It is interesting that for a workshop in black and white printmaking, we have talked about color for two days. On one hand it makes sense—black and white are colors—and John is big on paying attention to the source color for black and white conversion and how one handles hue and saturation issues. But it has not been altogether, or even primarily, geekspeak. John Paul Caponigro has practically a spiritual atunement to color and its meaning, and much of the talk of the day has been in this vein. His work is evidently about that quest, imbued with a pursuit for deep meaning in near-blank seascapes and skyscapes. It is no wonder that he speaks of Rothko (one of my artistic heros) and his mystical pursuit of redemption in color field painting.
I am of two minds on this workshop. On the one hand, it mirrors my own sympathies about the deeper meaning of camerawork and attentiveness. But I really want to know about contrast masking and selections. I want tools and techniques. This workshop is not absent of that, of course, as John has made his reputation on being one of the pre-eminent Photoshop and printmaking gurus in the business. It is awfully full of "deeper meaning" however. I am waiting to see how this turns out. So far so good, but I’m still waiting for that firehose of information to be aimed my way.
Nonetheless, here is the tip of the day: To add to your list, here is yet another way to make a conversion from color to black and white. Make two adjustment layers: first a Hue-Sat layer, then a Channel Mixer layer (with monochrome checked). The Hue-Saturation layer needs to be beneath the Channel Mixer layer. Open up the Hue-Sat layer. You have a black and white image, but, by moving the Hue slider, you will change the way the colors get interpreted in black and white. Want control over discrete colors? Choose a color on the drop down list. You can adjust just the reds, or the blues or the yellows, and determine exactly how they will be expressed in monochrome. It is useful to have a color copy of the image on the desktop so that you can see which colors in the black and white you’re wanting to alter.
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