Sepia

[cmpowell125]

Has anyone got any good tips for converting photos into Sepia, any recommended settings (channel mixer), and prefered methods.


Here are a couple of quick attempts I made. I used channel mixer in photoshop. Pretty much trial and error. Something just doesnt look right in these images, not sure what it is, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Chris

http://www.cpowell.co.uk/files/tom.jpghttp://www.cpowell.co.uk/files/joe.jpg

[goatee]

I find that converting to black and white first (also using Channel Mixer settings 25,65,15,-5 are a good place to start - check http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/tip-b&w-conversion-channel-mixer.htm), and then adjusting levels / curves in Photoshop to ensure that it goes from the blackest black through to the whitest white. Then there are numerous free actions which will convert to sepia - I use Yervant effects - I tweaked yours slightly - although it would be easier to start from the colour one to be sure.

Sorry, another thing I left out, is using a two pass sharpening technique. The first pass of Unsharp Mask (USM), is good with values of 100-300%, 0.3, 0 which will sharpen the image. The second pass with values of approx 15,50,0 which will give localised contrast enhancement - really useful for b&w / duotone / sepia images.

[goatee]

P.s. if you use levels experiment pulling the left slider in past the end of the curve - it can make the image richer.

[cmpowell125]

Wow, that looks much better. I thought my version looked a little 'flat' if thats the right word.

Thanks for the advice.

Full Colour Image is located at: http://www.cpowell.co.uk/files/2005_0529_143741.jpg

[goatee]

Finally - sorry, last addendum I promise :), one other trick I've learnt, is if the background doesn't blur out nicely, when (if) you do the two pass sharpening, you can use the history brush to reduce the contrast, and sharpness of the background, which will make it less prominent.

[goatee]

Wow, that looks much better. I thought my version looked a little 'flat' if thats the right word.

Thanks for the advice.

Full Colour Image is located at: http://www.cpowell.co.uk/files/2005_0529_143741.jpg

Ok, I'll download it, and do the whole process, giving all the settings I've used, so you can reproduce it yourself apart from the last step of converting to Sepia, unless you have Yervant Effects.

[garbidz]

Almost all the BW conversions I see here leave the red too high up which results in a very non-BW result. It is pleasant to the eye, blemishes do not show and the skin gets an ethereal rendition. But that's not the "real BW" look.
(for me)


my "sepia" is H/S layer at colorize, hue around 20-25 and sat around 20, after which I do another levels layer to put the black back. Not sepia but a warm BW tone, like Portriga.

[goatee]

Ok, first off, use the Channel Mixer, with settings 25,65,15,-5, Monochrome to make it monochrome.

Next, sharpening should be done at the image's final size, so next I resized the image to 800x600.

Next, two pass sharpening

1) USM, with settings 200%, 0.3 radius, 0
2) USM, with settings 15%, 50 radius, 0

Lastly, adjust the levels - because contrast is affected by the USM, it doesn't make sense to adjust levels / curves before the USM. I used values 25,1.00,255 for the input levels, and didn't adjust the output levels.

Last but not least, convert to sepia via your chosen method - mine is using the Yervant Effects Sepia Action (on a practical level, this means merging the Channel Mixer adjustment layer onto the main image - otherwise I can't use the Channel Mixer)

I used Save For Web, lowering the JPG quality until I was under 100KB - in this instance 61.

This is the final image.

[cmpowell125]

wow, such an improvement on mine. Thanks for your time. I'll have a play later with the settings you used.

Thanks.

[garbidz]

I am not expecting you to like my view, I just want to show the possibilities with chanmix and how I use it to my taste
I used a Curves layer to enhance the contrast, a slight sigmoid slope
then a Channel Mixer layer with -22, +74, +58
made a new layer with command-option-shift-E and ran a Smart Sharpen with 0.8 and 80%
made a Hue/Saturation layer (colorize) with hue at 27 and sat at 12
then a levels layer with values to 12, .95, 255
then scaled down and saved a copy to present to you
- a very sympathetic chap, your subject, by the way!

http://static.flickr.com/25/90277052_f4d673ccd5.jpg

[cmpowell125]

Thanks, I like your take on it.

The subject is my cousin, Iv been taking photos of them ever since they were babies, so suppose they're just used to there being a camera there.

It interesting seeing how everyone see's the image, and how it is modified to your taste, very useful knowing how it was achieved. Best way to learn I think, going to have a play shortly.

Thanks again.

[cmpowell125]

My attempt......


http://www.cpowell.co.uk/files/tom_o.jpg
http://www.cpowell.co.uk/files/tom3.jpg

[goatee]

That's come out really well! It's incomparable to the images you originally posted! Finally, the last technique you can play with, if there are specific areas that you want to lighten or darken, are to use the dodge and burn tools. Don't set exposure to more than 5-10% or it won't look natural, but it's great at bringing out detail in areas that look dark, or darkening areas that are too bright, or drawing too much attention.

As with all Photoshop techniques, there are various ways to accomplish the same result, so it's about learning a way of doing things that you like, and then learning to tweak the settings, to get the best result for each shot, but it's all great fun, and if it isn't, then do something else :).

[garbidz]

you see what is happening in the color wavelenghts of different versions by looking at the density of the blue shirt
I had shot up the blue and the green so the shirt is much lighter on my version
dodging and burning are one nice trick and also levels layers aith layer masks -one can make a template for dodging and burning instead of doing it by touch

Photoshop is a world by itself.
Fully agreeing on Goatee's "fun point".
I could never do this for money...I mean money only!