Learn Adobe Photoshop - Image Mode: Bitmap
Check out
Bas Rutten's
Liver Shot on
MMA Surge:
http://bit.ly/MMASurgeEp1
In this video, Mahalo expert
Gene Shaw demonstrates how
Bitmap can be used to create some interesting effects.
Bitmap Image Mode
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The
Bitmap image mode is often referred to as
1-bit images since each pixel contains only a single bit of information. Widespread use of this image mode has diminished due to advances in technology, but
Photoshop still has a few tricks that keep Bitmap image mode fresh and interesting.
How to
Work in
Bitmap Image Mode
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Technically, every image is bitmapped. That is to say each image contains information, measured in bits, which is then mapped across each of the pixels. However, the bitmap mode in Photoshop specifically has a single bit of information contained in each pixel.
Bitmap image mode is the most basic mode you'll find in Photoshop.
Pixels can only be one of two colors in this mode: black or white. For this reason, you may not use it very often, but you can use the mode in a creative way to make an interesting image.
1
. In the top bar click on
Image -- Mode -- Grayscale. You want to switch to grayscale first if the picture you're working with is a color image.
2. Then, go back up to the top bar and click Image -- Mode -- Bitmap. You'll notice that each pixel is now either black or white, and the gray areas are achieved by varying the density of the black pixels next to one another.3.
Hit Ctrl+Alt+Z (
Command+
Option+Z for
Mac) a couple of times to step back and return to your original color image.4. Hit C for the Crop tool, then press
Caps Lock so your cursor will become a crosshair.
Select only the part of the image you wish to keep and work with. In this video,
Gene selects the
Lady Gaga image on the Mahalo homepage for demonstration purposes.5. Confirm your crop command by pressing the
Enter button on the numpad and you'll be left with your selected image. Now repeat steps 1 and 2 to get rid of the color information again and enter Bitmap image mode.6.
Drag out a perfectly square selection field by pressing M to call up the
Marquee tool.
Hold Shift while you click and drag to maintain a square aspect ratio.7. Go back up to the menu bar at the top of the page and select Image -- Crop. That should get rid of everything except for the square you've just selected with the Marquee tool.8.
Click on Image -- Adjustments --
Levels. A box will pop up. The goal for this lesson is to create as much of a high contrast image as possible.
Play with the adjustments until you have an image with most of the gray shifted over to pure black and pure white. It doesn't have to be perfect; it just needs to still give you an indication of what the image is. When finished, hit
OK.9. Now, resize the image by clicking Image -- Image Size in the menu bar.
Change both the height and width of the image to 60 pixels, and set the resolution to
300 dpi.10.
Press Ctrl+A (Command+A for Mac) to select all. Then
Edit -- Define
Pattern.
Choose a name for your image and hit OK.11.
Find the custom pattern again by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Z (Command+Option+Z for Mac) and step back until you have the original black and white image you started with. Click on Image -- Image Size. Set the resolution again to 300 dpi and make both the width and height 1500 pixels. Hit OK.12. Click Image -- Mode -- Bitmap. Under
Method, drop down the
Diffusion Dither to
Custom Pattern. You'll see the pattern you just save a few steps ago. Select that pattern and hit OK.You'll now see that instead of pixels making up your image, you've instead set up an infinite zoom.That's an example of something interesting you can accomplish in the Bitmap mode. As with anything, feel free to play around and experiment on your own.
Read more by visiting our page at:
http://www.mahalo.com/learn-adobe-photoshop-image-mode-bitmap/