Toning

[Jocelyn Walker]

After discussing another shot of the same scene that I had initially tried my hand at quadtoning with coupekid, I thought I would post this here for critique in general!

[Blithe]

Re: Toning

What wonderful buildings, a photographer's dream, particularly the central portion of the photograph. You have brought a lot of the stonework detail out, and emphasised the window openings very well. There is so much to look at, but to me, some areas seem just a little too dark and prevent me from seeing all. Your processing has created an interesting sky behind the black lace of the tree.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Toning

Blithe, thanks for your comments! I don't know how to get the foreground lighter without it affecting other parts, as making a selection on such detailed foliage etc of foreground is beyond my scope at present! This property is an amazing place called 'Montsalvat', here in Melbourne. It was built by a group of Artist's & is a favoured haunt of photographers & artists alike & my favourite place of course!

[pewidane]

Re: Toning

Like the coler wery much,quadtoning??

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Toning

Thanks for your comment! To explain quadtoning....photoshop has a function for Duotones...Tritones & Quadtones..this means you choose how many tones you want after converting to grayscale or B&W, then you are able to choose which colours you want to blend...flatten the image! The instructions say that you should convert back to RGB, but I would like to know from more experienced people, like Ben for example, if this is necessary for that particular job you are doing....or just so that future work is defaulted back to RGB!

[Tinka]

Re: Toning

Hi Jocelyn,
To get duo,tri or quad tones it is my understanding that you have to be in the RGB color mode or you would not be able to use color to produce the tones, converting to greyscale or mono image mode would as it sugests reduce the tones to their grey equivelents.
So to achieve the tones required the image should be in RGB mode. Ie: a color image. The best way to test is to produce a toned image and temorarily convert to greyscale/mono by using the image, mode, menu in PS to see what happens.
To adjust the shadow detail and retain the mid and highlights you could try the highlight shadow process in PS depending on which version you have of course.

[Pol]

Re: Toning

Thanks for your comment! To explain quadtoning....photoshop has a function for Duotones...Tritones & Quadtones..this means you choose how many tones you want after converting to grayscale or B&W, then you are able to choose which colours you want to blend...flatten the image! The instructions say that you should convert back to RGB, but I would like to know from more experienced people, like Ben for example, if this is necessary for that particular job you are doing....or just so that future work is defaulted back to RGB!

Here's the way I prefer to do it, same method for duo, tri or quadtones.


I make a duplicate of the original then convert to grayscale.
Do the duo, tri or quad toning as you want it.
Select all the copy.
Paste the quadtoned image over a b/w copy of the original image (with the b/w copy mode set at RGB.

You then have 2 layers - a b/w with a quadtoned image on top. You can then blend the laters to tweak the final image as you wish before you flatten it.

You also used duplicates to get your b/w and quadtoned layers so you still have the origional colour image in case you want to start over again any time in the future.


Pol

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Toning

http://www.pstut.com/tutorial-duotone.html

Thanks. I followed this turorial as it is the 1st time playing about with duo or quadtoning. Using this method, I was working on a duplicate layer, but at some point, whether when converting to grayscale or selecting dou or quadtone, both layers or images revert to B&W! Would it be better to convert to B&W by using the Channel mixer & selecting monochome for layer copy & then go to Image mode to convert tones, without having to paste & copy?
I have just read amother tutorial for P/Shop that explains that you can't save to jpeg if in duotone mode & therefore have to restore file back to RGB to save as jpeg image!

[Pol]

Re: Toning

http://www.pstut.com/tutorial-duotone.html
Thanks. I followed this turorial as it is the 1st time playing about with duo or quadtoning. Using this method, I was working on a duplicate layer, but at some point, whether when converting to grayscale or selecting dou or quadtone, both layers or images revert to B&W! Would it be better to convert to B&W by using the Channel mixer & selecting monochome for layer copy & then go to Image mode to convert tones, without having to paste & copy?

Whatever you prefer. There are always many way to achieve the same end result in PS so just do it the way you find easier, easiest to remember.

I mainly tend to use the channel mixer for a B/W conversion but I sometimes use the Virtual Photographer plugin filter too.

I also tend to use select all/copy/paste for making a new layer rather than 'duplicate layer'. They're all just habits, personal ways of working that I've developed over the years.

Six of one and half a dozen of the other. No right or wrong way, only several routes leading to the same destination.

The main thing is that you should enjoy the journey. The Photoshop learning curve never, ever ends so keep playing and tweaking and enjoying yourself learning as you go.

Pol

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Toning

Thanks for your help Pol! I certainly do enjoy the journey. Photoshop's learning curve takes one on an endless but thoroughly enjoyable journey of learning!