P H O T O S H O P

T O N E

Post Processing Technique

by WAZARI WAZIR

R E T R O
Introduction
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 denitely 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 rst 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 satised with my editing or not. The truth is I never satised, 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 gure 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

R E T R O
Introduction

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 )

R E T R O
Part I
Old School

Figure 001 Unedit

Before we start our Retro Journey let!s get to basic rst. 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 ash, 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.

Figure 002

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

Figure 003 Curves

Figure 004 Red Channel

STEP 2 : Then click the RGB on the Channel there as shown by the Arrow and then select RED.

Figure 005 Red Channel

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

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 gure may differ according to your le size, actually you can see the result on your picture realtime, so you can gure it yourself whether you want to lower the curves a bit or not. Let!s start rst with something like the Figure 005 above. Note : Do not click OK just yet, we are not nish, follow Step 4 to continue...

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 4 : Then go back to the channel and select Green Channel like the arrow above. Adjust your Curves until you get something like above gure. We are still not nish, 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 rst 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...

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.

STEP 5 : To nish this editing go to Blue Channel like the gure above and adjust the curves like the gure above, if you follow the step accordingly from rst 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 nish...

10

Before

After

11

RETRO
PART II FILM E.F.X

12

Figure 100 Original Unedit

This is another one of my favorite tone, I like to call it Film E.F.X because it have lm 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 ash 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 ne tuning. I don!t want to confuse most new photoshop users, so I will not use Adjustment layers for my tutorial.

13

Figure 101 Channel

STEP 1 : Go to Channel Menu like gure above, if you don!t have Channel visible like above gure, go to Windows Menu on the Photoshop Menu bar and select or click Channels, so you get something like above.

Figure 102 Red Channel

STEP 2 : Click on the RED Channel like the above picture, so only the RED Channel activate or chosen.

14

Figure 103

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

Figure 104

STEP 4 : Increase the contrast by + 35 like the above gure. Please be reminded that this gure is only as a starting point, you may vary the gure as you wish later on depending on the picture and your image size. After you push the slider to above gure, click OK button.

15

Figure 105 Green Channel

STEP 5 : Next step, go to Green Channel, click onto the Green Channel so only Green Channel Highlight like the above picture.

Figure 106

STEP 6 : Just follow like STEP 3, go to Image Menu, Adjustment and select Brightness / Contrast.

16

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

Figure 107 Green Channel

STEP 7 : Increase the Green Contrast by + 59, just like the RED Channel, this gure 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 gure rst. After you are done, click OK.

Figure 108 RGB

STEP 8 : After you nish Step 7, click onto RGB Channel up there, so all the channels are highlighted just like the gure above.

17

Figure 109 Layers

STEP 9 : Now click onto the layer and we are nish, like I said the result is subtle, if you are not satised 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.

Original | Unedited

Edited | Film E . F . X
18

RETRO
PART III WARMTH

19

Figure 200 Original

Sometimes this editing or toning is my nishing product, I mean after I!ve done few editing like my previous tutorial, I!ll nish 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.

20

Figure 2001 RGB Channel

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

Figure 2002 Blue Channel

STEP 2 : Click onto BLUE Channels, so only Blue Channels are highlighted like the picture above.

21

Figure 2003 | Brightness Contrast

STEP 3 : Go to Image - Adjustment - Brightness / Contrast, like the gure above and click and follow the next step...

Figure 2004 | Brightness / Contrast

STEP 4 : After the dialogue box above appear, adjust the Contrast on the Blue Channels like the gure above ( -35 ). I like to remind you once again that those gure 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 gure, 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.

22

Figure 2005 Click on RGB

Figure 2006 Click on Layers

STEP 5 : After nish 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.

Original

Edited with BLUE Channels

23

RETRO
PART IV THE LIGHTNESS

24

ORIGINAL

Edited | The Lightness

25

Click EXPOSURE

Lightness 001

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

Lightness 002

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 gure 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.

26

Thank You
2009 W a z a r i W a z i r
wazariwazir.com

27