Auntie Digi here once again dearies to lend a helping hand and a listening ear to your problems with your digital software. Do you lose your buttons, don’t know your wand from your lassoo? Fell out with filters? Masked instead of moved? Well Auntie Digi has the answers for you.
Drop Auntie a line on the boards with your little problem and Auntie and crew will answer it as best we can and pick the best each month to publish here under Highway Help.
This month we are going to help “Browned Off” Lindsay who writes:
Dear Auntie Digi,
The only way, in PS CS2, that I can turn a photo sepia is to print it that way. What's the best way to manually turn a photo sepia so I can view it that way before printing? I've tried a few things, but am looking for that true sepia thang...
Lindsay
Well, Lindsay my dear,
There are several ways you can go about this, one is to use a filter to give you the sepia tint …this is the most popular one that you can download for free from Optikverve.
However, for those of you who like to get down and dirty with your pixels, here is a simple method to alter your photos to give them that old sepia tone. These instructions are for PSCS2 and PSE4, but the principle will apply to most photo editing programs. Make sure you work on a copy of your photo my luvvies, otherwise you may end up being a little “browned” off.
Open up your photo and in PSE use the Enhance menu and option Adjust Color and then Remove Color. This will give you a black and white and all shades of grey photo. You can further adjust by altering the light levels and contrast so you have just the right picture to turn sepia. In PSCS2 you want to click on the Image menu and select Adjustments and Desaturate to get your color removed. Again use the Adjustments menu to get your lighting just right.
Next choose a color for your foreground…the shade of sepia will depend on the type of color you actually prefer, but Auntie suggests you play around with this to suit your particular photo. For Auntie’s example I used an orange brown with RGB values of R175 G152 B127
In PSE select the Enhance menu and select Adjust Colour, then Hue and Saturation.
In PSCS2 select the Image menu, then Adjustments and Hue and Saturation option.
On this screen check the little box that says Colorize. This will tint your photo with the shade of sepia you have chosen. You can use the sliders to increase or decrease the saturation and light to get the right shade. If that shade of sepia isn’t right try a different one and make a note of the RGB numbers for another time……. Try using the grain filter for a little crackled vintage effect to your photos as well….so many options to try….Auntie could play for days……
Easy when you know how isn’t it my darlings? Auntie hopes you have fun trying this or the filters to get some interesting effects on your photos………..
Love you all my little
dearies,
