to read -4%. Last I am going to move the red channel to the left -18$. If I look at the photo I now have a very rich black and white photo from my RGB photo and it is still in RGB mode.
Some more tricks you can do with this way to create a black and white photo is to hit ok on the Channel Mixer window to save your changes to the photo. Then go back to your layers palette and click on the white box on the Channel Mixer layer (which should already be selected). Next select the selection tool and select part of the image. After you have your selected part click on the brush tool. (Make sure you are still on the Channel Mixer layer and that the white part is selected) Now select the color box at the bottom of the tools palette and make sure your foreground color is black. Start painting in your selection in the photograph. Because you haven't converted the image to black and white the RGB colors are still saved underneath the Channel Mixer layer.
Let's look at the use of changing the image mode to black and white vs. this option. See below:
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