The Photoshop Tone

P H O T O S H O P

T O N E

Post Processing Technique

by

WAZARI WAZIR

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R E T R O I n t r o d u c t i o n

First of all I would like to say a big thank you to all of you who support me by buying

my e-Book about Photoshop Toning. This e-Book is definitely no for everybody

especially to those fanatic fan of pure skin tone, this e-Book is for those who dare to

be different, who dare to express themselves through colors, tone of colors that can

give impact and mood to a certain pictures.

Sometimes what makes our picture a bit different from others is our tone, a tone

that can have feel, an emotional feeling, sometimes warmth kind of feeling,

sometimes a mood that hard to describe in words, you just can feel it.

I!ve spent the last two years playing with tones, I first start using photoshop since

2001 but I don!t know how to use it creatively then, just some basic editing like

adjusting brightness and contrast and don!t have any ideas how to explore it further.

Since My Son HaiQal was born in 2007 I start using Photoshop almost daily, almost

every single day I will play with photoshop, never get tired of it, experimenting with

different kind of treatment, colors, texture and also black and white. I!ve no

objective but just wanted to give My Son picture a little bit different, to make it

special, I!m very passionate when doing my editing, If I can say, I do my editing with

my heart not with photoshop, it is just a software but the real software is in my

heart. My heart will determine wether I was satisfied with my editing or not. The

truth is I never satisfied, always looking for a new way, a better way to do my

editing in order to express my feeling through colors and textures.

This tutorial will guide you through where to start, and from that point you are free

to explore, do not stick with the figure that I gave you, it is just a guide, each

individual pictures is different, will need different value to get a desired result. Feel

free to experiment, mix and match between different kind of editing, think outside of

the box. Feel free to explore and you will be rewarded with a smile on you face.

Thank you...

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

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R E T R O I n t r o d u c t i o n

Four ways To Tone

1 : Part I ( Old School Effect )2 : Part II ( Film E.F.X )3 : Part III ( Warmth )

4 : Part IV ( The Lightness )

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R E T R O Part I

O l d S c h o o l

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Before we start our “Retro Journey” let!s get to basic first. My style of retro editing

will bring a different result for different type of a pictures. Over the time you will

know which one look great and which one will not. Above picture was taken in a

broad daylight, only pure natural light with light blue on the sky. Actually those

picture were “edited” but only to brighten it a bit, no more than that.

So before we start the process of “toning” you need to do some basic adjustment

for your picture, but if your original picture is perfect in term of exposure, then no

need to adjust anything. Above picture was slightly dark on the model face, so I

need to brighten it a bit, and that!s it.

I like to share my tips here, most of the times retro effect work great with natural

light, without using flash, but still you can experiment, side lighting work best, either

in the early morning light or late in the afternoon. Backlighting also work great with

this type of “Retro Editing”.

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Figure 001 Unedit

STEP 1 : On the Menu bar, go to Image - Adjustment and select Curves from

the drop down menu.

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Figure 002

Figure 003 Curves

STEP 2 : Then click the RGB on the Channel there as shown by the Arrow

and then select RED.

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Figure 004 Red Channel

STEP 3 : Adjust the Curves so it look something like above picture. I like to

remind you that this is as a guide or as a starting point, you are free to adjust

those Curve according to your liking, the figure may differ according to your

file size, actually you can see the result on your picture realtime, so you can

figure it yourself whether you want to lower the curves a bit or not. Let!s start

first with something like the Figure 005 above.

Note : Do not click OK just yet, we are not finish, follow Step 4 to continue...

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For a starting point adjust your Curves according to the arrows above, use your mouse to drag the curves downward and upward.

STEP 4 : Then go back to the channel and select Green Channel like the

arrow above. Adjust your Curves until you get something like above figure.

We are still not finish, do not click OK, just continue with Step 5. I like to

remind you again that you can see the result in real time, meaning you are

free to play around with those curves to your liking, but first you need to start

somewhere so this is just a starting point. Follow Step 5 to continue.

NOTE : Do not Click OK, we are not done yet, continue with Step 5...

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Figure 006 Green Channel

Do not afraid to experiment with this curves, you can lower the curves to your liking and you can see the result immediately on your picture.

STEP 5 : To finish this editing go to Blue Channel like the figure above and

adjust the curves like the figure above, if you follow the step accordingly from

first step until this last step you can see your picture turn into “Retro Style”. If

you are done with your editing, just click OK. There you have it a “Retro”

picture. Have fun editing...

Just three Channel to adjust to get the Retro Feelings, it may take few

minutes to do it but trust me, once you get the “touch”, it will take you less

than a minute to finish...

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Figure 007 Blue Channel

The lower you drop the curve here, the Yellow your picture will become, drag the curve up or down a bit to your liking.

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Before

After

R E T R OPART II

F I L M E . F . X

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This is another one of my favorite tone, I like to call it Film E.F.X because it

have film look like effect quality tone into it, the result may vary as usual

depending on the pictures. The result is subtle, but really made a difference,

just like Retro effect above, this kind of editing work great with natural light,

you still can experiment this type of editing with flash photography but from

my experience, natural light work greats with this kind of editing.

For those of you who have more experience with Photoshop I suggest you to

use Adjustment Layers, so you can easily going back and forth with your

editing, plus you have “Layer Mask” for your advantage to do some fine

tuning. I don!t want to confuse most new photoshop users, so I will not use

Adjustment layers for my tutorial.

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Figure 100 Original Unedit

STEP 1 : Go to Channel Menu like figure above, if you don!t have Channel

visible like above figure, go to Windows Menu on the Photoshop Menu bar

and select or click Channels, so you get something like above.

STEP 2 : Click on the RED Channel like the above picture, so only the RED

Channel activate or chosen.

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Figure 101 Channel


STEP 3 : Then go to the Photoshop menu bar, Image - Adjustment and click

“Brightness and Contrast”.

STEP 4 : Increase the contrast by + 35 like the above figure. Please be

reminded that this figure is only as a starting point, you may vary the figure as

you wish later on depending on the picture and your image size. After you

push the slider to above figure, click OK button.

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Figure 103

Figure 104

STEP 5 : Next step, go to Green Channel, click onto the Green Channel so

only Green Channel Highlight like the above picture.

STEP 6 : Just follow like STEP 3, go to Image Menu, Adjustment and select

“Brightness / Contrast”.

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Figure 106

STEP 7 : Increase the Green Contrast by + 59, just like the RED Channel,

this figure is just a starting point, as you progress and when you have done

few of this kind of editing you will know how much to increase, so let!s start

with this figure first. After you are done, click OK.

STEP 8 : After you finish Step 7, click onto RGB Channel up there, so all the

channels are highlighted just like the figure above.

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Figure 108 RGB

This figure is just a starting point, you may adjust it later as you wish.

STEP 9 : Now click onto the layer and we are finish, like I said the result is

subtle, if you are not satisfied with the result, you may increase or decrease

the contrast on the Red Channel or Green Channels. Feel free to experiment,

if follow the step carefully you may notice that your picture have more

contrast than the original one.

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Figure 109 Layers

Original | Unedited

Edited | Film E . F . X

R E T R OPART III

W A R M T H

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Sometimes this editing or toning is my finishing product, I mean after I!ve

done few editing like my previous tutorial, I!ll finish it with this one, to add

more “warmth” to the image and sometimes this is the only things that I need

to do to add “mood” to the image. It!s all depend on the picture and the

reason why I choose this particular image is because it works with this kind of

toning.

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Figure 200 Original

STEP 1 : Click on that Channel like the arrow above.

STEP 2 : Click onto BLUE Channels, so only Blue Channels are highlighted

like the picture above.

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Figure 2001 RGB Channel

Figure 2002 Blue Channel

STEP 3 : Go to Image - Adjustment - Brightness / Contrast, like the figure

above and click and follow the next step...

STEP 4 : After the dialogue box above appear, adjust the Contrast on the

Blue Channels like the figure above ( -35 ). I like to remind you once again

that those figure is just a guideline or as a starting point, you can lower or go

higher as you wish depending on the result you want, but usually I will start

with something like (-30) and experiment from that. After you adjust the

figure, just click OK button, usually I don!t adjust the “Brightness” but you are

free to do so if you wish.

Note : Please make sure you “Check” the “Use Legacy” like the arrow show

you, if you “Uncheck” the Legacy, the result will be different. So please make

sure you “Check” the “Use Legacy”.

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Figure 2003 | Brightness Contrast

Figure 2004 | Brightness / Contrast

STEP 5 : After finish Step 4, go onto Channels palette once again and click

onto RGB so all the channels are highlighted like the Figure 2005, and after

that, click on the Layers like the Figure 2006 and you are done.

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Figure 2005 Figure 2006

Click on RGB Click on Layers

Original Edited with BLUE Channels

R E T R OPART IV

T H E L I G H T N E S S

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ORIGINAL

Edited | The Lightness

This kind of effect is not everyone cup of coffee but if you like the effect, this

one is for you, I don!t know how I stumble upon this effect but sometimes it

work great on certain pictures, maybe there are other way to achieve this

effect, but this is how I do it. If you look carefully, it!s look like there was a thin

layer of plastic above the image and that!s what I like it, I like “The Lightness”.

Step 1 : Just go to Image - Adjustment and select EXPOSURE.

Step 2: Adjust the Offset and Gamma Correction like the arrow pointed

above. There is no value or figure that I want to give, but for Offset, you just

need to drag the slider to the right just a bit to your liking. Same goes to the

Gamma Correction, just drag a bit to the right to get back a little bit of

contrast. Then Click Ok button. There you go, have fun with it, be creative.

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Lightness 001

Lightness 002

Click EXPOSURE

Play with Offset and Gamma Slider, Drag it to the RIGHT.

The Photoshop Tone

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