How to make a selection based on amount of saturation PS7

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but

can’t

find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed that is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the gray

is

gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask

so

only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the

leather.

It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because

there

is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Color Range is about the best idea I can come up with at this point in the day. You’ll find it under Selections. Read up…it’s a pretty amazing masking tool.

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In article <FRDnb.4284$>, "AaronK"
<akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote:

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means of making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Try Select Color, lest we get into the worlds longest thread.

A suggestion,
To see saturation clearly take K channel in a layer, invert and use addition mode.
Desaturated areas are white.

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but

can’t

find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed that is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the gray

is

gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask

so

only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the

leather.

It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because

there

is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

well here’s my idea. it may work, it may not. ive tried it alittle and it seems to work to a certain extent. goto your channels palette and holding control click on Red, hold shift and control click to add the rest of them to your selection. back to your layers and try using that selection, in theory that should select anything that has any color saturation but in some cases ivet ried it and it doesnt get quite everthing. perhaps duplicating the layer and bumping up the saturation a few steps would help to make your selection more exact. well good luck

-tom

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but

can’t

find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed that is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the gray

is

gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask

so

only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the

leather.

It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because

there

is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message
snip

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

I know this sounds simplistic, but have you tried resetting the neutral point with the center dropper in curves or using the sponge tool to locally desaturate the "off areas"

As to creating a selection based on sat. What about switching to lab mode and using either color range or your other preferred method in the A channel?
then you can switch to the layers palette and do whatever you need to do

Another thought… what about duplicating the layer, desaturate it, and use the
saturation blend mode, then use the advanced blending mode sliders based on the color in the underlying layer…. I’ve used this to get rid of rust and Georgia
red clay stains on stucco buildings, changing the blending mode as appropriate
to the colors— that way you can keep the texture and crisp focus but ditch the off color.

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message
SNIP

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image.

SNIP

You could try and convert a copy of the RGB file into an HSB channel file. Then work with the Hue or Saturation channel only and see if a useable mask can be made from that.

The RGB<->HSB filter is available as one of the ‘Goodies’ on the Photoshop CD.

Bart

You might have to revert to what the professional photographers do: shoot it right, in part with antireflective spray on the product so it doesn’t reflect nearby colors, use proper light and polarizing screens and then finally retouch the image using paint mode… ah I mean, an airbrush. 🙂 Grey is a color!

Thanks for the help. I had good luck converting to LAB (which is kind of HSB backwards) then getting a mask out of the a channel. I’ll look at the HSB conversion and see if that does much difference. … Aaron

"Bart van der Wolf" wrote in message

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message SNIP

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image.

SNIP

You could try and convert a copy of the RGB file into an HSB channel file. Then work with the Hue or Saturation channel only and see if a useable

mask

can be made from that.

The RGB<->HSB filter is available as one of the ‘Goodies’ on the Photoshop CD.

Bart

Thanks, The LAB mode thing worked quite well. The desaturate sponge thing is a bit tedious but not bad for general areas. … Aaron

"JP Kabala" wrote in message

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message snip

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

I know this sounds simplistic, but have you tried resetting the neutral point with the center dropper in curves or using the sponge tool to

locally

desaturate the "off areas"

As to creating a selection based on sat. What about switching to lab mode and using either color range or your other preferred method in the A channel?
then you can switch to the layers palette and do whatever you need to do
Another thought… what about duplicating the layer, desaturate it, and

use

the
saturation blend mode, then use the advanced blending mode sliders based

on

the color in the underlying layer…. I’ve used this to get rid of rust

and

Georgia
red clay stains on stucco buildings, changing the blending mode as appropriate
to the colors— that way you can keep the texture and crisp focus but

ditch

the off color.

I couldn’t get this method to work. It seems to only select a brightness area of the image, unless I’m doing something wrong. I opened the channels menu, control clicked the red channel, then continuing to hold control, I also hold the shift, then while these are held down, I clicked the rest of the channels. I only got a selection of the dark parts of the image. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. … Aaron

"thomas" wrote in message

well here’s my idea. it may work, it may not. ive tried it alittle and it seems to work to a certain extent. goto your channels palette and holding control click on Red, hold shift and control click to add the rest of them to your selection. back to your layers and try using that selection, in theory that should select anything that has any color saturation but in

some

cases ivet ried it and it doesnt get quite everthing. perhaps duplicating the layer and bumping up the saturation a few steps would help to make

your

selection more exact. well good luck

-tom

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but

can’t

find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed

that

is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the

gray

is

gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask

so

only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the

leather.

It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because

there

is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

Hi Aaron,

I would create a mask or selection of the whole product (including the colored areas, stitching ect…) then with the eye dropper sample an area which has the ideal gray you were talking about. Set the sample size of the eye dropper to 5X5 average before sampling the gray area. The color area that you sampled will be become your foreground color. Now Edit/Fill – (Contents use Foreground color, (Blending Mode – change from normal to color, (opacity 100%).
The whole product including the stitching should be a consistent gray. Now you can use your history brush or eraser (with erase to history clicked on) to bring back the red stitching and other colored items. I would use a pretty small and soft brush to accommodate the stitching. You can set your brush to different sizes and opacities to bring back any subtle hints of color to keep a natural feel to the image. The key is to use a very soft brush.

You also may want to try this. With the eye dropper sample an area which has the ideal gray you were talking about. Set the sample size of the eye dropper to 5X5 average before sampling the gray area. The color area that you sampled will be become your foreground color. Now instead of using the fill method. Take a soft paint brush (experiment with different sizes) and change the mode from normal to color. Now brush the areas which are not consistent to the ideal gray areas that you like. The inconsistent areas you brush should blend in nicely with the ideal grays while still holding all the detail and shape of the product. You can use the history brush to bring back any areas (red stitching, ect..) to restore any areas you may have brushed over by mistake due to overspray.

If you want to do it purely by creating a mask of the suspect areas then color range is you best bet.

Good luck. Let me know how it works out.

John

"AaronK" <akiley^#)>…

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but can’t find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed that is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the gray is gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask so only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the leather. It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because there is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means of making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

"John Lattarulo" wrote in message

Hi Aaron,

I would create a mask or selection of the whole product (including the colored areas, stitching ect…) then with the eye dropper sample an area which has the ideal gray you were talking about. Set the sample size of the eye dropper to 5X5 average before sampling the gray area. The color area that you sampled will be become your foreground color. Now Edit/Fill – (Contents use Foreground color, (Blending Mode – change from normal to color, (opacity 100%).
The whole product including the stitching should be a consistent gray. Now you can use your history brush or eraser (with erase to history clicked on) to bring back the red stitching and other colored items. I would use a pretty small and soft brush to accommodate the stitching. You can set your brush to different sizes and opacities to bring back any subtle hints of color to keep a natural feel to the image. The key is to use a very soft brush.

You also may want to try this. With the eye dropper sample an area which has the ideal gray you were talking about. Set the sample size of the eye dropper to 5X5 average before sampling the gray area. The color area that you sampled will be become your foreground color. Now instead of using the fill method. Take a soft paint brush (experiment with different sizes) and change the mode from normal to color. Now brush the areas which are not consistent to the ideal gray areas that you like. The inconsistent areas you brush should blend in nicely with the ideal grays while still holding all the detail and shape of the product. You can use the history brush to bring back any areas (red stitching, ect..) to restore any areas you may have brushed over by mistake due to overspray.

If you want to do it purely by creating a mask of the suspect areas then color range is you best bet.

Good luck. Let me know how it works out.

John

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

news:<FRDnb.4284$>…

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but

can’t

find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed

that

is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the

gray is

gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask

so

only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the

leather.

It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because

there

is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

Thanks John, Your method works quite well and it’s fast. I could make an action to add to my (long) bar for both your methods depending on which one works best with a particular image. … Aaron

"mitch" wrote in message

A suggestion,
To see saturation clearly take K channel in a layer, invert and use

addition

mode.
Desaturated areas are white.

Mitch, I couldn’t quite figure out how to implement your suggestion. I converted to CMYK, made a copy of the black channel, then pasted it on top of the cmyk image, then did "image, adjustments, invert:, then in the layers menu I highlighted the new layer and couldn’t find a dropdown "addition" choice. … Aaron

PS 7 comes with an HSB colour space which it doesn’t load when you install but can be installed from the disc.

This is a quote you might find helpful:

Photoshop has a sort of limited HSB support using the HSB/HSL Plug-in. This is an Adobe plug-in that is on your install disk but is not part of the default install. Look on you install disk:Goodies: Optional Plug-ins: Photoshop Only: HSB & HSL filter folder. Drag it into your plug-ins folder and you’re good to go. After running the filter on an RGB image, the file will still display as RGB so the color gets all wacked – BUT… the "R" channel now represents Hue, the "G" represents saturation and the "B" channel represents Brightness. The filter lets you choose whether you want HSL or HSB (I never appreciated the difference so I just use HSB). I use this primarily for generating a mask for saturation out of the HSB "G" channel. I developed an action for saturating non-saturated colors (protecting saturated colors) that utilizes a mask loaded from the "G" channel of a HSB copy. I’m not sure how you could use this filter for color correction but it does come in handy for generating saturation masks.

Hope this helps

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

Hi all, I’ve been searching the newsgroups and my Pshop 7 manual, but

can’t

find the answer to my problem.

I’d like to figure out a way to make a mask based on the amount of saturation my image. For example, I have a product I’ve photographed that is mostly gray leather. There are also colored items around the gray leather. Because of inconsistent lighting and proximity effect, the gray

is

gray in some places but off in others. I’d like to be able to do a mask

so

only the gray leather is selected. I could then desaturate only the

leather.

It would be too difficult to select the leather any other way because

there

is red stitching that I want to keep red.

I’m looking for a solutions that looks at saturation itself as the means

of

making a selection (mask) Any ideas?

Thanks … Aaron

Hi Aaron,

I am glad I could help. I use this method quite often to correct clothing that is rainbowing all over the place. It really is the fastest and best way to approach this type of correction.

John

Sorry Aaron,

I’ve given you a bad steer ..and now feel obliged to explain. I’m currently using other graphics software, but considering purchasing photoshop, so I’ve been browsing here to get an idea of what capabilities and solutions this will provide me.

I didn’t realise that PS doesn’t have the "addition" blending mode. I was attempting to remove all perception of gray channel to leave only CMY resulting in a type of saturation map or at least a clearer visual of saturation. I also made the error of bringing a channel from a different color space as I applied this to a test image in RGB.

You may be carry out what I was attempting much simpler by converting to CMYK and flood filling the K channel with white, though I don’t know the precise method to achieve this in PS.
This may work better after converting to lab color space but again I can’t test that.

"AaronK" <akiley^#)#epp%umich.edu> wrote in message

"mitch" wrote in message

A suggestion,
To see saturation clearly take K channel in a layer, invert and use

addition

mode.
Desaturated areas are white.

Mitch, I couldn’t quite figure out how to implement your suggestion. I converted to CMYK, made a copy of the black channel, then pasted it on top of the cmyk image, then did "image, adjustments, invert:, then in the layers menu I highlighted the new layer and couldn’t find a dropdown "addition" choice. … Aaron