? Editing technique I just saw...

[MLeeK]

In this "How We Shot It" on SLR Lounge the photog says "6. Black & White Adjustment Layer on Overlay Blend at 5%-30% opacity: This is what I use to get the look that defines my images."
Can someone educate me on this?

 

[Superfitz]

What exactly is the question? Adjustment layers, setting the opacity, or something else?

 

[MLeeK]

What's the whole thing do.


I've been playing with it and it seems to boost contrast, but dulls some of the colors.

 

[paigew]

can you link to the image? I'm confused as to what you are asking...

 

[MLeeK]

can you link to the image? I'm confused as to what you are asking...

Sorry! I thought I had put the link in there!

How We Shot it - Environmental Portrait with Singer-Songwriter Sabrina tutorial

 

[Superfitz]

I have no idea what look is that they are talking about, but you are correct. It would dull colors. Without seeing it, I have no idea why they would use those settings.

Edit...ah. There is the link

 

[Superfitz]

I still have no idea what that "look" is that defines their images. I'm guessing they stumbled upon it one time and liked the effect...whatever it may be

 

[Forkie]

As far as I can work out, in Photoshop he created a black and white version of the image as a new layer, tweaked the contrast as he wanted, turned the opacity down to anything from 5%-30% then blended the two layers using the "Overlay" setting.

It's a good way of adding a contrast boost to a shot.

 

[amolitor]

I think you wind up desaturating the shadows more than the rest of the image, which is where those rich blacks come from.

 

[Ysarex]

The Overlay blend mode raises contrast. Typically any method that raises contrast will likewise raise color saturation at the same time. Using a B&W version of the color original to get that contrast boost from the Overlay blend avoids the saturation increase. I do it all the time.

Joe

 

[Trever1t]

I learned something new today, very cool!

 

[zombiemann]

To illustrate the effect I took one of my images and am posting it without and then with the B&W adjustment layer set to overlay @ 30%

EDIT: I'm having issues putting images into posts lately.. The image on the right is without the adjustment layer

 

[MLeeK]

Reminds me some of the pop I get by using the curves. Might be handy on images where I have one pure color that's kicking my azz. Like the WHS blue jerseys in this one

Or the lovely yellow pants in this

I'll have to go play with it with some of these images and see!

 

[KmH]

According to Martin Evening - "Overlay blending mode superimposes the blend image on the base, and preserves the highlights and shadows of the base layer."

There are 27 blending modes, including Normal, available in Photoshop CS(x).

Having Photoshop reference materials close at hand sure can be a time saver.

 

[MLeeK]

I have THE BIBLE... It's a pain in the derriere and doesn't answer my simple questions without looking up all kinds of complicated things.