Post by PeterW on Nov 10, 2009 17:31:45 GMT -5
Hi all,
I notice there have been a few posts on converting colour to mono, and a couple of people have converted mono to sepia in PS.
I don't know what techniques others here use for sepia toning. In all the Photoshop Tutorials I've seen it tells you to play with the hue/saturation controls, but I found I wasn't getting quite what I wanted that way.
Then a few days ago my eldest grandson (24) showed me the technique he uses. I got on fine with it, and thought I'd pass it on in case some of you haven't come across it. I gather what it does is change the colour of the actual pixels in various shades of grey to corresponding densities in the colour you choose.
Here's how it works. I chose an old picture of London's Piccadilly Circus taken in 1916 as an example. Here's the original picture.
1. First go to Image -> Mode and change the greyscale to RGB colour.
2. Then pick a foreground colour, either a yellow/brown or a deep brown depending on your likes.
3. Open the Layers pallet and make a new layer. It's the little ikon with a turned-down corner right next to the trash can.
4. Fill the layer with the foreground colour (Alt_>Backspace in Windows).
5. You'll think you've messed things up because the whole picture becomes a solid colour. But you haven't.
6. In the Layers pallet is a box marked "Normal". Click on this and a sub-menu opens. Click on "Screen", about a third of the way down. The solid colour disappears and you have a sepia-toned picture. At this stage it probably looks rather washed-out.
7. Flatten the image. Layers->Flatten Image (or you can get there by clicking on the little triangle at the top right of the Layers pallet.
8. Go to Levels (Ctrl + L in Windows) Move the centre slider to the right to deepen the tone to your liking. Here's my finished picture.
It sounds a complicated technique, but once you try it a few times it's really easy. You can also create a "moonlight" night-time picture by choosing blue as your foreground colour. It's quite effective.
BTW, the original was scanned from a book of London pictures published early in 1917 and descreened.
Have fun!
PeterW
I notice there have been a few posts on converting colour to mono, and a couple of people have converted mono to sepia in PS.
I don't know what techniques others here use for sepia toning. In all the Photoshop Tutorials I've seen it tells you to play with the hue/saturation controls, but I found I wasn't getting quite what I wanted that way.
Then a few days ago my eldest grandson (24) showed me the technique he uses. I got on fine with it, and thought I'd pass it on in case some of you haven't come across it. I gather what it does is change the colour of the actual pixels in various shades of grey to corresponding densities in the colour you choose.
Here's how it works. I chose an old picture of London's Piccadilly Circus taken in 1916 as an example. Here's the original picture.
1. First go to Image -> Mode and change the greyscale to RGB colour.
2. Then pick a foreground colour, either a yellow/brown or a deep brown depending on your likes.
3. Open the Layers pallet and make a new layer. It's the little ikon with a turned-down corner right next to the trash can.
4. Fill the layer with the foreground colour (Alt_>Backspace in Windows).
5. You'll think you've messed things up because the whole picture becomes a solid colour. But you haven't.
6. In the Layers pallet is a box marked "Normal". Click on this and a sub-menu opens. Click on "Screen", about a third of the way down. The solid colour disappears and you have a sepia-toned picture. At this stage it probably looks rather washed-out.
7. Flatten the image. Layers->Flatten Image (or you can get there by clicking on the little triangle at the top right of the Layers pallet.
8. Go to Levels (Ctrl + L in Windows) Move the centre slider to the right to deepen the tone to your liking. Here's my finished picture.
It sounds a complicated technique, but once you try it a few times it's really easy. You can also create a "moonlight" night-time picture by choosing blue as your foreground colour. It's quite effective.
BTW, the original was scanned from a book of London pictures published early in 1917 and descreened.
Have fun!
PeterW