Springtime Fog - First use of split toning

[Donald]

First time I ever used split toning. The tendency is to over-state it when you first try it. I hope I haven't.

Also, what I learned on the recent B & W Masterclass with Paul Gallagher has allowed me, for the first time I realise, to really allow the megapixels in the Canon 5DS to show what they can do.

Any comment or critique is welcomed.

[mugge]

I love it, Donald. I was going to whinge about the treatment done to the LHS. Looking, properly this time, I was wrong.

Cheers Ole

[Donald]

There was lots of 'treatment', Ole, all over the image, but I'm glad you approve.

[lesno1]

Lovely picture Donald very pleasing to look at very well done indeed

[DanK]

A beautiful image. If if wouldn't take too much time, could you briefly explain how split toning is applied to B&W images? I've used it a bit with color images but can only guess how one would use it in B&W.

Thanks

Dan

[JBW]

I have certainly never seen this amount of fine detail in any of your previous landscape shots. In my way of seeing and thinking it is a macro landscape.

For me, there may be just a touch too much detail for a fog shrouded scene? Particularly in the large clump of trees. Can you describe the split tone technique?

[billtils]

Are we seeing a softer, gentler Donald? Just joking - but this is not only lovely but I'd never have picked it in an anonymous line up as being a Donald.

[Donald]

Split toning - This uses ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) as a Filter from Photoshop and simply choosing Split Toning from the menu of options presented in the icon bar at the right hand side.

My choice of settings is about Hue 115 / Saturation 9 for Highlights and Hue about 270 and saturation 7 or 8 for Shadows. I do tend to leave the Balance at 0.

Applying the split tone will be the final stage of completing the image, after all other adjustments have been made.

That's my way of doing it. There may (will) be other ways.

[Donald]

Are we seeing a softer, gentler Donald? Just joking - but this is not only lovely but I'd never have picked it in an anonymous line up as being a Donald.

Learn, Improve, Perfect : Learn, Improve, Perfect : Learn, Improve, Perfect.

Once I stop learning and pushing myself to improve, that will be the time to give up photography.

[tbob]

I think you have used a very gentle hand with the toning. And I like the balance between the sharper tree leaves and the mist obscuring the background.

[DanK]

Split toning - This uses ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) as a Filter from Photoshop and simply choosing Split Toning from the menu of options presented in the icon bar at the right hand side.

My choice of settings is about Hue 115 / Saturation 9 for Highlights and Hue about 270 and saturation 7 or 8 for Shadows. I do tend to leave the Balance at 0.

Applying the split tone will be the final stage of completing the image, after all other adjustments have been made.

That's my way of doing it. There may (will) be other ways.

Thank you.

This is fascinating. I don't have an intuitive feel for how this works and will play around with a few B&W images to experiment.

[xpatUSA]

A beautiful image.

+1

If if wouldn't take too much time, could you briefly explain how split toning is applied to B&W images?

Good question, Dan. Before today, I had no idea what split toning is!

As to B&W, a quick search suggests that the literature seems to lean toward a) conversion to black and white then b) applying a monochrome look.

for example:

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tut...oom--cms-22710

I've used a similar principle in RawTherapee to apply faux color to black and white processed IR images, and I see that some other functions in RT can do similar stuff (they call it 'color toning'):

https://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Color_Toning
.

[Tom Barry]

I find the image very pleasing, however arrived at.

[billtils]

Donald, you can do split toning in Silver Efex Pro using the color filter and finishing adjustments, any reason why you chose to do it in ACR?

Brian, you can also do it in Capture One v11 as described here.

[DanK]

+1



Good question, Dan. Before today, I had no idea what split toning is!

As to B&W, a quick search suggests that the literature seems to lean toward a) conversion to black and white then b) applying a monochrome look.

for example:

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tut...oom--cms-22710

I've used a similar principle in the past to apply faux color to black and white processed IR images ...

And that's what Donald's image has: a subtle green in the highlights, and a tad of magenta on the shadows. I just played around a bit during lunch break, and it seems that the toning is much more apparent in the highlights, which makes perfect sense.

[Donald]

Donald, you can do split toning in Silver Efex Pro using the color filter and finishing adjustments, any reason why you chose to do it in ACR?

I am not using SEP at all at the moment in my B & W conversions. It is all done in Photoshop, using ACR as a filter.

[billtils]

Thanks Donald - in a nutshell the reason is "because" .

I haven't tried split toning at all but do like SEP a lot, and having done some research since seeing your super photo have found more than one that says SEP is better than PS - which is why I asked because feedback from someone whose work I know and respect is worth a barrow-load of comment from an anonymous web source of unknown talent and prejudices.

[Donald]

.... and having done some research since seeing your super photo have found more than one that says SEP is better than PS

And that is what I have always felt until I went on the B & W Masterclass with Paul Gallagher.

I still do think that SEP is a magnificent tool. However, the way I got shown to complete images once in the digital darkroom and my efforts to use that, have made me believe that nurturing and caressing the tones in a B & W conversion can be achieved much more subtlety by the use of Selections and Curves in Photoshop and the use of ACR as a filter. Not every image will require such subtlety and, if not, then SEP is the tool to go for.

I am just starting on this journey and am a long way from what Paul Gallagher produced. But am very happy with what I am getting so far. It is giving me the means to put my expression into the work.

[Manfred M]

Interesting comments and discussions here. It seems to me that you have taken a B&W image and very subtly colour graded it using split toning. That is an unusual approach and one I think needs further exploration. I have played around with these tools on colour images and it had not occurred to me that these could be used creatively on B&W images as well, especially in dealing with the shadow and highlight areas.

Two other paths you might want to look at at some point to achieve similar effects are:

1. To use a curves adjustment layer (with or without a layer mask to apply the effects locally) and tweak the curves on the individual colour channels. This is often viewed as the classic approach to colour grading; or

2. To use the Color Lookup adjustment layer and use that in conjunction with the layer mask and blending modes to apply the grading effects.

Add blending modes and varying the opacity of the layers gives all kinds of interest resutls

[Manfred M]

And that is what I have always felt until I went on the B & W Masterclass with Paul Gallagher.

I still do think that SEP is a magnificent tool. However, the way I got shown to complete images once in the digital darkroom and my efforts to use that, have made me believe that nurturing and caressing the tones in a B & W conversion can be achieved much more subtlety by the use of Selections and Curves in Photoshop and the use of ACR as a filter. Not every image will require such subtlety and, if not, then SEP is the tool to go for.

I am just starting on this journey and am a long way from what Paul Gallagher produced. But am very happy with what I am getting so far. It is giving me the means to put my expression into the work.

Donald - the deeper I dive into certain aspects of photography, the more I have become convinced that curves are the most powerful tool in Photoshop, whether they are applied on a luminosity basis or on an individual channel basis. In adding to the ability to work with layers and layer masks, curves are probably the most important tool that Lightroom users do not have access to.

I generally do not use SEP in my B&W work unless I get lazy and am in a real hurry to do something (which is happening more often than I would like to admit). Before I started using SEP, I did all of my conversions using the colour channel sliders with a B&W adjustment layer.

If one really thinks about it, the sliders are nothing more than a simplified version of using a curves adjustment on an individual colour channel.