Pixiq

I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for sepia toned images. They are evocative images that remind us of the past and our impressions of the past as an easier, softer time.

I like the juxtaposition of modern people and modern situations shot in a way to make them look as though were taken long ago. You could say it’s sort of a psychological displacement, a contrast, that adds interest to the photograph.

Sepia images should I think be part of every digital photographer’s creative toolbox. There are always occasions when a lovely sepia image can really sell your work. I have a wedding portfolio that includes a number of sepia shots and they always produce an “Oh Wow” response and seal the deal.

When I was shooting Black and White film I made sepia images in the darkroom. I’d shoot and print ordinary Black and White photographs and put them in a tray of “Sepia” toner. I’d let them soak there a while and after some time the black image would turn brownish. The longer I left the prints in the toner the richer the color would become.

I also tried shooting sepia images with color transparency film. I got myself a set of Cokin Sepia filters--which were called “Tobacco” color in the French catalog. Placed in front of the lens they effectively turned everything sepia, sort of, because though the other colors were diminished some were still visible in the picture.

Today digital photography makes shooting sepia images a breeze. The simplest method is setting the camera to shoot sepia images. Many of my earliest Panasonic Lumix cameras (like the LX1 and DMC FZ18) had a sepia setting in the film mode menu page. Since then some manufacturers have dropped the sepia option but others like Sony and Nikon retain it on the “creative mode” menu page. Clicking on this setting turns the images in the viewfinder or on the LCD monitor into full sepia and saves your shots sepia colored in the image files.

The problem with this is that you only have the sepia image and you can’t go backwards easily to get the original color scene.

A better way to create sepia images is to take an ordinary color shot and alter it. It’s very easy.

You’ll need image editing software and Google’s free Picasa 3 is a great way to go. You can download it at www.picasa.com.

Once you have it on your desktop, open the program. The first thing Picasa does will be to find all the image files on your computer and load them into its workspace.

Find the photo you want to work with in the Picasa workspace and double click on it. It will open and fill the space. On the left side of the workspace you’ll see three tabs. Click on the one marked effects and look for the sepia version of your image (marked sepia) and click on that.

The image in the workspace will now be a sepia toned image. Click on the middle tab marked Tuning and use the sliders to enhance the sepia look by changing the contrast and lighting of the image.

If you have Photoshop CS or Elements it’s just as easy to make sepia images. Open your photo in the Editor workspace and click on Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove Color.

Your image will now be Black and White. If you want to change the tonal range of the image go to Enhance> Adjust Lighting> Brightness>Contrast and adjust it.

Now click on Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Variations. A window will open up with your photo before adjustment and after. At the lower left corner there is a slider sitting in the middle of its range bar. Move it to the left a notch or two. This is the amount of change you’ll be making and reflects about a 25-33% alteration. Now click on the Decrease Blue image once and the Increase Red once. (Sometimes I’ll click twice on the red for a rich color.)

Your image is now sepia. Click OK and save it with a different name then the original color file.

Now let your imagination run back to the future.