Converting colour to B&W to toned photo

[blindspot]

Chaps, I'm trying to take a landscape photo and turn it into a background for a brochure/client pack.

The idea is black & white, but instead of black using the company colours as given in RGB or CMYK.

I can quite easily in Lightrooms get a lurid magenta image, but that's really not what I'm after.

In photoshop I just stare at the screen like a particularly dim chimp in the control room of a nuclear power station. Not quite got to flinging my poo around the office yet, just blank staring at near total incomprehension.

Any bright ideas or pointers for a photoshop biff from PS ninjas out there?

[MitchT]

In Photoshop go Image>Mode>Greyscale to make it greyscale.

You now have two options which I'd recommend trying.

Option 1:

• Go Image>Mode>Duotone to make bring up the duotone options.
• Select Monotone from the drop down in the Duotone window.
• Click the 'Ink 1' box and in the window that appears enter the RGB or CMYK coordinates of the desired colour in the relevant section.
• Click 'OK'.
• This will give you a 'black and white' image where the desired colour replaces the black.

Revert back to the greyscale image before trying Option 2.

Option 2:

• Go Image>Mode>Duotone to make bring up the duotone options.
• Select Duotone from the drop down in the Duotone window.
• Click the 'Ink 1' box and in the window that appears enter the RGB or CMYK coordinates of the desired colour in the relevant section.
• Click 'OK'
• Click the 'Ink 2' box and drag the circle in the coloured box to the bottom left corner to turn the selection black.
• Click 'OK'
• This will give you a duotone image where a mixture of your chosen colour and black replace the black. It creates a much less lurid effect than the monotone option.

Edited by MitchT on Monday 12th December 14:25

[blindspot]

Brilliant, thank you.

I'll give it a bash.

[blindspot]

Not the photo I'm using, but just the ticket for a quick attempt. Exactly the sort of thing I wanted, thank you.

[MitchT]

[RobDickinson]

get Nik B&W and click a defalt, tweak.
https://www.google.com/nikcollection

[blindspot]

Thank you, I'm really pleased with the PS duotone technique, but I''ll have a play with those google tools sometime.

What I really need to do is buy a copy of 'LR & PS for retards' and get to actually understand it.

[Simpo Two]

I doubt anyone understands all of PS. You just learn the bits you need to; I'm up to 2% and that's enough for me.

[RobDickinson]

I peaked at 3% but they have added new stuff so I regressed...

[Simpo Two]

That's progress. Eventually you learn to settle for sitting at the bottom of the escalator having an easy life

[MitchT]

Simpo Two said:

I doubt anyone understands all of PS.

True. I've been tinkering with it for 20 years+ via my work but someone else who uses it for different purposes might know it in a completely different way. Multiply that concept by numerous users!

[blindspot]

Quite. By 'understand' I suppose that I mean be slightly less than totally baffled by the main screen.

Perhaps evem be able to switch a flat sky for a more interesting one, or be able to selectively alter exposure within a photo.

[Simpo Two]

blindspot said:

or be able to selectively alter exposure within a photo.

Oh that's easy! Many of my photos depend on that, either via C1 Pro + PS, or PS alone. But I doubt my way is the same as yours

[RobDickinson]

Go youtube some tutotials.

learn about the basc tools, layers and masks

[blindspot]

Is there a presemter/channel who are particularly good for this sort of thing? Ideally the sort that tell you why you're doing something rather than a bare list of actions?

[Simpo Two]

If you're in or can get to East Anglia I can show you what I know.

[blindspot]

Thank you for the offer - I'm in Berks, so buzzing over for a lesson will eat more time than I can really justify at the moment.

I've spent some time with Adobe's own tutorials this morning and it is starting to make a lot more sense.

[FidoGoRetroGo]

Alien Skin does nice things without much effort.