How to use one channel?

[Shoff]

I have a badly faded photo. The only channel that seems to look nice is the blue. So I want to use only the blue channel to do all my adjustments. How do I copy the blue channel over and work only on that?

[FrannyMae]

Is the picture B&W or color? There are several different techniques for doing this but it depends on what you start with. And when you say you want to do all your adjustments on the blue channel do you mean you want to discard the other channels altogether? I would highly recommend Katrin Eismann's Photoshop Restoration & Retouching as a starting point for working with channels, especially to fix damage and correct color. She explains things so well and actually has examples you can download to work along with the book...just can't say enough good things about this book! You might want to check the tutorials here at RetouchPro and see if you can find something that will answer your question. I'm just learning myself so I don't have a quick answer for you. Good luck!

[Shoff]

Sorry here's the picture. You'll see the blue channel is the best. Unless you have another way to do this.

[FrannyMae]

I'm at work so I don't have PS to check the channels. Given the heavy fading I would think replacing the blue channel is a good start. Here's a link to a tutorial by Jakaleena that explains exactly how to do this by using the lightness channel from a Lab Color copy of your image:

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=23

I have used this method along with others...give it a try and see what you think.

[PatrickB]

I think what you're trying is to separate each individual channel to a new layer, is that right? To do this, go to your channels-palette, click the small triangle-icon in the upper right corner and pick "split channels".

Or is it just copying a channel? For this, just drag the channel onto the "new channel" icon in the lower part of the channels-palette.

Patrick

[saby]

Hi Shoff!

check the channels because they contains different informations i think U'd use the channel mixer to get every informations from the channels then split them to indivdual files as PatrickB sad.

Saby

[Flora]

Hi Shoff,

I'd definitely try the Channel Mixer, like Saby suggested, before using a single Channel only....

As you can see from my first attachment, the Blue Channel (the only one in your picture which has details you can work on .... but still lacking details .... ) has several blown out areas .... Tweaking with the Channel Mixer, I managed to bring out more details ....

In the B&A attachment you can see the result I got by enhancing the details only ....

[Shoff]

Thanx it came out nice

[byRo]

Hi Shoff,

Just chippin' in here.

The three channels are very different in Luminosity (Blue - OK, Green - light, Red - very light). I'd prefer to give them an equal chance before choosing.
- Make a copy of the layer and go to Channels;
- Pick each one in turn (separately) and adjust Levels (ctrl-L) to get a good grayscale image for each channel (full range, without clipping in the important areas);
- Now inspect (IMHO, Red = Noise, Green = Good , Blue = OK);
- With the channel mixer put in a good helping of the 'good' channel, a smaller number for the 'OK' and a small negative for the 'noise' (to me that came to Red -11; Green 80; Blue 32)
Note that, as you are mixing three adjusted images the maths gets easier because the sum should be around 100.

Didn't post an image - as always, Flora's is just about as good as it can get!

Roland

[FrannyMae]

I just wanted to thank Roland for his helpful tip! I'm determined to learn to use the channels as much as possible, and this certainly helps!