Digital BW, The Print

> From: jgm818 [mailto:jgm818@...]
>
> I recently read an article from,John Paul Caponigro and his use of
> using the channels in photoshop.  He targeted each channel as
> seperate layers and reduced there opacitiy and added a forth
> lightness channel. He than created layer masks so he could apply
> curves to each one.  I've been just turning the image to
> monochromatic and adjusting the sliders each at a time, getting the
> look I wanted.  Then I would use curves.  Is his way superior? or am
> I totally of track here?  Jeff

It all depends upon the image. If I understand your descriptions correctly,
his method allows a separate curves for each color, and your's doesn't.
That's extremely versatile, but often unnecessary. I don't think there's any
shortcut--you have to look at the channels in each image, and watch what
happens as you mix them, and decide as you go along what techniques will be
needed to pull out the particular detail you're trying to capture.
Sometimes, the channel mixer is all you need; sometimes, it's useful to use
Hue/Sat to pick out a narrow color range to manipulate (narrower than the R,
G or B channel); and sometimes there's no alternative but to convert the
channels into separate layers and manually paint the layer masks. It's an
art.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...