Pixiq

I taught myself Photoshop in the early 90s by translating my knowledge from the darkroom into the digital realm.  For example, I knew how to make a sepia toned print from a black and white original, and one of the first things I learned how to do was to create a sepia look in Photoshop.  Most of my work is in color, but once in a while an image strikes me as a prime candidate for sepia toning, and that’s how I felt about the low angled shot of the Sphinx in Egypt you see here.

 I first converted the color composite (I added the crescent moon) to black and white using this pull down menu command:  Image > mode > grayscale.  Then I used Image > mode > duotone.

 A dialog box opens up and it is here that you can apply any color tone you want.  In the darkroom, the toning colors were very limited.  In Photoshop’s duotone technique, you can use literally millions of colors. In the submenu indicated by the red arrow, choose duotone, tritone, or quadtone, and then in each color box you can click and choose the color.  The boxes on the left with the diagonal line allow you to alter the contrast in the image just like using Image > adjustments > curves.