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Lately I have been experimenting with B&W toning, a technique that is common in traditional darkroom settings for producing fine art photos.  In the digital world one takes a plain B&W photo (or converts from color to B&W) and the overlays it with one or more color tones, usually black plus one to three additional colors (duotones, tritones, quadtones, etc).  The tones are applied along a gradient that corresponds to the tonal qualities of the photograph so the outcome depends not only upon the combination of colors chosen but the actual tonal qualities of the photo.  Let me know what you think.


Pottery painter - Vietnam


Painter 2 - At the time these photos were taken these people were being paid something like a dollar a day. I think they were pleased to be photographed.


Weaving Silk - Vietnam

 

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Oct 26th, 2007 at 09:19:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I like the first and second tones best but the vases look too bright, maybe try giving the vase a bit of selective darkening?

I think the bottom picture tones would work better if the woman wasn't wearing obviously modern clothes ie the bright bold logo on the jumper jars with the ambience of the tone.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Oct 26th, 2007 at 02:30:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks for the critiques IW.  Two things I did before adding colored tones was to convert the original digitalized color slides to black and white and modify the white and black levels a bit in Photoshop camera raw.  I increased exposure until the highlights (represented by the vases) in both photos 1 & 2. indicated clipping and then used recovery to bring back the detail. It may be that I did clip some anyway or some brightness may have been added by toning.  The first vase in particular now seems very bright. Before toning the background in photo 1 was quite a bit darker, but the toning added detail and gave it a soft, almost grainy appearance.

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears
by Gringo (stargazing camel at aoldotcom) on Fri Oct 26th, 2007 at 09:15:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ah now I can see how the vases are a bit bright. Other than that though, it has a really nice effect, I like the graininess.

Ad astra per aspera
by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Sat Oct 27th, 2007 at 02:46:49 AM EST
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