The first part of the session was about how when working in photoshop we must always work in RGB but there are ways to work in CMYK without changing the mode. These are things we learnt last year and are already up on my blog. We learnt about gamut which basically means colour range and how we can check if and RGB is in gamut range for printing CMYK and how we can make adjustments so the RGB image we see on screen is what we'll see when printed in CMYK by changing the levels and saturation. Again this wasn't new but what we learnt after the break was extremely useful.
Next we learnt about using spot colours in photoshop, when applying spot colours in photoshop one can only work in a single colour mode and there is no specific spot colour mode, therefore when printing commercially the document will just be printed in CMYK. There is a special way of printing in spot colours though, first of all one must greyscale the image then select duotone in the modes menu (duotone only works on greyscale images) Once duotone is selected a window like the ones below appear, this allows us to select up to four tones to add to the image, allowing us to edit the picture with with individual colours applied through the curves square next to the colour swatch. Once a spot colour has been selected the pantone code will then appear which allows the printer to print that exact colour through the name provided.
This is an example of what the image looks like with the colour applied without editing with the curves, it allows us to create cover overlays easily. This is something I've always been interested in and wanted to know, this would have helped with quite a few projects last year and it'll definitely be used a substantial amount this year because I don't like using full colour images in my work.
Another technique of using spot colours within a photoshop document is through the channels tool bar on the right. On any greyscale image right click and select the 'new spot channel', the channels reflect the colour mode of an image, therefore you're in fact adding another colour overlay on top just a different way. When the spot channel window appears you can change the colours through this, again it names the channel the pantone colour indicating to the printer the exact colour. There is also another option on the window that opens, this one is called solidity, this basically means opacity. It affects how easy the greyscaled image can be seen through the new colour channel.
Below is just an example of playing around with the spot colour channel, it allows you to apply shaped and text over the original image through that channel.
