Chemical Toning in PhotoShop |
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| Although I've never actually done it by traditional Darkroom methods, I've long been an admirer of Chemically toned Black & White Images. Finally after extensive web searching and much trial & error, I've finally managed to simulate the process in PhotoShop. In this Tutorial, I'll show you how to produce an image similar to Selenium Toning using this colour image taken near to Malham on the way back from Janet's Foss then I'll give you all the information needed to reproduce the effects of other chemical toners |
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| 1.
First we need to convert the image to monochrome, which I did using the Channel Mixer (fig.1) (see tutorial 1 for more on this) |
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| 2.
Now we create a Curves Adjustment Layer by clicking on the Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers Palette then choosing Curves (fig. 2) |
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| 3.
Next, in the Curves control panel, click on the arrow next to the Channel selection box and choose the Red channel (fig. 3) |
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| 4.
Now we can start to tone the image by adjusting the curve. To do this, we need to place some points on the curve and move them to produce the desired effect. First Click on the curve about a quarter of the way in, this will put numbers in the Input and Output values and we can now adjust these to set the Input Value to 63 and the Output Value to 77 which begins to add red to the shadows (fig .4) |
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| 5.
Having added the first point, we now add two more point about half and three-quarters of the way along the curve setting the Input/Output Values to 127/140 and 191/197 respectively (fig. 5) |
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| 6.
Now we want to adjust the curves for the Green and Blue channels. First Select the Green channel from the drop down box as we did for the Red channel and add 3 points to the curve with Input/Output values of 63/60, 127/125 and 191/190. Finally select the Blue Channel and add 3 points with values of 63/61, 127/129 and 191/195, then click on OK to produce the Curves Adjustment Layer which you will now see in the layers palette (fig. 6) |
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| Should you wish to adjust the tone for any reason, double clicking on the Adjustment Layer will re-open it and allow you to continue tweaking the curves. Anyway here's the Selenium toned final image. |
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| As promised, here are the Input/Output values for the curves to produce other Darkroom toning effects :- |
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Toner
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Red Channel
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Green Channel
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Blue Channel
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Palladium
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63/67
127/143
191/213
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63/62
127/121
191/191
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63/47
127/103
191/170
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Platinum
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63/74
127/127
191/191
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63/63
127/127
191/191
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63/50
127/112
191/175
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Selenium
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63/77
127/140
191/197
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63/60
127/125
191/190
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63/61
127/129
191/195
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Silver
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63/59
127/119
191/187
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63/67
127/131
191/191
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63/67
127/129
191/191
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Silver Gelatin
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63/79
127/149
193/213
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63/59
127/123
191/188
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63/33
127/93
191/156
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Sepia
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63/100
127/165
191/214
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63/55
127/115
191/187
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63/20
127/83
193/172
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Cyanotype
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127/24
191/117
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127/137
191/203
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127/220
191/250
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| And here are the images using those curves: -
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Palladium
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Platinum
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Selenium
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Silver
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Silver Gelatin
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Sepia
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Cyanotype
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| Or you can download a zip file containing the curves from here |
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copyright © Tony Parkinson, and may not be copied or reproduced in any way without express permission from the copyright holder.
