Photoshop Channel Mixer – Black & White Film Settings

I couldn’t think of a better title, so there you have it! I’ve been reading a book over the last couple of days which any serious Digital Photographer should probably have in their library, called “Black and White in Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Lightroom: Create Stunning Monochromatic Images in Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Lightroom and Beyond” by Leslie Alsheimer; I know it’s a big old mouthful, but it’s a great book, and whilst it’s not complete rocket science front-to-back (for example anyone that’s been using Photoshop in anger for a couple of versions should have at least some of this down already) I can almost guarantee that there is useful content in here for even the most seasoned professionals, and for the rest of us mere mortals, there’s a stack of useful information that goes way beyond the basics. So if you’re serious about editing or developing your B & W images in a controlled way, it’s money well spent. It also covers workflow using Adobe Lightroom in some detail too.

Now to the meat of the post, which was the whole reason for this post, that is within the book Leslie talks about some basic Channel Mixer settings which give the appearance of traditional black and white films, the list includes some old favourites like Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP5, it covers something like 15 films in total. I sat down the other evening playing with these settings, and whilst I quite like the general feel that they use, I’m afraid I have a hard time telling a deal of difference between all but the most extreme ends of them. But my shortcomings aside, for those of you that are interested, I’ve saved them to a Channel Mixer settings file which you can download and import into your own Photoshop. They were created in CS3, but I’m guessing that they’ll work in CS2 and possibly CS also; in CS3 they are also picked up inside the new Black & White Adjustment tool (which is really just a fancy front end to Channel Mixer anyway, but obviously gives you the additional control over the CMYK aspects of the image along with hue and toning capabilities. Anyway, enough waffle, I hope you find them of use, if you don’t believe that they accurately represent the films… Don’t Shoot The Messenger!! I’m simply sharing something I did with anyone that wants to use it. Of course, no one would point out a problem without offering a solution would they?? So if you tell me that they don’t represent the films closely enough, I’ll be expecting your new improved settings in the same message, then I’ll probably amend (or addend) the settings appropriately with your offering. Click on the link at the very bottom of this post for a handy zip (about 6KB) file of the following settings: Agfa 200X, Agfapan 25, Agfapan 100, Agfapan 400, Ilford Delta 100, Ilford Delta 400, Ilford Delta 400 Pro & 3200, Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5, Ilford Pan F, Ilford SFX, Ilford XP2 Super, Kodak Tmax 100, Kodak Tmax 400, Kodak Tri-X.

I know there is much more to making a digital image emulate film, these just offer a simple starting point to work with in terms of RGB response, again, don’t shoot the messenger!!

You’ll need to save them to wherever your user presets live, in the case of a Mac it’s in your user directory under “Library -> Application Support -> Adobe -> Adobe Photoshop CS -> Presets -> Channel Mixer” or alternatively you can save them anywhere and simply use the “Load Preset” option inside Channel Mixer and navigate to the directory at that time.

Disclaimer – Obviously I offer no warranty of any kind with these settings, they’re offered as is, and if you make anything explode, implode, or they screw with your images in any way, don’t blame me. If you’re not sure what you’re doing find someone to help you who does.

Download The Channel Mixer Settings Here!!

One Last thing, if you like these, and find them useful, leave a trackback to this post or if you don’t have a blog or don’t know what a trackback is then just leave a comment on here. It gives me the ability to know whether it’s worth me doing something like this again or not.

Photoshop TV Epsiode 57

Photoshop TV 57 is out as of a couple days ago. In this issue:

• Matt shows you how to use Photoshop to create websites using the Slice tool and Slice Select tool.
• Scott helps you undo the turkey and dressing with the Pinch and Transform tools.
• By request, Dave puts a stationary car into motion with Motion and Radial blurs.

You have about 5 days to download it before it’s gone and you’ll need a subscription to get it after that.

Adobe Exchange

If you’re looking for more ways to extend your photoshop (or any other Adobe product) then you’ll find some really quite useful stuff at the Adobe Exchange. This might look familiar to anyone who used to use Macromedia products;  Macromedia used to have a site called exchange where users and companies used to exchange plugins and all sorts with each other. I’m figuring since Adobe purchased the Macromedia companies that this is the same deal rehashed for Adobe products.   Anyway, lots of good stuff,  go dig around see what you can find!!

PhotoshopTV – Episode 51

This weeks Photoshop TV Episode 51 just posted. Just remember, if you snooze, you lose, publication of this weeks episode means that all of last weeks yummy goodness isn’t avaialble now unless you buy it. On this weeks show (lazily pasted from the site)

• Scott turns a not-so-interesting photo into a very cool design with Quick Mask.
• Matt and Scott show you how to get perfect white balance with the ExpoDisc from ExpoImaging.
• Dave has a tutorial on creating flexible lighting effects with the Lighting Effects filter and Lens Flare.
• Matt creates automatic actions using Photoshop’s Script Editor.

There it is in all its glory .. Go get some

Adobe Proxy e-zine

Just a quick Sunday post.  For those of you looking to increase your Adobe skills, Adobe publishes a PDF e-zine called Adobe Proxy.  It has article, tutorials,etc well worth taking a look at.

Photoshop Actions – By Popular Demand

Just got an email because I promised I’d point someone at some Photoshop Actions but haven’t gotten around to sorting it out yet, so, here it is. Photoshop Actions are essentially a way to automate processes in photoshop, the most common reasons for wanting to do this are speed, simplicity or regularity. If you’re applying the same actions to images day after day as a part of your workflow, it makes sense to automate the task, and if you’re using it really frequently assign the action to a key combination.

A great place to start, and a great place to find some “free” photoshop actions is at ActionCentral – The Photoshop Action Exchange which is a fantastic site but can be a little bewildering at the sheer numbers of actions available. Be aware that there are many crap actions mixed in with the gems that can be found, and I can’t even begin to say which actions are great for other peoples workflow. But take a while to look around and be selective, a few well chosen actions that are easy to access are far better than a thousand rubbish actions that confuse. Take a few seconds to look at one of my favourites “Kent’s B&W Selective Color 4.0” which is a fantastic B&W converter.  There are some great tutorials on the site too
It’s also worth taking time, once you’ve found a good set of actions to take some time picking them apart, and really understanding what goes on behind that magical click of the mouse, it’ll help you understand photoshop in a far better way than simply relying on others.

Lastly, for the Apple users amongst you, there is another site called “Complete Digital Photography” run by a guy called Ben Long, he goes to a great deal of effort combining photoshop actions along with Apple’s OS X Automater, to produce so truely fantastic workflow management options. The actual Photoshop Action Pack can be found here, which is currently at version 3.0 at the time of this post.

Both of the sites rely on donations, so if you’re making money from your work and use these sites or their actions on a regular basis, please take some time to recognise these guys for their hard work and knowledge, give em a donation, which will help to ensure that their fantastic work continues. There ends my sermon!

PhotoshopTV – Episode 50

Photoshop TV has been updated (October 9th) this weeks show is about 45 minutes, and topics include:

• Various Methods of increasing brightness and contrast using curves adjustments and layer masks on areas you wish to draw the eye to (very useful if you’re a working photographer and don’t already use this
• How to create a photo monatage using a bunch (60 -112) photographs to create a 20 x 30 poster.
• Getting rid of colour casts when shooting under artificial (or studio) lighting by using Whibal white balance cards.

Don’t forget these shows are only available for 1 week, until the new episode is released, after that they’ll cost you $2 from the shows online store.

The Radiant Vista

For those of you that are interested in photography, and have been living in a cave for the last 12 months, there’s a site you should be taking a look at. The Radiant Vista has been one of my daily visit sites for a number of months now, it’s a site that offers a stack of Video content, critique and tutorials, that make it one of the most interesting and interactive photography sites out there. Unlike so many of the other e-magazines, it has no concern with gear (except as a part of the image making creative process) which is a breath of fresh air for me, with so many sites out there reporting on the latest equipment. The site seems to have something for everyone, and there’s always something interesting to be seen on the site, which is updated on average about every 2 or 3 days for main content (it’s updated daily for the daily critique section).

Do yourself a favour if you haven’t already and pay the site a visit, I think most photographers are likely to find a space on their bookmarks for this.