JimHejl
7th of January 2007 (Sun), 12:58
Hi, I'm new to this section of the forum - so this technique may have already been covered. I'm going to explain a quick-and-easy way to achieve the "bleach bypass" look seen in many films (Saving Private Ryan, City of God, Fight Club, etc...)
Bleach bypass, also known as skip bleach or silver retention, is an optical effect which entails either the partial or complete skipping of the bleaching function during the processing of a film. By doing this, the silver is retained in the image along with the color dyes. The result is a black and white image over a color image.
So, the technique is to do exactly what the last line says.
- Copy your image onto a new layer in Photoshop
- Desaturate the new layer completely (this is the silver of 'skip bleach')
- Set the blend mode of the new layer to multiply
- Adjust levels on both layers as needed
I've attached an example (done in 5 minutes... a bit sloppy). Also, you can "dial in" the effect. In fact, it is rare in film to completely skip the bleach. And, as you can see below, it is a pretty strong style.
--jim
Bleach bypass, also known as skip bleach or silver retention, is an optical effect which entails either the partial or complete skipping of the bleaching function during the processing of a film. By doing this, the silver is retained in the image along with the color dyes. The result is a black and white image over a color image.
So, the technique is to do exactly what the last line says.
- Copy your image onto a new layer in Photoshop
- Desaturate the new layer completely (this is the silver of 'skip bleach')
- Set the blend mode of the new layer to multiply
- Adjust levels on both layers as needed
I've attached an example (done in 5 minutes... a bit sloppy). Also, you can "dial in" the effect. In fact, it is rare in film to completely skip the bleach. And, as you can see below, it is a pretty strong style.
--jim