Digital Sepia Toning revisited ...

In response to a recent post on this topic, this is a technique I've

used for a while.

With the scanned B&W neg and in PhotoShop I go to Image/Mode and

click on Greyscale and "discard color information".

I then go to Image/Mode and click on Duotone. In there I have set up

a "quadtone" profile - as in 4 shades. Currently I'm using PANTONE

Black 6 C, PANTONE Warm Gray 8 C, PANTONE Warm Gray 1 C and PANTONE

726 C - using the Pantone solid coated colour range. This is

selection is a personal choice.

The darkest tone is located at the top and the "sepia" tone at the

bottom and midtones in between.

This selection can be saved as an .ado file and then reused

hereonafter.

Some may prefer a tritone approach - as in 3 shades rather 4. Again,

a personal choice.

The beauty of this approach is the level of control exercised over

the whole image. Much of your "darkroom" work can now be done here

by "anchoring" and then adjusting the curves of each of the selected

colours. By "anchoring" I mean clicking on the curve and

then "pulling" the curve down or "pushing" it up. One such anchoring

may be sufficient. Often I use 2 and more depending on the image.

This way, you have complete control over the image's shadow, mid-

tone, and highlights details. Assuming there's detail in there,

shadow areas can be lifted, midtones adjusted and

highlights "pulled". No real need to use the dodging and burning

tools and all the other stuff unless there's something seriously

wrong with the image.

This method requires experimentation and lots of it. Sometimes all

that's required is a gentle bend to the curve. Other times a wave

form. Go radical, you never know what you may get.

Rarely use the Levels and Curves to manage the image unless I want

to "burn in" or "hold back" whole areas of an image. Here I generally

use the "elliptical marquee tool", select the desired area, inverse

and feather and adjust the levels accordingly.

I may use Curves to enhance the whole image when I'm just about done.

The last step is to resize and then sharpen the image.

Okay, got to admit this is great for the screen. On the printing side

I'm still something of a "novice" on this score. Using a Canon i950,

standard inks and various papers, I'm still getting decidely iffy

results that a far from satisfactory at this stage. By "iffy" I mean

the printed result doesn't quite match the image I have on screen.

The reasons are many and something that requires time and money to

sort out. Who said digital was cheap?

Results can be checked out at http://www.rogancoles.com/gallery.html

HTH

Rogan,

Why don't you simplify your life and get the Photokit plug in?

Thanks for the tip. The standard answer on "iffy" prints would be first to get your workflow chain calibrated. That is mainly the screen. At first use paper and inks for which you have a colour profile. The important bit is to set the appropriate output profile in the PS printer dialog (print with preview) and turn off all colour managment in the printer driver since PS handles that itself. There's a good article about this at http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/und-print-mgmt.shtml.

After I profiled my screen and found the right buttons in the print dialogs I can duplicate my screen colors in print which is way cool. Before that I felt quite stupid because I didn't understand what's going on. I still don't understand all of it but for now my system is doing what I want. The rest comes later.

Nico, thanks for those links. As ever, if "you don't get it right at first - try and try again".

Tim, took a look at Photokit. Yes, useful in some respects but won't necessarily "simplify" my life. Looks great if you're interested in converting an originally digital colour image to monochrome and want to see how the original image may look otherwise.

Where I'm coming from on the above is that most of the work I'm doing is on scanned B&W film as the orginal source.

The technique outlined above gives more control over the image than most others I've come across - YMMV. Channels are a hassle. Using the Curve tool is much the same - as in being a "one-on-one" thing usually applied to each and every image. The above technique provides a base which can be applied "consistantly" to all images - should add "monochrome images". Thereafter the curves can be adjusted on a one-on-one basis depending on the image. The "toning" part is just an added extra.