TLR B&W Toning

Duotones, tritones, and quadtones use spot color inks and multiple passes on a printer. They are expensive to produce because of the separate plates and press washes.

Photoshop has a duotone mode. Printing these images on an inkjet printer results in a pseudo-duotone. These can be very lovely images and nearly indistinguishable from a true duo/tri/quadtone.

If all you want to do is produce a toned B&W print, there is no need to convert your image to Duotone mode. You can stay in 16-bits per channel and RGB/CMYK/L*a*b with the TLR B&W Toning action set.

You can use the TLR B&W Toning action set to apply a variety of tones to your monochrome images. Just be sure you have a color image in RGB, CMYK, or L*a*b. The actions apply a gradient map to your image rather than converting to Duotone mode. It is not even necessary to convert your image to monochrome first, although this action set is the perfect complement to my TLR B&W Conversion action set.

Basic Tones

The actions for basic tones apply a moderate color tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. You can double-click on the layer and adjust the gradient.

Blue • Brown • Burgundy • Cyan • Green • Magenta • Mauve
Purple • Red • Yellow

(Hover mouse over text to see examples)

Sepia Tones

The actions for sepia tones apply a light to moderate sepia tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer.

Sepia 1 • Sepia 2 • Sepia 3

(Hover mouse over text to see examples)

Color Cast

The actions for color casts apply a light tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. The tones are designed to impose a slight cast to grayscale images or remove a slight cast by applying a neutral gray gradient map.

Gray Green • Gray Mauve • Cooler Gray • Neutral Gray • Warmer Gray

(Hover mouse over text to see examples)

Traditional Tones

The actions for the traditional tones apply a moderate tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. The tones are designed to simulate traditional toning processes from a chemical darkroom.

Cyanotype • Gold • Palladium • Platinum • Platinum Palladium
Selenium • Selenium Brown • Silver • Silver Gelatin

(Hover mouse over text to see examples)

Multi- Tones

The actions for the multi- tones apply a moderate tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. Instead of applying a single tone, a combination of tones are applied to the image..

Aqua Gold • Burgundy Gold

(Hover mouse over text to see examples)

Here's what Len and Joan Weinstock have to say about the TLR B&W Toning action set:

"Your black and white conversion and print toning actions have been extremely helpful in our first attempts at developing a digital monochrome method. We found your platinum tone to be particularly applicable in our latest series. Thanks so much for this assistance."

With the TLR B&W Toning action set, you get adjustment layers that can easily modified by the user. You have complete control over the resulting tone by adjusting the gradient map. It will work with images in RGB, CMYK, or L*a*b mode.

The TLR B&W Toning action set is a free download. Try it. If you like it, keep it and use it.

Enjoy!

Current Version: 1.0c
Date: 9 December 2005
Size: 7kb
Contents: Photoshop .atn file, ReadMe.txt

Download the TLR B&W Toning action set.

Need help with actions? Download Action Basics here, a PDF tutorial on using actions.