. Note: You may skip this part of the chapter project and move on to another sec - tion if you’d like. The finished files for each section are on the companion CD. Cleaning up the image involves removing the background of the wall or painting over it, painting with a background color, and then enlarging the canvas. 1. Open the file Fish Picture.jpg from the Chapter 23 folder on the companion CD. 2. Choose Image>Canvas Size. Change the image size to 18 by 25 inches. If necessary, use the scroll bars to position the picture in the middle of your computer screen. 3. Select the Eyedropper tool and select the green color of the plate, just behind the fish’s back fins. 4. Select the Paint Bucket tool, and in the options bar change the Mode to Normal, Opacity to 100 percent, and Tolerance to 100,and verify that Anti-alias and Contiguous are checked. 5. Click in the newly added part of the canvas, outside the wall area. 6. Select the Brush tool from the toolbox. 7. Select the Hard Round 19 pixels brush from the Brush palette in the options bar. 8. Paint with this brush very carefully around the outside of the fish. Change the brush and brush size as needed to cover over the rest of the flaws in the green part of the image. 9. Save the image as Fish.psd (a Photoshop PSD file). Text and Borders You can add text and borders to finish the logo; however, we save the section on text for later. There are different ways to work with type in a Photoshop image, and it deserves its own section. In this section, let’s just add a border. 426 Part V / Color Separations . Note: If you want to skip this part of the exercise, the completed file is Fish3.psd on the Chapter 23 folder on the companion CD. Use the Zoom tool to position the image appropriately on the screen. 1. Open the file Fish.psd from the Chapter 23 folder of the companion CD, or use the file you created in the last exercise. Use the Zoom tool to zoom in or out on the image. 2. Use the Crop tool to crop the image so that it forms a more propor - tional, rectangular shape. Leave enough room for a border. (If desired, use Image>Image Size to increase or decrease the size of theimage.)SavetheimagetotheharddriveasFish.psd.Your screen should look similar to what’s shown in Figure 23-2. 3. Choose the Brush tool from the toolbox. 4. Set Mode to Dissolve and Opacity and Flow to 100 percent. Enable the Airbrush option. 5. Change the foreground color in the toolbox to white. Chapter 23 / Process Color Separations 427 Figure 23-2: The Fish.psd file 6. Open the Brushes palette from the options bar. From the additional options, choose Faux Finish Brushes and click OK. 7. Choose Sea Sponge 2 and an appropriate brush number. 8. Paint around the image using this tool. See Figure 23-3. I’ve added some additional touches with the Grass Brush tool at the bottom of the image. The Grass Brush tool is available if you choose Reset Brushes from the additional options. 9. Crop the image again if desired and save the image as Fish2.psd. (You can see my Fish2.psd in Figure 23-3.) When you are preparing an image for screen printing, you generally have to perform manual and automatic color adjustments too. These include using Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask to sharpen the image and Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation to saturate the image. There are other things too; if you’ve been skipping around in this book, return to Chapter 16 for other image preparation tasks. Use your knowledge in this area to further prepare the image before moving on. After applying Unsharp Mask and increasing the saturation, resave the file as Fish3.psd. Figure 23-3 shows Fish2.psd on the left and Fish3.psd on the right. Fish3.psd has had unsharp masking and saturation increases. 428 Part V / Color Separations Figure 23-3: Preparing the image ] Tip: This particular image needs lots of unsharp masking and saturation. Chapter Project Part II: Perform the Separation Once the image has been readied for print, you can perform the actual separation. The first step in performing this color separation is to change themodeoftheimagefromRGBtoCMYK: 1. Open the file Fish3.psd from the Chapter 23 folder of the companion CD, or use the file you’ve created in previous sections. 2. Choose Image>Mode>CMYK Color.You’llbepromptedtomerge the layers if you have more than one layer. If this happens in future work, click Merge. 3. Open the Channels palette with Window>Channels.Nowthereare four channels of CMYK and a composite channel. See Figure 23-4. 4. Save the file as Fish4.psd. Chapter 23 / Process Color Separations 429 Figure 23-4: Viewing the channels ] Tip: If your computer has noticeably slowed down, choose Edit>Purge>All to remove information from RAM. We discussed channels in detail in Chapter 22. If you need to review channels, refer to that chapter. Briefly, channels are the separations of colors C, M, Y, and K. You can change the size of the thumbnails in the channels from the additional options in the Channels palette; showing larger channels is generally better if you only have a few channels. If there’s an eye on the channel, the channel is visible on the screen. If the eye icon is removed, the channel is hidden. If the channel in the Chan - nels palette is blue (like each channel in Figure 23-4), it is selected. When a channel is selected, you can adjust that channel. To work with a single channel, select only that channel. Viewing the channel and select- ing the channel are two different things; this is exactly how the Layers palette works as well. Chapter Project Part III: Correct Color Your image is now color separated. Performing this separation is as easy as changing from RGB to CMYK. However, correcting the colors after converting to CMYK is the biggest part of creating a good, usable pro - cess color separation. There are several problems that can occur while screen printing using a color separation performed by Photoshop; one issue is that Photoshop might add a little more of one color, say cyan for instance, than you usually need when it creates the separations. This is a problem because, for example, printing cyan ink dots in an area that’s supposed to print yellow will cause the color to come out all wrong at press time. Even a small amount of cyan (taking into account dot gain, screen tension, mesh size, and ink types) can cause yellow to go green. This same thing can happen with red. Red is created with CMYK inks by printing yellow and magenta together. If Photoshop adds a few dots of cyan—and those few dots (with dot gain) turn into a hundred dots—the red color you are expecting at press time will be purple after it’s printed. 430 Part V / Color Separations In addition to these types of problems, you might also need to increase the black in the image. This is useful if the image has a lot of black outlines in it, or if it consists of a lot of sharp edges. After looking at the design after the separation, you might also decide to add a spot color channel to it too. Adding a spot color channel allows you to get the pure red, pure yellow, pure black, etc., while at the press. So, how do you go about correcting these issues? Well, it’s trial and error and lots of practice and patience. It’s also experimenting with your equipment and inks to get to know them and what to expect. In the next few sections we learn where to start to access the tools to correct these issues, how to use them, and what the common tasks are. 6 Caution! Throughout this project we perform a color separation that is intended for printing on a white shirt. Creating separations for other colors requires addi- tional techniques, as detailed in Chapter 25. Working with Colors There are several ways that you can “clean up” the colors in your images before printing out the color separations. You use two main palettes—the Channels palette and the Info palette—and you use two main tools—the Curves tool and the Selective Color tool. Both of these are available from the Image>Adjustments menu choices. Before continuing then, config - ure your work area to contain the Channels and Info palettes. ] Tip: If you worked through Chapter 5, you created a workspace named Screen Printer-based. This is available from the Window>Workspace menu and contains everything that you need. Use the Curves Tool and the Info Palette to Clean Up an Image Let’s experiment with checking and changing the colors in this image using the Curves tool and the Info palette. 1. Open the Fish4.psd file that you created in the last section or have obtained from the Chapter 23 folder of the companion CD. Chapter 23 / Process Color Separations 431 2. Position the Info palette near the image. Click on the Eyedropper tool in the toolbox. Verify that all channels are selected in the Channels palette. 3. Use the Eyedropper to check the white in the thickest part of the border and see if it’s really white; all of the numbers in the Info palette should read 0 percent for the CMYK percentages. See Figure 23-5. 4. Using the Eyedropper, hover over the center ofthefish’seyewhereitisblack.Noticethe percentages in the Info palette. Mixing the four colors of ink will create this shade of black. (If you wanted to, you could create a black spot color channel.) 5. Using the Eyedropper and watching the numbers in the Info palette, move the Eye- dropper over an area of yellow in the image. Chooseanareainthefish’sbottomfin around the black dots in that area. Look at the numbers in the Info palette and notice some of the yellow parts of the fin have cyan in them. Because Photoshop has been known to really exaggerate cyans when creating a separation, and if you find this to be true now, you should lower those numbers a bit. In a pure yellow, you should theoretically remove all the cyan. 6. To change the cyan, choose Image>Adjustments>Curves. Choose Cyan in the Channel drop-down list. The changes you make now will only affect the Cyan channel. Because the other channels are visible in the Channels palette though, you can see the effect of your actions ontheentireimage. 7. In the Curves dialog box in the bottom left of the grid, pull down the line a little, as shown in Figure 23-6. This will reduce the cyan in the image. 8. Use the Info palette to see if you’ve removed the cyan and gotten the percentages down to 0 percent for (most of) the yellow part of the 432 Part V / Color Separations Figure 23-5: When the Eyedropper is on a white part of the image, the CMYK values should all be 0%. image. Use the Info palette to look at the before and after numbers for the cyan in the yellow. See Figure 23-6. 6 Caution! View the composite to see what’s happening to the entire image. See Figure 23-6. Although the numbers never lie, reducing the cyan too much can result in a washed-out image. You’ll have to use your own judgment. 9. When you’ve reduced the cyan and verified that the image still looks as it should, click OK in the Curves palette. Resave the image as Fish5.psd. You can perform the same operations on the magenta, yellow, and black channels if you feel it’s necessary. You’ll have to experiment, print, and experiment some more before you really understand the limits of your inks, screens, equipment, and, yes, even Photoshop. ] Tip: The file Fish4 with Color Adjustments.psd on the companion CD is an example of what your new file with color adjustments might look like. Chapter 23 / Process Color Separations 433 Figure 23-6: Tweaking colors Use the Selective Color Tool and the Info Palette to CleanUpanImage You can also use the Selective Color tool to work with specific colors in an image. The Selective Color tool allows you to work with specific col - ors—red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, white, neutral, and black. Let’s experiment with checking and changing the colors in this image using the Selective Color tool and the Info palette. 1. Open the file Fish4.psd from the companion CD, or use the file you created in the last exercise. 2. Choose Image>Adjustments>Selective Color. The Selective Color dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 23-7. 3. Choose Yellows in the Colors drop-down list. 4. Since yellow shouldn’t have any extra cyan in it, move the slider to reduce the cyan in the image. Use the Eyedropper and the Info pal - ette to see the before and after values for cyan. You can remove virtually all cyan from the yellows in the image. Check and uncheck the Preview box to see the difference. Try not to go overboard; reducing cyan too much can substantially change the look of the image. 5. While still on the yellows, increase the magenta and yellow sliders. Use the Info palette to see the change in the values. 6. Choose Reds in the Colors drop-down list. Position the Eyedropper on the fish’s lips. Red is made from magenta and yellow. Move the sliders to remove the cyan, and boost magenta and yellow. 434 Part V / Color Separations Figure 23-7: The Selective Color dialog box 7. With the Eyedropper positioned over the fish’s lips, view the changes for cyan and other colors using the Info palette. The Info palette should read 0 percent for cyan in the fish’s lips. Use the Pre - view check box to see the before and after. 8. Choose Magentas in the Colors drop-down list. Position the Eye - dropper over the fish’s eye, where the eyebrow is (supposedly) pure magenta. Notice there is a bit of cyan in there. 9. Use the sliders to reduce the cyan and up the magenta until you get a purer color. Check and uncheck the Preview check box to see the changes. Use your best judgment as to when “enough is enough.” 10. Choose other colors in the Selective Color dialog box and view their numbers. You’ll learn a lot about how colors are created using the Eyedropper and the Info palette. For instance, green is made from yellow and cyan; thus, when hovering over a green in the image, you’ll see higher numbers for these two components. 11. When finished, click OK. Save the file again as Fish5.psd. The Selective Color command is a powerful part of Photoshop and allows you to work with and adjust colors independently of one another. Under- standing what colors are created from what combination of CMYK will help you use this tool more effectively. For practice, open a colorful image and use the Selective Color command, the Eyedropper, and the Info palette to note how specific colors are created. Chapter Project Part IV: Additional Techniques When creating process color separations, there are a few other things that you can do besides the actual separation and color correction. Often, a spot color channel is added, especially if you want to bring out a color or there is a lot of a specific color in an image. Chapter 23 / Process Color Separations 435 [...]... help with creating process color separations and other Photoshop tasks, as well as how to actually screen print a color separation, go to www.Google.com and search for “screenprint tips,” “screenprint how-to articles,” etc Also try spelling screenprint as two separate words, as I use it in this book From the Internet you can also join e-lists, read screen printing news, join chats, and more Summary In... This ends the introduction to process color separations The steps are basically the same for any image that you might have, although the actual values and amount of tweaking you do will differ Note: The image chosen for this chapter was selected for its range of colors, not for its ability to be screen printed easily Screen printing process color separations takes testing, practice, and familiarity with... folder on the companion CD for an example.) Use vector type only when the type is separate from the design or image Don’t use vector type if your type has gradients, is part of the design itself, or requires process color to create Vector type is for simple type Note: To actually print the separations, refer to Chapter 29 446 Part V / Color Separations Getting More Help For more help with creating... are going to print this on another color of shirt, you will need to create a white plate (which is like a spot color for the white in the image) so that the white you want will actually be white on the shirt Chapter 25 introduces you to creating color separations for darker shirts, but for light shirts like off-white, neutral, light tan, gray, etc., the following should work fine 438 Part V / Color... choose fewer colors As an example, you can let Photoshop try to mix the red and yellow to create the orange or mix the blue and red to create the purple You’ll want to take all of this into consideration before deciding on what colors to choose Zooming in on Indexing As mentioned earlier, indexed color separations are printed using square dots, not halftone screens Figure 24-2 shows a close-up of the... indexed color separation Chapter Project: Perform an Indexed Color Separation ] In this project, we work through the steps to create an indexed color separation using the file PoolBalls.jpg These are the same steps that you take when performing your own indexed color separations with any other image In this example, we create six colors Tip: In order to perform indexed color separations, you have to... Separations 455 Creating Channels Now you have to create channels for each of the colors you chose in the indexing part (steps 1 through 20) so that you can tell Photoshop to print them out To do this: 21 Create a duplicate of the image using Image>Duplicate Click OK to name the file PoolBallsCopy We’re going to place this copy on the screen so we can compare our work to the current state of the file... Color Picker that matches the red in the image If you can’t see the color anywhere on your screen, type in the CMYK values you copied in step 5 Click OK twice 13 In the Channels palette, click on the composite channel so that you can see the entire image All of the channels should have an eye by them, except for the new spot color Notice how red the reds are in the image 14 Click in the Channels palette... Channels palette to view the red spot color along with these Click the eye icon to remove it Notice the difference When screen printed, this red will show up much better and be more robust 15 Save the file as Fish6.psd Color separations like the one we’ve done in this chapter are for white shirts Note that the fish image has white in it The white in the shirt will create the white in the image If you... more Summary In this chapter you were introduced to process color separations You learned what is required of you and your system before starting a process color separation and how to prepare the image by cleaning it up and adding a border Once prepared, you learned to perform the separation and tweak the colors Tweaking the colors is a major part of creating usable color separations and is required . problems that can occur while screen printing using a color separation performed by Photoshop; one issue is that Photoshop might add a little more of one color, say cyan for instance, than you usually. saturation. Chapter Project Part II: Perform the Separation Once the image has been readied for print, you can perform the actual separation. The first step in performing this color separation is to. same for any image that you might have, although the actual values and amount of tweaking you do will differ. . Note: The image chosen for this chapter was selected for its range of colors, not for