Toning the Vision

When looking at potential scenes I have a vision or at least an idea of how I am going to finish the print. It is important to think about how you want your final vision to come to life. In this case, I have captured a shot of a field of tulips which in theory would be stunning in colour. Since I am aiming for monochrome I have to isolate the print to have the viewer follow the light and shadows.

The original monochrome conversion is very light and using a dodge and burn layer in Photoshop I was able to create the toning vignette to pull the audience to the three tulips instead of the entire photograph.

Before Photoshop Toning

The Dodge and Burn Layer

After Photoshop Dodge and Burn Layer

This is how you will achieve a well balanced toned print.

1. Open a colour corrected photograph
2. New/Layer/Gradient Map (Your colour pallette should be black in foreground and white in background)
3. New/Layer/Overlay (Make sure to check 50% Gray and you should see a grey layer open, it won’t affect your image)
4. Use the dodge and burn tools in the tools pallette at 9% to 11%

~ by dbshanks on May 18, 2009.