QUEEN OF HEARTS ...
10-09-2008, 03:35 AM
Sepia Toning a Photograph with Photoshop
This Photoshop CS2 lesson will demonstrate how you can add a color tone, often called "sepia toning" to your black & white photos. Traditionally toning was added to a photograph using an additional chemical process (often quite stinky), after developing and printing, to give the photo added longevity. Another benefit was the lovely, often delicate tones that these treatments lent to the photographs.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/pamSepiaAd.jpgAdding a Sepia Tone
NOTE: This Photoshop lesson was created using Adobe Photoshop CS2, but the same results can be achieved in just about any version of Adobe Photoshop.
Getting Started:
Working on this Photoshop CS2 lesson requires a black & white digital photograph. If you only have color photos handy you may want to take a look at our black and white coversion lesson first... That particular Photoshop CS2 tutorial demonstrates a number of ways that you can convert color photos to black & white.
I like to work with Photoshop in such a manner as to make all of my edits undo-able even through multiple saves and re-opening of an image file. One of the tools I use to help with preserving the original image data is Adjustment Layers (Adjustment Layers can be found under the Layer menu option). Adjustment layers are a fantastic tool in that they enable you to make all sorts of adjustments to your image, but not to the original data. Instead of, for example, correcting the color of an image by applying the color correction directly on the 'Background' layer, the correction is applied to an Adjustment Layer. Like a normal layer an adjustment layer can be deleted, its visibility can be toggled on and off, it can have its opacity lowered and it can even be re-edited. Very powerful stuff :) You can see in figure 25.1 that the image I'll be working with already has a couple of adjustment layers. One is used to correct the exposure through the use of Levels (if you have digital photographs that need a little exposure correction you may find our Exposure Correction (http://www.grafx-design.com/22photo.php) tutorial helpful), and the other is used to convert the image from color to black & white.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo01.jpgfigure 25.1
Applying the Sepia Toning:
With your black and white image open make sure that the uppermost layer is active. You can do so by clicking the layer in the Layers palette.
Choose Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Hue/Saturation... In the New Layer dialog box that pops up enter "Sepia Toning" for the new layer name and click OK to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box (see figure 25.2).
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo02.jpgfigure 25.2
You'll note, in figure 25.2, that the image has a distinctly reddish hue to it. That's because I clicked the 'Colorize' option as soon as the Hue/Saturation dialog box opened. Without the colorize option turned on none of the Hue/Saturation adjustments will be visible. This is due to the fact that we are working with a black & white photo.
I prefer delicate tones, especially for portraits, so I turned down the default Saturation setting to about 15.
To apply a sepia tone, which is a light golden brown, I set the Hue to 50. You can see my result, along with the settings I used in figure 25.3. I invite you to play with the various settings as different photos, and your own personal taste, may require other values.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo03.jpgfigure 25.3
As you can probably guess from what happens when you click the 'Colorize' option, you can choose from a huge rainbow of tones to apply to your image. In fact, you can even have striped images such as the one that can be seen in figure 25.4. I've seen similar effects used in many magazine and television ads recently.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo04.jpgfigure 25.4
As always, make sure that you save a copy of your image as a .psd file so that you can come back to it later if necessary and make any subsequent changes or re-edits. For example, you can simply click on the adjustment layer's icon in the Layers palette (see figure 25.5) to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box and choose other values for the various settings. Powerful stuff :)
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo05.jpgfigure 25.5
That's it for now..
This Photoshop CS2 lesson will demonstrate how you can add a color tone, often called "sepia toning" to your black & white photos. Traditionally toning was added to a photograph using an additional chemical process (often quite stinky), after developing and printing, to give the photo added longevity. Another benefit was the lovely, often delicate tones that these treatments lent to the photographs.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/pamSepiaAd.jpgAdding a Sepia Tone
NOTE: This Photoshop lesson was created using Adobe Photoshop CS2, but the same results can be achieved in just about any version of Adobe Photoshop.
Getting Started:
Working on this Photoshop CS2 lesson requires a black & white digital photograph. If you only have color photos handy you may want to take a look at our black and white coversion lesson first... That particular Photoshop CS2 tutorial demonstrates a number of ways that you can convert color photos to black & white.
I like to work with Photoshop in such a manner as to make all of my edits undo-able even through multiple saves and re-opening of an image file. One of the tools I use to help with preserving the original image data is Adjustment Layers (Adjustment Layers can be found under the Layer menu option). Adjustment layers are a fantastic tool in that they enable you to make all sorts of adjustments to your image, but not to the original data. Instead of, for example, correcting the color of an image by applying the color correction directly on the 'Background' layer, the correction is applied to an Adjustment Layer. Like a normal layer an adjustment layer can be deleted, its visibility can be toggled on and off, it can have its opacity lowered and it can even be re-edited. Very powerful stuff :) You can see in figure 25.1 that the image I'll be working with already has a couple of adjustment layers. One is used to correct the exposure through the use of Levels (if you have digital photographs that need a little exposure correction you may find our Exposure Correction (http://www.grafx-design.com/22photo.php) tutorial helpful), and the other is used to convert the image from color to black & white.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo01.jpgfigure 25.1
Applying the Sepia Toning:
With your black and white image open make sure that the uppermost layer is active. You can do so by clicking the layer in the Layers palette.
Choose Layer, New Adjustment Layer, Hue/Saturation... In the New Layer dialog box that pops up enter "Sepia Toning" for the new layer name and click OK to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box (see figure 25.2).
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo02.jpgfigure 25.2
You'll note, in figure 25.2, that the image has a distinctly reddish hue to it. That's because I clicked the 'Colorize' option as soon as the Hue/Saturation dialog box opened. Without the colorize option turned on none of the Hue/Saturation adjustments will be visible. This is due to the fact that we are working with a black & white photo.
I prefer delicate tones, especially for portraits, so I turned down the default Saturation setting to about 15.
To apply a sepia tone, which is a light golden brown, I set the Hue to 50. You can see my result, along with the settings I used in figure 25.3. I invite you to play with the various settings as different photos, and your own personal taste, may require other values.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo03.jpgfigure 25.3
As you can probably guess from what happens when you click the 'Colorize' option, you can choose from a huge rainbow of tones to apply to your image. In fact, you can even have striped images such as the one that can be seen in figure 25.4. I've seen similar effects used in many magazine and television ads recently.
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo04.jpgfigure 25.4
As always, make sure that you save a copy of your image as a .psd file so that you can come back to it later if necessary and make any subsequent changes or re-edits. For example, you can simply click on the adjustment layer's icon in the Layers palette (see figure 25.5) to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box and choose other values for the various settings. Powerful stuff :)
http://www.grafx-design.com/images/25photo05.jpgfigure 25.5
That's it for now..