Advanced sepia toning

[j.lili photography]

Hi! I'm new to the forum, but I've taken the workflow course and am currently taking the portrait course. I have found so much info on this site and in these forums - I love it!

Anyways, my question is does anyone know a work-around for the following sepia-toning technique involving luminosity masks for elements? I usually do my sepia using gradient maps but this technique looks really nice, but I'm unsure if it's possible to do with pe3.

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=118

I have the "hidden power tools" installed (if that helps), but I have yet to figure most of them out :confused:

Thanks! Kristin

[kevq]

Hi Kristin,
If you are using Windows not Mac you can try the following site to download a program that allows all kinds of effects.

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

Kev:)

[TonyW]

Hi there and welcome to the forum. I'm a hidden power tools beginner but you can get a similar effect by using "split luminosity" and then on the luminosity layer using shadow mask, inverting it to get a highlight mask and then adding a photofilter adjustment layer (or several layers). Pick appropriate colours for your photofilters and they will show up with masks so the white will show through but the blacks will pick up the photofilter colours.

But as Kev says - virtual photographer from optikverve will also do a nice job applying a sepia tone.

Tony

[kevq]

Hi Tony,
What are these Power Tools?:confused: :confused:
Are they for Mac or windows and where do they live?:) :)

Kev.

[TonyW]

Kev: They come with:

http://www.hiddenelements.com/powerbooksinfo.html

If you want to get into the real technical stuff with PSE3 this is an excellent book and the power tools add a lot of functionality. I really like the book as it explains how it works and isn't just a cook book. Not yet available for PSE4 although I understand it's coming soon.

And they come with installers for both Mac and Win

Tony

[kevq]

Tony,
Thanks.
Well worth looking into. I may wait for the PE$ version.
Kev.:)

[j.lili photography]

Thanks for your replies! I do work on a mac so unfortunately I cannot use the optikvervelabs program (bummer :().

Thanks for the tip on hidden power tools...I will play around with that tonite!

Kristin

[Wendy]

Hi Kristin ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

I have been trying to find a workaround but I just can't think of a way to do this ... Richard's tools may work but I'm really not too confident about it.

When I changed over Macs I didn't install his tools ... so I'm sorry but I can't check them out for you.

Wendy

[Xanthus]

Kristin,

The method linked to in the RetouchPro forum will work exactly the same in Elements. All it uses is two Solid Color adjustment layers set to Color blend mode.

I also use Richard's great tools.

-George

[Wendy]

Hi George,

If you have Richard's tools loaded can you check if there is a way of making a selection based on the luminosity of the image ... you need that to be able to do the effect and Elements can't make that sort of selection.

Thanks :)

Wendy

[TonyW]

Wendy/Kristin:

I've found lots of ways of replicating the RetouchPro tutorial with Richards tools. You can:

a) Split luminosity which gives you the luminosity channel as a separate layer.
b) Add a layer and fill it with the solid colour you want.
c) Add a layer mask to this layer (I used the PET Extra one)
d) Do a select all on the luminosity layer and copy it
e) Make the solid colour layer mask active and visible by Alt-Clicking it
f) Paste the luminosity channel onto the mask and invert it
g) Change the blending mode to Color

For b) and c) you can substitute a gradient fill adjustment layer which gives you the mask - you just have to set the foreground and background colors the same so you don't get a gradient (PSE3 doesn't have a solid color adjustment layer that I could find but this does the same thing)

You can also substitute a photo filter adjustment layer which is another variant of the solid color adjustment layer and gives some subtle toning effects that I rather like and, because it lets you preserve luminosity, you don't need to set the blend mode to color.

If you really want to get clever you can use Richard's tools to split RGB with Preview. This gives you separate luminosity channels for the three color components. For some images using the luminosity from a color channel can be more effective than the composite. This gives you a solid color mask with each of the color channels into which you can paste the luminosity layer, invert it, change the solid color and change the blend mode to color. You can go further and combine luminosity from the three luminosity channels if you want.

As I discovered the possibilities are endless. Sounds complicated when I try and describe it but in reality it's very quick and easy to do. Another good reason for me to stay with PSE3 until comparable tools are developed for PSE4 :)

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi Tony ..

There are a few ways to get a similar effect in Elements but I don't think that its possible with Richard's tools to make a "selection" using luminosity which this tut needs.

Its a peculiar selection ... what happen is that you can make a selection based on the luminosity of a image and you get the marching ants come up just on the brightness info of the image (Highlights and Midtones). It looks a bit like a selection using the magic wand but its really not the same. The magic wand selects everything within the selection but a luminosity selection is semi transparent ...

The way this specific tut works is that it let you remove the colour from the highlights and midtones and if you can't do the selection based on luminosity then you have to apply the effect to the whole image :(

This is what a selection based on liminosity looks like ...

http://img313.imageshack.us/img313/7606/picture108qv.th.jpg (http://img313.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture108qv.jpg)

and here is how it looks if you copy and paste it into its own layer ..

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9540/picture114rs.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture114rs.jpg)

Sorry if haven't explained this too well ... but it isn't easy to explain :)

Wendy

[TonyW]

I guess I didn't understand the first step of the tutorial - the method I used was selecting the whole luminosity channel. Pasting it into the colour mask and inverting it. So the colour is masked for the highlights and show for the shadows and graduated in between which sounds like the same effect you describe.

The other way I've done it is to use Richard's shadow mask which sounds more like the luminosity selection you describe. You get the marching ants around the highlights which you can paste into a layer mask.

Not having the full Photoshop and Elements side-by-side I can't test whether the result is the same but in that all the methods finish up colouring the shadows and masking the highlights they have to give a pretty similar end result.

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi Tony ...

From what you say it sounds like the shadow mask may indeed be very similar ... funny thing is I too tried this several different ways and couldn't see much difference in any of them :D :D


Wendy

[TonyW]

Here's what my screen looks like after using the split luminosity approach and then masking two color fills with an inverted luminosity. Original image on top, sepia toned one below. Other than the original on the bottom layer and the level adjustment I threw in on the top it looks pretty much like the layer arrangement in the tutorial.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5434/sepiatoning3eh.th.jpg (http://img26.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sepiatoning3eh.jpg)

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi Tony ...

Yes that looks as though it is the same ... its quite a good effect. I think I will experiment a little with it :)

Wendy

[TonyW]

Yes - it has lots of possibilities - throw in another colour fill layer with a non-inverted luminosity mask, set the blend mode to darken and you can get a selective duotone effect like this:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/931/sepiatoningduo7tp.th.jpg (http://img296.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sepiatoningduo7tp.jpg)

But that's enough playing for tonight :)

Tony

[Wendy]

Hi Tony ...

I like that effect ... its sort of like a duo tone but much more realistic.

Now that is one I will try out ... thanks for the tip :)


Wendy

[j.lili photography]

Hi Tony & Wendy - you guys really know your way around elements! I can't wait to play around with all your suggestions! Thanks! - Kristin :)

[Wendy]

Kristin ...

We just like to play :) :)


Wendy