Sepia and Chocolate Brown

Hi there,

I'm processing some images from a maternity session. My client loves a Sepia tone print, and I don't like Sepia much at all, so I'm not really great with coming up with a good Sepia tone.

Does anyone have a great sepia that they love, or a really rich Chocolate Brown color? And if you do, would you care to share how you achieve the color?

I usually just desaturate (not the best way, I know...) and mess with levels and curves to get a nice contrast, and then add a color balance layer to add a little warm tone to my B&W images..

Your suggestions and success stories are most welcome! Thanks for your consideration.

If you are using the DPP software that came with your canon camera, it has a very nice sepia tone in it.
Dale

CS2 has lots of presets in the channel mixer, and it's easy to change from there.
You can also use photofilter as well

OKCPhotogrpaher wrote in post #3133125
If you are using the DPP software that came with your canon camera, it has a very nice sepia tone in it.
Dale

Thanks.. I actually never loaded this software... I was hoping for somthing that I could do in PS since that is my workflow...

sando wrote in post #3133450
CS2 has lots of presets in the channel mixer, and it's easy to change from there.
You can also use photofilter as well

Oh darn... I only have PS7... any other ideas that will work? I don't have any photofilters, or presets in the channel mixer... I'll have to pull out my Scott Kelby book and see.

I was just hoping that someone had a specific conversion that they loved and wanted to share.

Have to checked out Action Central?

Try out Duotone on grayscale images. Select "Tritone" as the Type and combine some colours to get the depth you like. You can change it as much as you like

One that I used recently:

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In2Photos wrote in post #3134824
Have to checked out Action Central?

Ahhh.... Good idea... DUH... I should have thought of that.

rammy wrote in post #3135479
Try out Duotone on grayscale images. Select "Tritone" as the Type and combine some colours to get the depth you like. You can change it as much as you like

One that I used recently:

Awesome! Just the sort of thing I was looking for.. I'm kind of clueless on color codes, etc... so this is just great to have! Do you happen have an example of how the finished colors look? (I know I'm asking a lot... Sorry.)

I can't show you what I used it on as it is a clients pic but here is an image I took over the weekend testing my 50 F1.4. Just for you, I've applied the duotone (tritone as shown above) and then you can basically add a Curves layer or a HSL layer to control the end result By controlling the saturation in HSL or your curve in curves adjustment, you can get the light brown, dark brown, chocolate brown you are looking for

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Awesome!! That was very nice of you to do this for me... I'll try it and post my result here

What does HSL stand for?

Kristy wrote in post #3135637
Awesome!! That was very nice of you to do this for me... I'll try it and post my result here

What does HSL stand for?

Hue/Saturation Layer

In2Photos wrote in post #3135668
Hue/Saturation Layer

Yep You can increase or decrease the saturation of your toning by doing a Hue/Saturation layer adjustment. That way you have infinite control of what you or client find pleasing

Of course you could try HSL directly on a colour image and tick the colorize check box but I find Duotone gives me much more pleasing tones across the dynamic range.

Glad to be of help

Okay, here's what I'm getting...?? Is it loosing too much tonal quality? I used the quad tone to add a little more dimension. But it was so dark that I then had to do a huge bump in curves and levels to get it to look right..

Here is before and after... What do you think?

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Hi Kristy, just a little loss in tonal quality. How about trying the following to help you along. After you have got close to what you like colour wise, why not tweak the tone and end colour...

1) Correct the levels - Bring the right end slider in :

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3) Next have a go at a slight curves adjustment to give you a little more tone...

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I was going to push the levels more, but then I see hot spots on her face.... that drives me crazy... maybe if i defog USM at 14-30-0?? i'll try later...I'm feeding a baby now. Thanks for all your help.