Turning an image into ONLY Black & White

[Ally]

The easy way would be to change the mode to grayscale...but that doesn't solve my issue.

The printer is only doing 2 color process (in this case my colors are black and red)

So, what I need to do is change the photograph to consist of only K (keeping it in CMYK) because then I need a layer with red accents.

Here's a pic so you can get an idea:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a227/atijerina/print-FSB-GVILLE-TX-029.jpg

So, basically I need the photograph to be ONLY black and white. Right now, I'm using the channel mixer, clicking the monochrome option, and adjusting the black that way. So then the image is purely black and white. Then I go back to Channel Mixer to adjust some more....and it's BACK to having cyan ...I then click Monochrome again...and the image turns pure white.

I need help =(

Anyone have any advice on this? Thanks.

[PrintDriver]

Why not duotone using black and white?

[Ally]

will that allow me to keep color on another layer in the same file?

[Ovaltine]

Try this:

Make a clipping path around the red areas, then open that in Illustrator (it should also import the crop marks), fill the "shapes" with your designated spot red.

Make the Photoshop file purely greyscale.

Bring both files into Quark or InDesign and align them one atop the other. Let the printer know the Black should overprint the red. This should work.

It's how we designated the white plates, varnish plates, and die lines for clear stickers.

[D-Frag]

got an even easier solution for you

open the image as is, from scratch. make it grayscale, then use your "history brush" to paint back in the red.

your done.

[urstwile]

If I'm understanding the original post correctly, the red needs to be on one plate only, correct? As in a spot color red?

[carter the artist]

My only fear is that K is actually a "brownish" tint... I wonder what the final will look like.

[Ally]

setting it to grayscale mode doesn't turn it into purely black and white, neither does setting it to duotone. I check it by running over the image with the eyedropper and the info window displays that its using all cmyk inks, eventhough its visually only "black and white".

Thanks so much for the help though, I stuck to my original version and seems to be working =)

[CamarotaDesign]

You are gonna need to make it a duotone. black + spot red. gonna be a little tricky to get that duotone setup correctly. And I don't have the most experience here, but I'm guessing that no matter what, the quality may get a little muddy because of the nature of the print process you are using. Any chance you can get the clients to spring for CMYK?

edit:

I wonder if it's also possible to just create two images. One in monotone black and one as a montone in spot red. Then erase everything other than the red area of the coat. Have them out put the plates seperatly. Would be tricky that way, not sure if the screen angles would be correct.

[Craig B]

Look into DCS. It's an .eps based format that allows spot channels in your channels.

You'd have to experiment more with getting it to work well, but the bottom line is after you've made it greyscale you can then add a spot channel in the channels palette dropdown. Select your PMS color and "fill" your red areas with "black" to have them show up, play with the fill opacity and brushes to have more control over the color than simply a solid black of red on top.

And greyscale or monotone with black are straight black and white despite what the eyedropper tells you

Oh, and definitely check with your printer before you send them a DCS file to make sure they can handle it.

[urstwile]

Make sure your eyedropper tool is set to view Actual Color, otherwise it'll show you what the file would look like if it was in CMYK.

[CamarotaDesign]

Oh, and definitely check with your printer before you send them a DCS file to make sure they can handle it.

If they are running only a 2 color press, I doubt they have bothered upgrading their RIP to handle DCS.

[Craig B]

Could they "fake" the DCS route by prepping it as a CMYK file. Then take the monotone black image and copy it into a new document with a blank black layer. Copy the red portions into a blank magenta layer and then keep cyan and yellow blank? Then just tell the printer to prep the 2 plates/

Of course, that could just be causing more trouble than it's worth?

[urstwile]

We used to do it that way all the time, Craig.

[CamarotaDesign]

I think thats a good idea craig. Almost the same as doing a duotone really, though you can mask the area you only want having black in in, not sure if a duotone lets you do that through a mask, you can probably work with the duotone curve to keep the red from hitting everywhere, but its tricky.

The ony issue I notice with going the 2 plate CMYK "fake DCS" route is that handling black only in CMYK seems to be harder to get smooth tones like in a duotone or grayscale. Seems like the contrast is usually pretty messed up for me. Maybe I need to play with it more.