Removing Values from an Image

[brownbair]

Hey everyone! I've been scouring the internet and experimenting on my own and I just can't figure out how to remove all value from a photo to only leave the pure colors (separate luminance from chrominance). The closest I've come is adding a solid colour layer of 50% grey above the photo layer and setting it to Luminosity. Same result as turning off the Lightness channel in Lab Colour mode. Unfortunately, the result is much dimmer and more grey than I'd like.

Any thoughts?

Thanks so much for your time!

 

[Paul]

tom...

 

[Tom Mann]

;-) Yup, I saw this thread. I'm getting there, but have to leave for work soon, so my comments may be later today.

T

 

[iDad]

I'll make a suggestion, if its less gray that you want, how about subtracting the fill a bit on that gray layer you mentioned?... Just a thought

 

[Tom Mann]

I'm not sure, but your request sounds like you are trying to achieve more of an artistic vision rather than a strictly technical / scientific "remove the luminosity" result. If it's the latter, you have done all the right things and you already have the answer.

If, OTOH, you are trying for a more visually pleasing, artistic effect, then you can get a more dramatic look by filling you color layer with a gray that is appreciably darker than 128, and then placing a "levels" adjustment layer (set to normal blend mode) above the dark gray layer and move the RH slider in substantially to the left - ie, to where the histogram begins to rise substantially above the baseline.

The attached example shows (in L -> R order):

(a) an original image courtesy ibClare (that I happened to have open in PS from a different thread);

(b) the result of the method you suggested using a 128 gray layer on luminosity blend.

(c) the result of the modification to your method that I described above.


More later,

T

 

[Tom Mann]

PS - You may also want to try simply adding a vibr/sat adjustment layer and max out both sliders. Personally I think the result is too garish, but I don't know what you want to use this for.

 

[brownbair]

Thanks for the knowledgable replies everyone! I appreciate it. However, I feel that I can further clarify my goal because these methods don't quite get the image to where I need it to be.

I'm trying to go from "original" to "chroma" in the attached images. So I guess 2 steps would be involved? I first need to remove all value and I think we've determined there are a few ways to do that. So check. But then I need to get rid of all of the grey tones ... what I've not yet been able to do. I want to strip this image down to only the pure colours of what is shown.

Is this possible in Photoshop?

Again - thanks everyone so much! I really appreciate your help!

 

[iDad]

If understand what you're asking can you get to the point where you want to be, by using this hue filter?

 

[iDad]

I am not sure but I think the combination of Hue,saturation and lightness to certain degrees may get you there

 

[ibclare]

These don't look exactly like what you're going for but I gave it a shot.

Basically I did a hue sat adjustment like iDad suggested. Then I merged those and repeated the process a couple times. Then I also did a vibrance/sat adjustment and merged those. Then I copied the layer and applied a filter. One has the sketch/water paper and the other has artistic/palette knife, both pretty close effect. I set each filter layer to overlay. I might have decreased opacity on the sketch, don't recall. There are still some shadows in the blue. Maybe you would need to paint this in to make it completely flat. IDK. This was just a bit of playing around with it.



this one is without filters. It is 3 hue sats as described above, and a .6 guassian blur on a second layer, mode normal, opacity 60%.