PC/Win plug: 2 ChOps

[Stroker]

This plug-in was born of my flow as oppossed to researching techniques. Found myself doing a lot of the same things over and over, so I boiled it down into a plug to do the grunt work.

I'm a big fan of ChOps (CHannel OPerationS) for isolating certain things in a photo. For example, converting hue to grey, making yellow white and everything else black. Then extracting saturation for a particular saturation level. Then putting those together to isolate yellows in said particular saturation range. Not to mention other ChOps tricks that I've been using quite a bit.

Several different channels and putting them together in lots of different ways. The time I was spending to set it up was starting to take it's toll.

Enter: 2 ChOps

Here's a cap of using 2 ChOps to isolate blue with a medium saturation level:

2 ChOps

Looks daunting, but it may pass if you dig it.
Also, the UI still needs a bit of work (I'm lazy like that sometimes).

Primary
This is needed in case you want Chan1 to use a blending mode that is reliant on a substrate. For example, Difference or Exclusion. Greyscale, BTW.

First set of controls:

Chan1
Pick the first channel. Like Red, Green, Hue, and a few others.

Point, Range, and Fall-Off:
These work in the following manner:

pointrangefalloff.jpg

Kind of sucks that it's symmetrical, but it's a compromise that I decided to make. The symmetry hasn't been a problem... yet.

Mode
The blending mode of Chan1 over Primary. I was going to write my own, but decided to go with FM's built in modes for convenience. Some you will easily recognize and some you will have to play with. There are like 2 in there that rely on an extra channel and won't exactly work. I'm sure you will figure it out.

Blend
How much to blend the Chan1 with Primary using the given Mode.

Second set of controls:

Just like the first set of controls.

Right-Clicking:

Right-click the preview to sample Chan1 and Chan2.
Right-click + Control to sample Chan1.
Right-click + Shift to sample Chan2.

Right-click + key is actually a not operation.
This means that right-click + shift + control will do nothing.
I might change this behavior, but I'm not sure just yet.

Smoothifying

Since 2 ChOps works on some derived channels, artifacts and stair-stepping may occur. This can be a problem in some cases. I recommend 'Smoothifying' a photo before 2 ChOps.

1. copy photo
2. Smart Blur and/or Median to taste
3. Set blending mode to Colour
4. Merge down

Hue Channel
The Hue channel might be a problem when Sat=0. If Sat=0, the Hue is non-existant and can't be used. If/when this occurs, the result will be black.

Um... I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other little things.

PC/Win
RGB 8-bit
Layer palette
Filter > Tech Slop > 2 ChOps
TS_2chops.8bf

TS_2chops.zip ~89k

After running 2 ChOps, you will be left with a greyscale image in the Layer palette. What you do with it after that is up to you. My main use is to create a mask to be used with an adjustment layer. Or you can leave it in the Layer palette and mess with blending modes and what-not. You know, whatever strikes your fancy.

Divide a photo into highs and lows for different tweaks? Once you define highs and lows, shouldn't be a problem.
Neutral hues in a specific hue range? Not a problem.
I even found a combo that seriously helps with the Dagan(?) Effect(TM).

Born of my flow, so I am getting a lot of milage out of it.

Jeez, I could go on and on about these things.
But the sun is shining and I think I'll take the kids kite flying for awhile.

edit:
Just a quick check and I did it again!
Definitely time to go outside and get some fresh air.