Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Well so what, you might be thinking: how does this help me with black and
white conversions? Actually, understanding this concept and its development
is the foundation for the concept of color channels in Photoshop, and the
subsequent features software now provides for black and white conversions.
If you can wrap your head around this concept, you will be very close to
grasping the fundamental essence of the advantages digital photography
has to of er the black and white photographer.
Channels in Photoshop
Just as James Clerk Maxwell's experiment in the 1860s created color, so too
does a digital camera. However, instead of three separate images, we now
have separate channels within the same image i le composited together to
create the full color spectrum of an image. Separated, they are the individual
color “plates” that make up the image's color. A color image typically contains
four color channels: a Red channel, Green channel and Blue channel,
creating the “RGB” composite, and a fourth channel composite of all three.
This composite channel allows you to view any one of the individual colors
independently, or any combination of all three. There are i ve color channels
within a CMYK image (cyan, magenta, yellow, black and the combo of all four).
These channels store all the color information for each individual pixel within
an image and are generated automatically by Photoshop.
Red Channel
Green Channel
In addition to the standard four channels RGB or i ve channels CMYK,
Photoshop will also support images with up to 20 more channels. These
additional channels are called Alpha channels, where selections created
Blue Channel
RGB Composite
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