One of the problems with many of the filters that give such cool effects is that those cool effects lose to much detail. This is one method for keeping the detail and still having the effect.

1. image--mode--cymk
2. go to channel palette. duplicate black channel. turn on the original channels and turn the duplicate black channel off.
3. image--mode--rgb
4. select--load selection--channel--black copy
5. run your art filters (for this example I used impressionist custom preset textured streaky)
6. deselect and proceed as normal. if too much detail has been retained, reselect--select inverse--run a mildly distorting filter (I use VP oil most of the time, but didn't do it for this example).
7. remember to discard the black channel copy before saving (easiest time is after flattening)

The two image attached were run through impressionist with the same settings. One had the CYMK mask and the other didn't.
7.

Thanks, Cheryl. The difference is amazing, this is another great technique to add to the toolbox.

Patricia

Thanks Cheryl, I gotta give that a try!!!

Some filters, like Photoshop's Artistic > Colored Pencil, do a nice job arty-ing up areas images except in areas that are black or nearly black. See Left side of the example: Hair blotches, eyes not well defined.

Using Cheryl's method to select the non-black areas notice the improvement in the eyes, dark areas of her hair (they aren't as blotchy) and the definition of her nose and lips.

Another of Photoshop's filters to which this could be applied is Dry Brush, that can have some pleasant results, but seems to completely trash eyes.

Great tip, Cheryl. Thanks for sharing it.

~Danny~

Thanks. This technique was a happy discovery for me. It was prompted by the "select black" method in the photshop magic 6.0 book and being frstrated with images that didn't have enough black to get a good selection. I think it has lots of potential. When I have time I plan on trying it with the art history brush and smudge painting too.

PS.--Danny thanks for posting the tip on getting that book for a song last summer. It was the best 6 bucks I've spent in a while. :classic:

Another thing to play with - instead of making a selection, make a layer mask with the K channel information, and then run a filter on the mask (spatter, sumi-e, or similar - low settings). This makes the paint effect have a paint effect on it - sometimes wierd results.

Also - how about convert to LAB, ctlr-click one of the three channels, then back to RGB = selection based on lightness/A/B (a/b give very different results to selecting other colour information in rgb or cmyk).

Great idea, Cheryl!!

Good alternatives, Fluff.

It occurs to me another twist on this would be to engage Select > Color Range and literally select black (from the image or via the color picker) and adjust the Fuzziness control -or- choose Shadows from the presets.

Don't you love Photoshop: So many options, so little time!

You can use my TLR Split Channels action to extract any/all of the channels from a CMYK, Desaturate, Grayscale, L*a*b, or RGB version of your image.

It's primary purpose is B&W conversion, but you can use for this purpose, too.

My action set copies the channels from duplicates of your image. This is better than converting from RGB to L*a*b or especially CMYK and then back to RGB.

http://www.thelightsright.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools/TLR%20Split%20Channels.zip

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mitch