Chemical Toning in PhotoShop
by Tony Parkinson
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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 see Colour
to Black and White using the Channel Mixer tutorial 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 :- |
|
Toner |
Red Channel |
Green Channel |
Blue Channel |
| Palladium
|
63/67
127/143
191/213 |
63/62
127/121
191/191 |
63/47
127/103
191/170 |
| Platinum
|
63/74
127/127
191/191 |
63/63
127/127
191/191 |
63/50
127/112
191/175 |
| Selenium
|
63/77
127/140
191/197 |
63/60
127/125
191/190 |
63/61
127/129
191/195 |
| Silver
|
63/59
127/119
191/187 |
63/67
127/131
191/191 |
63/67
127/129
191/191 |
| Silver
Gelatin |
63/79
127/149
193/213 |
63/59
127/123
191/188 |
63/33
127/93
191/156 |
| Sepia
|
63/100
127/165
191/214 |
63/55
127/115
191/187 |
63/20
127/83
193/172 |
| Cyanotype
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127/24
191/117 |
127/137
191/203 |
127/220
191/250 |
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| And
here are the images using those curves: - |
Palladium |
Platinum |
Selenium |
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Silver |
Silver Gelatin |
Sepia |
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Cyanotype |
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| Or
you can download a zip file containing the curves from here |
