This tutorial was made using Photoshop 7.
THE "BLEACH BYPASS" LOOK
Want to get that filmic look to your photos? Bleach Bypass is a film laboratory coloring technique. Images have increased contrast, reduced saturation, and a slight green tint. You see this a lot in music videos and fashion photography.
| Original | Bleach Bypass | |
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Open your image. Do any initial contrast or brightness adjustment you need to get a
decent looking photo. Duplicate the base layer and go to image > adjustments > desaturate.
Then go to image > adjustments > brightness/contrast and increase the contrast/brightness. I
used brightness +5 and contrast +50. After you're finished tweeking, set the layer to "soft light."
STEP 2:
Creat a "curves adjustment" layer. Layer > adjustment layers > Curves. You will be tweeking the
red, green, and blue channels.Select the red channel, and reduce the red content a bit. Click anywhere on the line and that will activate the In/Out boxes. Type in the values - Input: 174, Output: 150.
Then select the green channel and use Input: 160, Output 163.
Select the blue channel and use Input: 114, Output: 131.
These settings work for this specific picture. Just remember that whatever picture you start with, you will have to do some tweeking. No one setting will work the same on any given photo.
STEP 3:
One more step: Creat another new adjustment layer, this time using "selective color."
From the menu choose: "Neutrals." Increase the black level. For this picture I used 17.Click ok, and that's it!
As I said above, all the values used in the tutorial are just a jumping off point for you to start with. No one picture is going to turn out the same as another. Hopefully, this will give you a place to start and you'll get something close to what I did. Just play around with the settings. Your goal to acheive Bleach Bypass is to have 1.) Increased contrast, 2.) Decreased saturation, and 3.) A slight green tint.
Good luck and happy Photoshopping!