RGB->LAB->RGB

Discussion

4 replies

Posted by Prashant Khapane on April 10, 2007 at 2:49 AM

AS most of you know changing mode to lab, PS forces to flatten the layers or it is lost. Is there any way around so that I can keep the layers and still able to change the mode.
Hope what I have written is making sense.

Posted by Tristan Campbell on April 10, 2007 at 7:45 AM

I use CS2 and if I have a layered image and change to LAB then it prompts be to ask if I want to flatten the image or not. What version of PS are you using?

Posted by Prashant Khapane on April 10, 2007 at 8:25 AM

Tristan am still using PS7. It does ask me if to flatten or not. The problem is I prefer to keep all may adj.layers in the master file.

Posted by Tristan Campbell on April 10, 2007 at 9:23 AM

Hi. I'm not sure about PS7, if I have time I'll install my copy of PS6 later and see if I can find any way around it. My immediate thoughts to get around this would be:

1. Simply convert the file to LAB immediately and use this as your master file - then go back to RGB for the final flattened version only.

2. Or if you're not using LAB for its unique colour functionality you can achieve similar effect to the Lightness channel by duplicating your base layer and changing its mode to Luminosity. That way you can change the tones of your image without affecting the colour from RGB mode.

Others will probably have better ideas ...
Thanks, Tristan

Posted by Paul Wegemann on April 10, 2007 at 7:12 PM

Prashan,
I assume you're wanting to do this for saturation? If so, check on http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/photoshop-tools.htm
They have an action called Digital Velvia that will preserve the RBG image while also creating a lab layer. I use it and really like it.
Paul