Mixing Color Channels in Photoshop

 

Mixing color channels - Photoshop

The Channel Mixer command lets you modify a color channel using a mix of the current color channels. With this command, you can do the following:

• Make creative color adjustments not easily done with the other color adjustment tools.
• Create high-quality grayscale images by choosing the percentage contribution from each color channel.
• Create high-quality sepia-tone or other tinted images.
• Convert images to and from alternative color spaces, such as YCbCr, which is used in digital video.
• Swap or duplicate channels.

To mix color channels:

1. In the Channels palette, select the composite color channel.

2. Choose Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer.

                               

3. For Output Channel, choose the channel in which to blend one or more existing (or source) channels.

4. Drag any source channel's slider to the left to decrease the channel's contribution to the output channel or to the right to increase it, or enter a value between -200% and +200% in the text box. Using a negative value inverts the source channel before adding it to the output channel.

5. Drag the slider or enter a value for the Constant option. This option adds a black or white channel of varying opacity--negative values act as a black channel, positive values act as a white channel.

6. Select Monochrome to apply the same settings to all the output channels, creating a color image that contains only gray values.

Use the Channel Mixer with the Monochrome option applied to control the amount of detail and contrast in the images you plan to convert to grayscale.

If you select and then deselect the Monochrome option, you can modify the blend of each channel separately, creating a handtinted appearance.