Posted on December 15, 2012January 11, 2014 by Alex Wise — 2 Comments

Exploring the Lightroom Split Toning Feature

Split toning has become quite popular thanks to Adobe Lightroom making it easy for photographers to experiment and add duo-tone sepia and film effects to their photographs. But split toning isn’t anything new and actually dates back to the late 1800’s. The technique was used by photographers including Ansel Adams to add a colour to either the highlights or shadows to a black and white photograph (as they were at the time). Ansel would occasionally add a very subtle purple to the shadows of his stunning photographs.

Since the days of Ansel Adams using split toning the technique has evolved and we now use it slightly different to in the past. That’s not to say it can’t still be used like it traditionally was but as photography has evolved as have the way techniques are used. Photographers are now using split toning on the shadows and highlights of their images to recreate film effects like cross processing or adding a duo-tone like effect to their image. It’s a feature of Lightroom that I love to tinker with when editing my photographs and I’d been meaning to write a blog post about it for sometime now after making a YouTube tutorial on split toning last year.

What is split toning and how does it work?

Basically split toning involves adding a colour to either the shadows or highlights part of an image. One favourite of mine is adding a yellow to the highlights to give the image a warm feel. While other times I like to add a blue to the shadows to give the image a cold feel. If you’re going for a warm or cold look to your image this can sometimes be achieved by adjusting the temperature of the image. Personally, I prefer the control which split toning provides but you can also adjust the temperature for a similar effect

For photographers using Lightroom the split toning feature can be accessed by opening the Develop tab and located fifth menu down from the right. Once open you will be presented with two different options: Highlights and Shadows. Start by selecting the little box that appears next to Highlights and select the blue box (see below). Now do the same for the Shadows but this time select the yellow looking box.

Selecting a colour to split tone the highlights

From this point I start to gradually change the hues of both the Highlights and Shadows, adjust the saturation of both and slightly play with the balance until at a level I’m happy with. There’s no perfect formula that will work all the time for images so I find the best thing to do is to play until you get the results you desire. If this isn’t making much sense then give my video split toning tutorial I uploaded to YouTube last year a look which explains the process better.

Let’s start to look at some images and the split toning settings that were used to give you an idea of how I’ve used split toning in the past –

IMG_6231-2 — St Kilda Pier with natural colours

stkildasplit — Split toning settings for the above St Kilda Pier photograph

IMG_2444-2 — A wet miserable day with natural colours

A wet miserable day with split toning applied

melbourne1split — Split toning for the above photograph ‘A wet miserable day’

IMG_2192-2 — Car park entrance with natural colours

Car park entrance with split toning applied

melbourne2split — Split toning settings for the above car park entrance photograph

IMG_2986-2 — Self portrait with natural colours

sthelenssplit — Split toning settings for the above self portrait

Adding Split Toning to Black and White Photographs

Another reason I love split toning is the subtle tones you can add to a black and white image. My favourite is adding either a very subtle blue into the highlights to almost give a duo tone feel to the image. For this image I processed as normal and then dropped the saturation completely to make the image black and white then opened the split toning and added a slight blue to the highlights. It’s a neat little trick and something I’ve got into a habit of adding when going for a black and white feel to my images but adding something a little different on top.

IMG_7972-2 — Girl smoking in natural colours

Girl smoking with split toning and decreased saturation applied

smokingsplit — Split toning settings for the above photograph of a girl smoking

Split Toning Lightroom Presets

Or if you’re feeling slightly lazy and would rather all of this to happen at the click of the button then my Lightroom presets might suit you best. The presets (not to be confused with an Australian band…) are heavily split toning based and at this stage offer a duotone/cold effect and a coffee/warm effect for your images. Below gives you an idea of what the two presets offer.

Feel free to click either image to download the preset.

I hope this tutorial on split toning has been useful for you. If it has I’d appreciate you share the love by using one of the share buttons to the side menu on the right.

Feel free to drop an email if you have any questions. Always happy to help 🙂

– Alex

Posted on November 17, 2012August 24, 2013 by Alex Wise — 7 Comments

Photography Tips – Composition

Hi all,

A little while ago I was asked by Digital Photography Magazine to write up a small article on how photographers can improve their photography with some photography composition tips. It was a little challenging sitting down coming up with the tips as most of these composition tips are things you begin to naturally incorporate into your photography workflow without realising.

In the end I provided Digital Photography Magazine with 6 different styles of composition that I try to rely on upon arriving at a scene and feeling slightly unsure what I’ll be photographing. Keeping an eye out for reflections, leading lines, colour in the sky, simple compositions or even compositions that would benefit from being placed in the middle of a frame, gives me some variety in how I might photograph the scene on the day. They’re not rocket science but are a common theme across all my photographs which have got me to where I am today.

Be sure to catch the tips in the next edition of Digital Photography Magazine.

Thanks,

– Alex

Continue reading Photography Tips – Composition

Posted on March 10, 2012March 10, 2012 by Alex Wise — 4 Comments

Photoshop Tutorial – Manually Set Black and White Points

Recently one of my Photoshop tutorials I posted on YouTube was featured on PetaPixel. It’s a neat little tutorial that shows you how to manually find the black and white points of an image and then define them within curves. The effect can be quite interesting and I’ve found can reduce the colour cast effect that is brought on from using and stacking neutral density filters like the Cokin setup. Admittedly it’s not something I use all the time but I find it useful for when I’m lacking motivation and curious to see what effect it will have on an image.

In case you’re feeling lazy and just curious how the effect looks on an image, scroll down to the bottom of the post where I’ve included two before and after gif clips.

Apologies that my blog theme isn’t the prettiest thing when it comes to posting tutorials but bare with me.

Continue reading Photoshop Tutorial – Manually Set Black and White Points

Posted on February 21, 2012February 25, 2012 by Alex Wise — 13 Comments

SEO Tips for Photographers

I’m by no means an expert at Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and if anything, still very much an amateur. But nevertheless I find SEO an interesting topic and have benefited from optimising my content over the years to develop a consistent stream and rise of traffic to my blog.

Continue reading SEO Tips for Photographers

Posted on February 2, 2012May 9, 2015 by Alex Wise — 11 Comments

The Magic Cloth Technique – DIY Graduated Neutral Density Filter

I came across the magic cloth technique a few years ago when researching graduated neutral density filters but never actually got around to trying it. Recently a friend linked me to the stunning work that Tony Brackley-Prower had achieved by using this technique and was itching to try. The technique is a DIY neutral density filter that costs you nothing to try.

What are Neutral Density Filters?

Most photographers (myself included) use neutral density filters when shooting seascapes. These filters normally come in a rectangle size with black/dark at the top and clear at the bottom. Photographers use these filters when there is different levels of brightness in a scene. This is common when photographing seascapes on sunset where the sky can appear slightly brighter than the surrounding foreground. If photographed without filters this can result in the sky being over exposed as the camera attempts to compensate the darker foreground. We use neutral density filters to avoid this problem by placing the darker part of the filter at the top of the frame to capture a more even and natural exposure. Most neutral density filters are expensive with a Cokin set and a Lee kit . I was curious to how the magic cloth technique would compare to these more expensive neutral density filters.

Fast forward to December this year when I was visiting family and friends in my home town of Hobart, I gave the technique a try at Park Beach with some long exposures.

Magic Cloth Technique

The technique is appealing as it’s so simple and costs nothing. No surprises that the technique is based on using a cloth or even as Tony suggests, you can also use a sock, wallet, or cap. Really the possibilities are endless but the most important thing is finding an object which you can easily hold over the front over the camera to cover a certain part of the image. Once you’ve found a suitable object to use for the magic cloth technique, you’re now ready. The technique is best used for long exposures as this gives you greater control and flexibility over the image.

It is suggested to meter the image in your camera around 2 stops over exposed when using the technique to get the best possible exposure. Begin by starting the exposure and covering the lens with the object. Over time, gradually move the object up (towards the sky or the top of the frame). The slower you raise the cloth results in a darker grad. In simple terms this means your sky will receive less exposure and be considerably darker. If instead you raise the magic cloth faster, this will result in a less darker grad and brighter sky.

And really that’s all there is to the magic cloth technique. Experiment with the technique and you will slowly get a feel for how it works and how it might be beneficial for certain scenes. Now that I’ve tried the technique with seascapes I’d love to try with photographing waterfalls up close to avoid sea spray going all over my lens and to capture greater detail of the surrounding foliage areas.

You might also be interested in my waterfall photography guide. A thorough guide that covers waterfall photography, the ideal weather, equipment you’ll need, visual examples of how shutter speed works and other bits.

If you’re new to long exposures, my guide on daytime long exposures might also be of interest.

Hopefully this was helpful! 🙂