Photoshop - making sepia prints

spitfire

Active Member
In answer to a request from McFortner for Photoshop help, this first little mini-tutorial will show you how to make "sepia" prints from either colour or black and white images.

1. First, convert your image to greyscale: on the upper menu select:
image - mode - greyscale.
It will ask you if you want to discard the colour information - click ok

2. Save as - give this image a new name if you don't want to overwrite your original colour image

3. Back to the menu
image - mode - duotone

4. A dialog box will pop up enabling you to select the two colours you will use. The default is black plus a colour. You will notice that you can change the colours by clicking on the coloured boxes or you can select "load" to bring in some duotone's that Photoshop has built-in. If you decide to load you will have to navigate into your Photoshop folder, in "goodies" there you'll find all the presets.

5. Now you are returned to the dialog box from step 4. You can also change the colour balance and contrast by clicking on the box that looks like a graph. This brings up the "Duotone Curve" editor. You can grab and drag the points to change at what point the colour "kicks in", how contrasty it is, etc. A straight line along the bottom will make the colour virtually invisible. A straight line across the top will make it solid. Do a little experimenting here and see the results.

6. If you don't like the results, or wish to change the colours, just go back to your menu - image/mode/duotone and the dialog box pops up again.

Hope this helps
 

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Vic

Active Member
For those that are graphically challanged like me:D Paintshop Pro 7 (and possibly 6) will also make sepia pics.

Load the the pic into the progam....click on "effects" then click on "artistic effects" and then click on Sepia. Choose the percentage of effect that you want...the program will give you a preview....and when you are satisfied with it click apply or OK.

Also many digital cameras will make sepia pics...check your manual...My Sony will do it with just a push of a button.
 

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Pitchwife

Dreamer
Even my ancient Paint Shop Pro 5 will do it with a little fiddeling. Probably most photo programs will let you do it, you just have to be smarter than they are to figure it out. :D
 

shamus

Registered Member
Most paint programs have the ability to transform a colour photo into a Black & White. Sure wish they could do it in reverse, I have a hell of a lot of Black & White photo's that need to be in colour. :D

Shamus
 

belg

Member
paint #

I'm wondering what's the latest version of paint and is it worth it for a new guy which is not very computer skilled to make such a purchase? What do you think something like this would run? Also what could I expect it to produce for me ?
 

shamus

Registered Member
Hi Belg,
Your best bet is to down load this trial version of Paintshop, see how you get on with it first before buying it.

http://www.jasc.com/products/psp/

Shamus


waver.gif

 

Vic

Active Member
Hi Belg, Like Shamus said down load the trial version and see how you do with it. Its right easy to use as it is a program that is designed for "moderate" work as opposed to Adobe that is really for the professional. Besides its cheap!!!...Less than $100 bucks at most software places. Its just plain fun to play with too!!! The full blown version will also include Animation Shop which you can use to make animated GIF's.

I might point out too that you don't have to have a "super" computer to run it....I run PSP7 on a P266 with only 40megs of RAM and it works just fine despite the system requirements stated by JASC.
 

Pitchwife

Dreamer
Something else to think about is that after you try PSP and decide you like it, there is a downloadable version that is somewhat cheaper (at least there was when I got mine). The only difference is that you don't get the printed book with it. It does come with a good tutorial and help section that will lead you step by step through whatever procedure you want to do. For me the paper wasn't worth it.
 
Val, thanks for the photoshop mini-tutorial. I use the old "quick 'n dirty" method in Photoshop to get sepia, but I'm going to try fiddling about with duotone now. Thanks. :p

For anyone who's wondering what the "old quick 'n dirty" method is, it's quite simple.

1. Make sure that your image is in the RGB mode.

2. Go to Image>Adjust>Hue>Saturation. Click in the checkboxes "Colorize" and "Preview."

3. Adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders until you get whatever color and intensity you want. For sepia, you might start with the Hue set somewhere between 20 and 30. Set the saturation at around 15-20.

For the photo below, I used an even balance of hue and saturation at 20 each.
 

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Vic

Active Member
More On PSP7 and Sepia Tone

In the post I made above I recounted how to make Sepia pics with PaintShop Pro. I wasn't really satisfied with the outcome so I have been doing some experimenting. The results were too much like a "colored postcard".....This method is closer to true Sepia.

Load the pic into the program.
On the toolbar select Effects and then Artistic Effects.
Click on Sepia and then set the effect percentage to 100%
Click OK
You will now have a Sepia pic with some color in it.
On the toolbar select Colors
Click on Colorize and then click OK.
You will now have a monochrome pic.
Click on Effects again and then click on Artistic Effects.
Click on Sepia and then click OK
You you will now have a more natural Sepia pic.
 

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