Section 10.13. Monochrome Effects

10.13. Monochrome Effects

You may have already noticed that when you see the rare black and white advertising photo, your attention is drawn to it immediately. In an oversaturated world that has become typical of digital photography, a simple monochromatic statement stands out more than ever. Well, black and white isn't the only monochrome technique. Some of the others are even more rare and attention-getting.

10.13.1. Infrared

One of the most charming effects you can get is infrared. Wedding photographers love it because a couple in traditional wedding garb running through a grassy hillside or forest look as though they've floated into a living dream. Their skin tones are absolutely smooth and all the vegetation is a snowy white. Moreover, although there are special filters for it, you can make an Action of this routine that will automatically convert any image you shoot to infrared. And because the Action uses adjustment layers, you can go back after the fact and readjust the effect as you like it. In Figure 10-37, you see the color photo from with the infrared on the right was made.

Figure 10-37. The original image (left) and the monochrome infrared result (right).

You'll get the most dramatic results from a digital color image with highly saturated tones. You might even try the Velvia effect I suggested earlier in this chapter, as I did for the image on the left in Figure 10-37. Here's how to turn that image into the infrared result you see on the right:

1. Select all your layers and copy and merge the copies into a single layer at the top of the layers stack (Cmd/Ctrl-Opt/Alt-E).

2. Duplicate the merged layer by selecting it in the Layers palette and then pressing Cmd/Ctrl-J.

3. Change the Blend Mode of the Infrared layer to Overlay.

4. Name the duplicated Merged layer "infrared."

5. Go to the Channels palette and choose the Green channel. Use the Gaussian Blur filter with the Uniform box checked, to blur the green channel by someplace between 10 and 20 pixels. You'll decide the amount of blur to use based on the resolution of the image and your subjective feel for how "glowy" you want this infrared interpretation to look. This process is very destructive of the Green layer, but you can always duplicate the merged layers layer and try again. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a Blur adjustment layer? Ditto for Smart Sharpen.

6. Now use the Channel Mixer to make it look like infrared. Choose Channel Mixer from the adjustment layer palette. When the Channel Mixer dialog appears, check the Monochrome box, darken the Red and Blue channels, and then drag the slider for the Green channel all the way to the right. You can see the Channel mixer as it should be set and the result of how it made the original image look in Figure 10-38.

   Figure 10-38. The Channel Mixer settings used for the infrared effect.

7. Now if you compare the original image to the finished one, you can see that this one is a bit dark. All you have to do to change that is to lower the Opacity of the Infrared layer until you like what you see.

10.13.2. Duotones

Duotones look like enriched monochrome images because the highlights are printed in one color and the shadows in another. Photoshop lets you choose either colors from a standard color book or colors from the color wheel, so the possible interpretations are literally infinite. There's also a separate Curves control for each of the colors and adjusting these can have considerable influence on how much each color contributes to the final mix. In Figure 10-39, you see an original color reportage portrait and the final result of turning it into a duotone.

Figure 10-39. The image on the right is made from a mix of a light yellow for the highlights and one of the Pantone blacks.

NOTE

The process here is to make a duotone for a special effect look, but you will convert it back to an RGB image for printing purposes. Duotones (and more) are also used to mix spot colors that are being used for printing the rest of the page and the exacting mechanics for doing this are outside the scope of this book. Consult with your offset print shop.

Here is the six-step program for making duotones:

1. Duplicate your image and keep the original open. Otherwise, the process you're about to undertake will obliterate your layer structure.

2. Convert your duplicate image to monochrome by using the Channel Mixer. There's no point in using it as an adjustment layer because the duotone processing will automatically flatten the image anyway.

3. When you've got the best-looking black and white you can get, choose Image Mode Grayscale and then immediately choose Image Mode Duotone. You'll see the dialog in Figure 10-40. Be sure the Preview box is checked. You definitely want to be able to choose your colors and curves interactively by being able to see an instant preview.

   Figure 10-40. The Duotone Options dialog box.

4. The most full range duotones are said to use the lighter shade of color on top and the darker shade on the bottom of the dialog. So change the default Black for the first color to whatever the light color you want to choose should be. You do that by clicking in the color swatch. The color picker will appear instantly. Pick the color and shade you want to use and click OK. Do the same for the second color swatch. When you like the result of the two colors you picked, you're very close to done.

5. Click the Curve box to the left of the color swatch. It's just a square with a diagonal line across it. You'll want to do this for each of the two colors. Start your experimentation by clicking in the center of the curve and dragging it up or down to make that color brighter or darker in the overall interpretation of the image. When you're happy with this, you're done with the duotone part. Just click OK.

6. Convert your image back to RGB, then copy it to the clipboard (Cmd/Ctrl-C) and select the original image and paste the duotone in as the top layer. Done de done done.

10.13.3. Sepia (or Any Other Color)

The sepia tone image you'd use for hand-tinting would be a bit weak and flat on its ownat least, for most subject matter. That's not a problem though. You can use the Monotone Option in the Duotone dialog to create a monotone in sepia or any other color. Pick the color from the color wheel. If you want a full range of tones, you'll want a dark shade of that color. It can also be a good idea to use the Levels adjustment layer on the result, so you can really get down to the blacks you want. In Figure 10-41, shows the result of converting the color photo taken by Paddy O'Connor from color to a blue monotone. Be sure to convert the image back to RGB before printing.

Figure 10-41. A dark blue was chosen from the Color Picker as the color for the monotone on the right.