Can Photoshop show an image as separate Y, Cb, and Cr channels?
Asked 2/6/2011
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2 answers
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I want to view an image as its luminance/chrominance components (Y, Cb, Cr) and combine those components as layers or channels to understand how they reconstruct the original image. Is this possible in Photoshop, and if so, where would I find those channels?
Originally by user3720. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user3720
15y ago
2 Answers
2
First thing to show up in Google was a link to a Gimp plugin called "Decompose". You'll probably see an equivalent for Photoshop. They have a corresponding recompose as well.
In general, there are two concepts to keep in mind: Image "Mode" and Layers. The Image "Mode" has to do with whether the layers of your color image are split into RGB, Grayscale (one layer), CMYK, or YCbCr. The first step you need to do is to change your picture's mode if necessary.
After that, go to the Layers control panel and you will see three tabs. You want the "Channels" tab. That will have one channel per component with the slightly different look due to the way the channel is interpreted. For example, you may find you get better results by applying curves to only the Y (luminance) channel.
Originally by user3631. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user3631
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Photoshop does not natively provide direct YCbCr channel editing/viewing in the way it does for RGB, CMYK, or Lab. The closest built-in option is to convert the image to Lab Color and inspect its channels in the Channels panel.
In Photoshop, try:
- Image > Mode > Lab Color
- Window > Channels
There you can view the individual channels and toggle their visibility to see how they contribute to the image.
If you specifically need true Y, Cb, and Cr components, you’ll likely need a plugin or external tool, since Photoshop’s built-in channel support does not directly expose YCbCr channels. Some image tools offer “decompose/recompose” functions for this purpose.
So: Photoshop can show something conceptually similar via channels, but not exact Y/Cb/Cr components without extra software.
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