tri color from 1 file

removed account4 · Nov 1, 2012

hey there

i am kind of lazy i guess
i didn't do things the right way
and want to find out if there is a way to do this
as a lazy person ...
i have a full color b/w scan
( its a b/w negative i scanned in color )
and i want to learn if there is a way to
do a tri color image from it
by making 2 duplicate files
and boosting the color r in one g in one and b in one
and activating the channels and merging them
to create a fake color image.

i have been fooling around a little bit, but haven't figured
it out yet and was wondering if you folks could point me in the right direction.
i know if i did it right, i should have exposed 3 views one with each filter
activated each channel ( depending on the filter ) then channel merged them
( i haven't really been able to do that right either ! )

any tips or suggestions ?

many thanks !
john

jd callow · Nov 4, 2012

I can only suggest the 3 exposure approach with minus red, minus green and minus blue filters and then using the r, g, and b channels from each copied to their respect channels in a new file.

Pioneer · Nov 4, 2012

Not sure if this is what you want but you can certainly do this in photoshop using two colors, three colors or 4. You will need 3 images in photoshop but just shoot your image in RAW, save it to 3 different jpegs, and then do your thing.

I have never done it from a scan but it seems to me that you duplicate the scanned image into three files, import them into photoshop and then go ahead with your conversion. If you scanned it as a color file there will be three color channels available even though they show black and white.

Since I have never done this I could be wrong of course. I may fiddle around and give this some time tomorrow to see how it works out. It should be much easier to do digitally than it was with film since you had to try using different filters on color film and then combine the negatives. As I remember it was a real b*** trying to align the negatives to get a print.

Prof_Pixel · Nov 15, 2012

jnanian said:
i have a full color b/w scan
( its a b/w negative i scanned in color )
and i want to learn if there is a way to
do a tri color image from it
by making 2 duplicate files
and boosting the color r in one g in one and b in one
and activating the channels and merging them
to create a fake color image.

I'm not sure what you are trying to do.

If you have scanned a B&W negative in color, the resulting file will have R, G and B records that are exactly the same. In a program like Photoshop you can adjust the B&W image color to tone it, but that's as far as you can go.

You could certainly use something like Photoshop to work on the individual channels to adjust or otherwise change (like erasing part of that channel) to modify the image into false colors. You could also do this using layers.

removed account4 · Nov 17, 2012

i posted a hand ( well mouse ) colored
overlay of my last try

thanks for your suggestions !
- john

chuck94022 · Nov 23, 2012

Scanning B/W as RGB just duplicates the same values into each of the channels, so there's no help there. But I suppose you could just colorize selected tones (you can magic wand, non-contiguous, and set the value range, or I'm sure there are other, better ways). Attached is a quick attempt I did of a b/w image. Looks sort of yucky, but I only spent about 5 minutes doing it. In this case, each color is added as a layer masked by selected tones, color fill, mode is color dodge. I don't suggest that is the best way, it is just what I did to produce this...

chuck94022 · Nov 23, 2012

Just FYI, here is an actual color photo (4x5, Ektar 100) of the same scene. The previous was a crop from a Neopan Acros 100 B&W image.

removed account4 · Nov 23, 2012

hi chuck

thanks ... LOL i should have realized if the original image only had tones of grey
the color channels would be ... grey.
i've just started to do my levels in each channel
( i process in coffee and get wacky color tones when i scan my film in color )
and then i add colors with the brush . and fiddle with the levels again ..
and see what happens . i have a few in the gallery i have done since a few days ago ..

thanks for the suggestions !

john

removed account4 · Mar 28, 2014

well,
i finally figured out how to do this, even though the results
are less than stellar it was still kind of fun. unfortunately it took me a few years .. oh well ..

i make 3 files and go into channel mixer and click on monochrome
then the save function ( for each of the files )
then i go back in to each one ( the R the G and the B ) and depending on which file it is
i pull down the menue and subtract the others and boost the one ( if it is the R file i boost the r )
then save again
i go back into the channel mixer and did the monochrome thing again

select all, copy and open a new file adn drop each file into its channel

sometimes it looks "good" other times i need to tweak a little bit to make it seem kind of good

its much easier with filters ( and they look much better )

L Gebhardt · Mar 28, 2014

Aren't you just toning the image by the difference between the three channels?

removed account4 · Mar 28, 2014

L Gebhardt said:
Aren't you just toning the image by the difference between the three channels?

i guess i am ... i never thought of it that way.
but isn't that really what making a trichrome ( even with negatives and filters ) does
by toning each negative so that they make a color image when printed or stacked ?

in the same vein, could someone just put anything in the color channels and get a color image?
(sorry i don't know anything about color theory )

Bill Burk · Mar 29, 2014

jnanian,

I've been digging the tricolors. Man I wish it was easier to do analog. I guess maybe a "Harris shutter" would work for me.

Do you know that trick? It's a drop slot with a set of tricolor filters in a strip - you use slide film and camera on B, then drop the strip in front to get three exposures in succession.

removed account4 · Mar 30, 2014

Bill Burk said:
jnanian,

I've been digging the tricolors. Man I wish it was easier to do analog. I guess maybe a "Harris shutter" would work for me.

Do you know that trick? It's a drop slot with a set of tricolor filters in a strip - you use slide film and camera on B, then drop the strip in front to get three exposures in succession.

thanks bill,
they are a lot of fun, kind of addictive, even if they are taken with a digital camera on b/w LOL
pretty much the same experience as with film, except you don't have to process the negative ...
there are a handful of different ways to merge the files, i've read the one on mark anthony's blog ( photoutopia )
and the stuff on the frenchsite, and the excerpts sandy king has published, but i coudn't get my version of photoshop to
"merge channels" .. so i just end up stacking all the negatives on eachother as one merged file to make sure they align, and then copy+delete
each layer as a grab them and put them into a new image's color channels. when i stack them wrong it reminds me of the TV everyone's
pals in college had you know, when they magnetted the screen of the " trash day street pickup tv " and screwed up all the color

wow i have never heard of a harris shutter, sounds like something i should spend my days and nights looking for !
so its like a waterhouse stop but a tricolor filter strip .. that's ingenious !
so in the end it is a single negative but with all three exposures ...
or .. is there are separator in the camera so there are 3 exposures on one film?

you might have to just call me ayhab at some point
john

Bill Burk · Mar 30, 2014

jnanian! I have an idea,

Just reduce the contrast of the blue channel...

If you aren't currently boosting the contrast of blue negative development to compensate... Then your tricolor images might be getting their unique look from the "fact" that negatives shot through the blue filter are "supposed" to be developed longer when shooting tricolor separations.

removed account4 · Mar 30, 2014

thanks bill
to be honest in the years
i have used a camera and processed myself
the past few months is the maybe the 3rd time
i have used a filter / filtration. the first time was to
photograph debris under water ( polo to remove reflection )
second time was excessively dark red with sfx 200
and now these .. thanks for the tips !
john

ced · Apr 21, 2014

Lab

Try converting the file into Lab and work on the a/b channels with gradation pulling the end points in at the top and bottom and also the curve can be altered too this needs a lot of experimenting.
You can select the a/b together and switch the L on for viewing while working only on the a/b via curves.

Doyle Thomas · Apr 21, 2014

Prepare your selected image for size, color balance, and other chosen manipulations. You may want to enlarge the canvas a bit to add some registration marks that will make alignment easier when making the stack.

When ready, select:

Image > Mode > CMYK color

On the channels pallet right click on and delete the black, yellow, and magenta channels leaving only cyan.

Next select:
Image > Mode > grayscale

And then:

Image > Mode > duo-tone and select monotone

At the color picker select a pure cyan using the table below.
Cyan is: RED = 0 GREEN = 255 BLUE = 255
Magenta is: RED = 255 GREEN = 0 BLUE = 255
Yellow is: RED = 255 GREEN = 255 BLUE = 0
Black is: RED = 0 GREEN = 0 BLUE = 0

Close the dialog and save the image as a copy adding a C to the file name, revert to the original and repeat the process for each of the other channels adding M, Y, and K to each file name respectively.

Note that in each of the colors the complementary is equal to 0 while the other two are at full saturation. There is really no need to apply a duo-tone to the black as it is already there. Changing the opacity of each separation when printing can control color balance.

Load all 4 files as smart objects or layer groups and experiment with adjustments, As groups you see the adjustments in real time, as smart objects you can't.

see my post http://www.dpug.org/forums/f9/dye-transfer-process-done-digitally-298/

removed account4 · Oct 16, 2016

when i was attempting to play with afinity photo i watched
a lot of their tutorial videos and came across this one
https://vimeo.com/155520871

while i don't use or recommend affinety photo
because of their lack of customer service &c
at least they have fun tutorials that can probably be used for
people attempting to use other editing software.

anywyas the tutorial suggests making 3 files and making one r and one g and one b
and then nexting cmy layers in each file and then layering them and adjusting them.
i haven't done it yet but it seems ez enough that i might attempt to try it.

removed account4 · Oct 16, 2016

well, i kept poking around and found a handful of tutorials on you tube that 90% explained how to do what i wanted to do.
it ended up being pretty simple once i combined my practical experience with what the videos said.
in case anyone is interested you get your file and go to channel splitter and it separates the 1 file into 3 of them labled r g b ...
you go back into mode and convert back to rgb because they were b/w files...
i went into hue/sat and clicked colorize and adjusted the r g b to their cmy counterparts
just like with making in camera tri chromes you open a new file and then drop the r g b files one at a time in the color channels named r g b ...
and there you go a faux tecnicolor faux trichrome looking color image. i haven't done it with a b/w image yet to see what happens.

thanks for the help and suggestions !
john

Doyle Thomas · Oct 16, 2016

http://www.primaryfocusphoto.com/?page_id=16

see "Dye Transfer Done Digitally"

removed account4 · Oct 17, 2016

hi doyle

thanks for your links and explanations !
i appreciate your experience and suggestions.
yesterday after my last post i split a file into 3 channels
adjusted their tonality and stacked them in color channels
and it worked out pretty well.
http://www.dpug.org/gallery/showimage.php?i=2332&catid=newimages
i even did the same thing, made a color image, and then dropped a handcolored image ontop of
the file and adjusted the opacity of the layer so both my hand colors came through and the computer colors came through
its kind of fun and i'll keep fiddling around and see where it leads me ...

john

tri color from 1 file

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency