Fast, Easy Pop Art With Lab Color In Photoshop
Learn Photoshop with Photoshop Effects at Photoshop Essentials.com
Written By Steve Patterson
In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to quickly and easily create a pop art effect using the Lab color mode.
The entire effect takes only a few steps and a couple of minutes from start to finish.
Here's the photo I'll be using for this tutorial:
And here's the finished effect:
Let's get started.
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Step 1: Convert The Image To Lab Color
The first thing we need to do is convert our image to the Lab color mode, which is going to separate the colors in the image from the luminosity (lightness) values. To do that, go up to the Image menu at the top of the screen, select Mode, and then select Lab Color:
Nothing will appear to have happened to the image in the Document Window, but switch over to your Channels palette, which is grouped in beside the Layers palette, and you'll see that your image is now made up of three channels - a Lightness channel, which contains the luminosity information, and two color channels, a and b:
The "a" channel represents all the colors in the image from green to magenta, and the "b" channel represents all the colors from blue to yellow. We're going to use these two color channels to quickly create the colors for our pop art-style effect. And in case you're wondering, the "Lab" channel at the top isn't really a channel at all. It's just the composite of the three other channels.
Step 2: Apply The "Posterize" Adjustment To The "a" Channel
Click on the "a" channel in the Channels palette to select it. Your image in the Document Window will turn gray and look rather strange, but that's okay. Go up to the Image menu again at the top of the screen, select Adjustments, and then select Posterize down near the bottom of the list. This will bring up the Posterize dialog box:
Enter a value of 4 for the Levels option, and then click OK. Click on the "Lab" channel at the top of the Channels palette to bring back your full color image in the Document Window, and your image will now look something like this:
Step 3: Apply The "Gaussian Blur" Filter To The "a" Channel
Click back on the "a" channel once again to select it. We're going to smooth out the colors using the Gaussian Blur filter. To do that, with the "a" channel selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Blur, and then select Gaussian Blur. This brings up the Gaussian Blur dialog box:
Enter a Radius value of 4 pixels, then click OK. Again, click back on the "Lab" channel at the top of the Channels palette to see your image after applying the Gaussian Blur filter. The color now looks much smoother across the image:
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