Selenium Toning

[raven4ns]

I used CS2 for a while as my son had it for his business needs. In it, PS had presets for selenium tones and there was one that used a purple in the quad set and after some minor tweaking by me really had that rich selenium tone to it. The purple made the blacks very dense and the mid tones very rich looking. The image had a cool tone to it unlike the warm sepia tone which seems to be so prevalent today.
I don't have the combination of the quad set I was using but is it possible to use a similar set with PSP X4 or the new X6? PS used curves to adjust each color separately so the person using the quad could adjust it to their own tastes. I used to have the purple very subtle, at least to my eyes, which left the image very rich looking.
I would appreciate any insight you may have regarding PSP and selenium toning. Thank you.

Tim

[photodrawken]

It's quite easy to do -- just a two-step process:
1. Use Effects...Photo Effects...Black and White film to create a B&W image to your liking.
2. Use Adjust...Hue and Saturation...Colorize to give as much of a colour tone as you wish.

For example, given this image from the Web:

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The B&W conversion yields this:

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And the Colorize gives the final result:

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You'll probably also want to apply a final Histogram correction:

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For the final final result:

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(OK, so it was 3 steps, but who's counting. )

[raven4ns]

Thank you for the demonstration. The reason I like the PS method is that you can adjust each color of the quadtone instead of trying to do it globally as you have done. Each color has it's own curve which you can adjust separately thus enabling a more refined approach to the tone. In the end, I want my B&W images to have a cool appearance with dense blacks and rich midtones. By adjusting the curve to the purple separately makes for a much subtler touch to the overall image.
I wished I had CS2 back if only for this one step, it is difficult to believe that PSP X4, X5 or X6 is not able to duplicate this method of toning. Thank you again for your demonstration though, it was very kind of you.

[photodrawken]

I wished I had CS2 back if only for this one step, it is difficult to believe that PSP X4, X5 or X6 is not able to duplicate this method of toning.

You need to make a distinction between duplicating the exacts steps used in PS, and duplicating the effect of the technique.

In PSP, if you accept the principle of these three stages to achieve the effect:
1. Convert to B&W.
2. Colourize to a purple tone.
3. Adjust the brightness, tonal range and contrast of the result.
then you have a wealth of fine-tuning options at each step.

For example, in step #1 you can use either the B&W film conversion and adjust the filter colour; or use the Color Mixer in monochrome mode and adjust the strength of the incoming Red, Green and Blue channels.

In step #2, you can use either the Colorize adjustment or the Hue/Saturation adjustment (set to "Colorize"). In either case, you have the ability to precisely adjust the colour, saturation and lightness of the colourizing.

In step #3, either a Histogram adjustment used in Luminance mode and also in Color mode, or a Curves adjustment can be used to adjust the curves of the result.

The bottom line is that it's your responsibility to find the settings that give the effect you're looking for. The good news is that you can
1. Apply each adjustment as a layer so you can come back later to tweak the result.
2. Save each individual adjustment so you can easily apply the same adjustment to other images.
3. Save all the steps as a script so you can instantly apply the whole magillah to other images.

Good luck.

[LeviFiction]

raven4ns,

I'm always looking to better understand Photoshop. I don't suppose you could explain what steps you used in Photoshop exactly could you? Honestly, without understanding more about photography and Photoshop I can't tell what method you were using to create your selenium effect with what you've described here.

I did a quick search online for tutorials on how it's done in Photoshop and I'm seeing several methods. Some closely mimicking what Ken has supplied here.

[raven4ns]

The steps I used went something like this.
1. convert image to black and white using the simplified method under the B&W section. This converted it to an 8bit image and opened up a new section called toning ( please keep in mind this was a while ago and my memory is not what it once was...lol)
2. click on the toning section and then then access the presets. you will be offered tritones as well as quadtones. I believe the preset I used was a quadtone but it may have been a tritone. In any event, one of the colors in this preset was a purple which made the blacks very dense and the midtones rich looking.
3 select the purple color which had a curve associated to it and adjust the level of purple to your taste. The other colors also had curves associated with them and I found that I didn't need to adjust them too much if at all.

This is the process I used to the best of my recollection, I hope it helps. If I had CS2 it wouldn't take me too long to find the preset I needed.

[pdxrjt]

I won't try a match the answers about how to do this effect in PSP as these guys a) know more than I do and b) seem to have answered the question. However, if you want to do something like you asked you could the the BW filter SilverEFX Pro2 in NIK filters or BW conversion in Topaz Laps (I think they have one called Re-Style which does toning with 4 or 5 tones as well.) Anyway, buying either one of them would be cheaper than spring for PS....which you can no longer buy as it is part of the cloud. (Topaz is cheaper as you can buy just 1 filter, I think with NIK you now have to buy the set.) But as photodrawken mentioned, you can do it in PSP.

[LeviFiction]

I always wondered what that duotone mode was. I learned something new. Thank you very much.

I'm looking up tutorials for duotones in PSP. Some could use the KPT Gradient lab that comes as part of the KPT plugins download that comes with PSPX4, X5, and X6. It would create a gradient map on the image and you just have to setup your gradient.

Another uses layers colored the way you want, and layer Blend Ranges. What it essentially does is you create different images with the different colors you want and then use blend ranges to determine which colors show through.

So far I like Ken's method the best but I am looking.

[raven4ns]

Thank you for your suggestions one and all. This is something I am trying to get back into because I enjoyed shooting B&W with my EOS3's. I'm finding it difficult to shoot B&W digitally for some reason and I'm not sure why. The fact that I suffer from Clinical Depression doesn't help matters as far as being or seeing creatively but such is life.
It does seem strange to me that anyone who shoots B&W wouldn't use a selenium tone to enhance the richness of their image. My taste for B&W runs towards an image which has an overall cool tone to it but with the dense blacks and rich midtones. Here is a sample of a selenium tone that appeals to me although I would have it a bit more subtle than in this example: http://epaperpress.com/psphoto/images/bbSelenium.jpg . If you happen to know of anyone who utilizes a digital selenium tone to their images would you please send me their address? Thank you again for your kind efforts.

Tim