TONING with GRADIENT MAP

Transcription

1 TONING with GRADIENT MAP A Gradient Map Adjustment Layer can be used to tint or tone a photograph with good control of the blend of colors. Several colors can be added to a single gradient map or several gradient map adjustment layers can be overlaid, each technique producing a different visual effect. Start with a corrected, well-balanced Black & White photograph created with a Black & White adjustment layer ADD a GRADIENT MAP ADJUSTMENT LAYER open the Layers menu at the top of the screen add a NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER> GRADIENT MAP (not a Gradient Adjustment Layer) look at the Adjustments palette the default Gradient Map should be black to white if it is reversed, select a different map in the editor, use the map that is dark on the left and light on the right, see below> CHANGE the BLENDING MODE immediately change the LAYER BLENDING MODE to COLOR in the drop-down menu note: other blending modes also work experiment! 1

2 USING the GRADIENT EDITOR USE the GRADIENT EDITOR open the GRADIENT EDITOR click on the gradient map in the Adjustments panel ADD a SHADOW COLOR click just below the color map to add another COLOR TAB note the LOCATION of the COLOR TAB EDIT the SHADOW COLOR open the COLOR PICKER dialog box 2xClick on the shadow COLOR TAB turn off only web colors edit the color to a real toning color each time you click in the large color box that color will be applied to the image use colors that are similar to what can be achieved chemically but stretch beyond what is typically possible going too far makes it unbelievable and cliché people just think, Oh, it been Photoshopped! sepia... selenium sepia: pull the color slider down into the oranges select a color down in the dark end selenium: pull the slider up into the violets select a color down in the middle end try setting the L color to equal the LOCATION number to select an appropriate luminance value click [OKAY] when you are happy with the color [ENTER] or [RETURN] 2

3 FURTHER GRADIENT MAP TECHNIQUES ADJUST the TONAL RANGE click on one COLOR TAB move the center BLENDING button (small dot between Tabs) to shift the balance between that COLOR TAB and its neighbor ADJUST the SMOOTHNESS and/or OPACITY click on a SMOOTHNESS TAB above the color map strip SMOOTHNESS TABS can be added simply by clicking above the mask SMOOTHNESS TABS can be removed by dragging them away from the map adjust the amount of smoothness with the SMOOTHNESS number box slider a low smoothness approaches the way that bleach degrades the silver in a print adjust the opacity of the tone with the OPACITY number box slider this lets more of the tone below show through ADD ADDITIONAL COLOR TABS to MAKE a DUOTONE, TRITONE or QUADTONE add additional COLOR TABS for each toner; sepia, bleach, selenium, etc. adjust the colors and their positions, adjust their blending points, adjust the smoothness for each adjust the opacity for each, etc. remove a COLOR TAB simply drag it away from the gradient map ADD SEPARATE GRADIENT MASKS to MAKE a DUOTONE, TRITONE or QUADTONE add a separate GRADIENT MASK for each toner; sepia, bleach selenium, etc. this approaches the magic of darkroom toning because the areas where the colors crossfade will produce unexpected tones that are greater than the sum of the parts this gives even more control over the blending of individual tonal effects adjust the OPACITY of the individual GRADIENT MASK adjustment layers alter the BLENDING MODES of the individual GRADIENT MASK adjustment layers rename each adjustment layer to show the tone it contains add another CURVES layer on top to balance the luminance of the final photo 3

4 REUSING GRADIENT MAPS SAVE a GRADIENT MAP A single Gradient Map cannot be saved individually. Only the whole bank of Gradients can be saved. And first you have to define each gradient you make for yourself. first, define a New gradient name the gradient in the NAME box give it a meaningful name, not just gradient 03 click the NEW button then, hit the SAVE button this will save the entire BANK of gradients! save the gradient bank to your memory stick so they can be used on any computer In the end you will end up with your own collection of gradient maps. COPY ADJUSTMENT LAYERS Another technique is to copy any or all of the Gradient Map Adjustment Layers from one photo to another. [CMD] CLICK on any adjustment layers to be copied to another photo this works for any type of adjustment layer! have the target photo also open DRAG the selected adjustment layers to the other photograph 4

5 INVERSE COLOR STRATEGY Once upon a time I was scanning a Cyanotype. These are prints that are bright blue in color because they are made with Iron rather than Silver. I accidentally hit the Inverse command and lo and behold, I had a beautifully sepia toned photograph. Sepia is a warm brownish tone. It was then that I realized that blue and warm brown are actually complimentary colors, aka on the opposite ends if the color wheel. These make a very pleasant color combination when toning photographs. Then I though that perhaps any complimentary color combination would work well. Here is a technique for making a second complimentary Gradient Map from one tone, for this example, the shadows. This second Gradient Map will shift both in terms of hue and brightness so it will be applicable to the opposite end of the tonal spectrum. find the color that makes one end of the photo look good, e.g. shadows make a duplicate of that adjustment layer the copy will have the blending mode and opacity of the original find the inverse for the shadow color, open the Color Picker in the Gradient Map editor find the LAB numbers subtract the L: number from 100 change the A: and B: numbers to negative if they are already negative, make them positive example: compare the Lab numbers for these complimentary colors: move the color slider to the location that equals the L: value fine tune the opacities to get the best blends between the two Gradient Maps 5

6 UNDERSTANDING CHEMICAL TONING BASIC CHEMICAL TONALITIES These two toners actually chemically alter the silver in a print. Sepia uses a bleach to remove color from the silver crystals in a print. The result is a yellowish color and some degradation. Sepia then replaces the color with a reddish brown tone. Selenium coats the individual silver crystals with a purplish or reddish black. One popular treatment is to bleach and then Selenium tone a print. The toners below merely stain the sprint and can be used in various combinations. Toning in tea stains the paper itself an off-white. This can be applied to the entire sheet or just the image area. note: digital prints can also be tea-toned, since the ink is waterproof. Iron toner imparts a bluish cast. This works well with Sepia brown in the highlights. Copper toner add as red cast. SPLIT TONING Split Toning is a tem that is generally misunderstood. It is an effect that happens sometimes when toning silver prints where the chemicals migrate into certain areas but not others, without any obvious reason. The term is often used to describe prints that have been toned in more than one chemical, where one chemical tones the highlights and another tones the shadows, as we see here with sepia highlights and selenium shadows. RESEARCH EXISTING PRINTS see what an actual color range is find a photo in the Student Gallery Page that you like check the Darkroom pages, and check the Hybrid pages for crazier tonalities reduce the print to Indexed Color/ 8 or 16 colors IMAGE> MODE> INDEXED COLOR open the IMAGE> MODE> COLOR TABLE sample the colors 2xClick on each the COLOR PICKER will open write down all the values crate a gradient map with 8 or 16 color tabs paste the values for each tab into the color editor, as desired yes, it s tedious, but you will learn what make a s well-toned picture TONING BOOK The definite guide to toning silver prints is written by Tim Rudman in England, The book went out of print but has been reprinted in the Fall of It is available from his distributors site: and it should be available from Amazon.com before the end of the year. The price is 25 = $40. plus shipping. 6

7 TONING POSSIBILITIES straight black & white sepia sepia & bleach sepia & selenium selenium & bleach sepia & bleach & selenium original silver photograph by Kira Vidumski, Fall 2009, all variations are digital 7

8 TONING POSSIBILITIES, cont d iron blue bleach over iron copper red sepia & copper original silver photograph by Kira Vidumski, Fall 2009, all variations are digital 8