Toning a portrait using the Exclusion blend mode. Hidden photo tinting kits in Photoshop CS6 Portrait tinting in Photoshop

It can be considered as a special case of a monochrome, that is, black and white image. Translation into black and white is a separate topic of conversation in itself, which is beyond the scope of this article. I will note only two points: firstly, for a better result, you need not just desaturate the image, but adjust the brightness of different colors, for example, using the Black & White tool. And secondly, after converting a picture to black and white, it is often necessary to increase the contrast, as if compensating for the resulting dullness of the image. These points should not be forgotten when tinting photographs.

Thus, for single-color toning in Photoshop, the best tool is Black&White, in which we first adjust the black and white image. And then, using the settings Tint paint it in the chosen shade.

In this case, tinting can be either complete: with 100% opacity, or partial: when the colors are only slightly given the desired shade.

With single-color tinting everything is simple, but the so-called split tinting, when a photograph is tinted in two shades: shadows in one color, highlights in another. This two-color toning is conveniently implemented in Lightroom using the tool Split Toning. There is no such tool in Photoshop. But there are many other tools that allow you to do two or more color toning. I'll look at the most basic methods of split toning in Photoshop.

Split Toning in Photoshop

For example, I took this photo from, which I will tint in different ways.

A very simple way to shift the shades of shadows and highlights.

Create a Color Balance adjustment layer and adjust the color shift separately for the shadows, midtones, and highlights.

I usually use the mode Preserve Luminosity at which the contrast can increase, if this is not desirable, then I simply set the Color blending mode for this layer.

This is the result obtained using the layer settings shown above. Blend mode Color, opacity 61%. Before this, the saturation of the image was reduced with a Black & White layer - 28% and the contrast was slightly increased.

Here is the layer structure.

If you need full toning, and not just changing shades, then before Color Balance it is enough to convert the photo to black and white, for example, with a Black & White layer, and then adjust the color of shadows, highlights and midtones.

Thus, here you can adjust not two, but three colors, although there is no ability to shift the range of shadows and highlights as in Lightroom.

This tool is in many ways similar to the previous one. Used to fine-tune individual shades, it also allows you to specify separate toning, similar to the Color Balance layer. Only instead of an RGB model, it uses CMYK.

From the drop-down list, select Whites, Neutrals and Blacks to adjust the light, medium and dark tones respectively.

The Relative / Absolute switch is responsible for the impact algorithm. With Relative, the degree of impact depends on the color of the pixel; if the original image did not have this shade (zero), then it will not be added (zero impact). In Absolute mode, the effect is independent of the original colors.

With similar functionality, I find it more convenient to use the Color Balance tool; the RGB model is more familiar to me. Although Selective Color has the ability to save settings in a file for later use.

Here is a toning option done using Selective Color:

3. Blend If Layer Blending Settings

Photoshop has the ability to blend layers based on pixel brightness. To call up the blending settings, double-click on the layer where its name is written, but behind it (double-clicking on the name will turn on the rename mode).

If that doesn’t work, you can call up the context menu (left mouse button) on the layer and select...

The following settings window will appear:

At the bottom of the window there are two gradient strips that allow you to adjust the transparency of the layer depending on the brightness of the pixels. This is done using black and white triangles. They can be separated by pressing the Alt key to set a smooth transition. The top gradient sets the transparency setting relative to the pixels of the current layer. The bottom gradient sets the transparency based on the brightness of the pixels of the bottom layer.

This way, you can tone a photo using different layers in different colors and use these settings to apply one color to the shadows and another to the highlights.

I created two Black & White adjustment layers:

And then I configured their mixing as follows:

After adjusting the transparency of the layers I got this result:

This method of toning a photograph allows you to adjust the transition ranges of light and dark tones when toning. Thus, this is the most flexible and at the same time quite convenient way of separately toning a photo.

4. Layer masks

A similar method with two layers that separately affect highlights and shadows can be implemented using layer masks. Creating a layer mask based on the brightness of an image is very simple. To do this, go to the Channels panel and, pressing Ctrl, click on the RGB channel. You will get a highlight. Without resetting it, go back to the Layers palette and click the Create Layer Mask button.

This will turn the current selection into a mask. In which: white will be the lightest pixels (opaque), and black will be the darkest, they will be transparent. This trick of creating a selection from an RGB channel simply copies it to a layer mask.

Do the same for the layer that sets the color of the shadows, but at the end press Ctrl+I - this will invert (flip) the mask so that the highlights become opaque.

To adjust toning ranges, you can apply curves, levels, or brightness commands to toning layer masks, reducing or increasing the range of influence of one layer or another.

In principle, this method is identical to the previous one, using the Blend If settings. Use one or another method, whichever seems more convenient to you.

5. Gradient

Another method of multi-color toning is Gradient. Create a Gradient Map adjustment layer, select the desired colors, adjust the blending mode (as in other methods, sometimes it is convenient to set the Color mode) and the degree of transparency.

The method is quite elegant - just one layer. But it gives wide possibilities: you can set as many colors as you like, customize transition areas, and save settings. But it's not too interactive. In practice, setting up such toning is not very convenient.

But it’s quite an option:

6. Curves.

Another great way to tone an image, widely used by professionals, is Curves.

Create a Curves adjustment layer, select the blue channel and set the following curve:

We get this color shift.

Separate control of curves in RGB channels is not the easiest tool in Photoshop. But with proper practice and diligence in mastering it, it works wonders. Here it is also sometimes useful to use the Color blend mode to avoid changing the contrast.

Typically, it is not such extreme curves that are used, but more subtle shifts. These are the curves I used when processing.

For me, adjusting Curves in individual RGB channels is my favorite way to mess with colors. Along with the Color Balance tool. Less often I use two adjustment layers with the Blend If setting. And I never use Gradient - it’s very inconvenient. Here I talked about it, rather, for the sake of completeness of the material. Although Photoshop experts can easily name five more ways separate image toning, it was important for me to talk not about all possible methods, but about the simplest, most convenient and effective ones.

That's all for today. Have a good mood and beautiful flowers in your photos!

The role of blending modes in post-processing is difficult to overestimate. Using them correctly, you can easily increase or decrease the contrast of the image, enhance highlights, even out the skin, correct or completely draw out colored makeup... And all this is just a fraction of the possibilities of using blending modes in portrait retouching. In color grading, Blending modes can be used to quickly and effectively tone photos without using complex curves or slow-running plugins. One of the techniques for toning using blending modes will be discussed in this article.

One of the stylization techniques in which the highlights are tinted in one color and the shadows in another (usually contrastingly opposite on the color wheel) is called separate tinting.

Separate toning is used both as an independent method of artistic processing and as a way to harmonize colors in a separate frame or a whole series of photographs, establishing an additional relationship between them. The latter is often used in the processing of large reportage and wedding shoots, when it is necessary to visually link together photographs that differ in color and subject matter.

The main problem for a photographer, especially a beginner, is the problem of finding colors for separate toning. Usually, toning in colors that contrast with each other looks most advantageous, and this color pair should be in harmony with the overall color scheme of the photo itself. When toning is done correctly, the viewer either completely does not notice its artificial nature, or perceives it as an organic “final touch” that gives the photo additional expressiveness.

There are many ways to implement split toning: Split Toning tools in RAW converters, Curves, Color Balance, various plugins and many others. Unfortunately, many of these tools do not allow split toning to be done easily. For example, when working with curves, it is difficult to tint a photo in colors other than direct RGB pairs (red-cyan, green-magenta, blue-yellow) - you have to adjust the curves one by one in several channels, and the result is not immediately visible. The same applies to color balance. The “sliders” in RAW converters are not always user-friendly in terms of interface, and plug-ins need to be additionally installed, and working with them is not always intuitive.

You can easily tint photos, select contrasting colors, and see the results almost immediately using blending modes.

Toning contrasting colors using blend modes

There are many blending modes available for toning photos. In this article we will focus on those that allow you to separately tint an image in a pair of contrasting colors at once. We will talk about the Difference and Exclusion modes.

These blend modes belong to the Comparative/Auxiliary group. Most novice retouchers rarely pay attention to them, because superimposing an image on itself in one of these modes gives a strange result that is unsuitable for practical use.

When you overlay an image on top of itself using the Difference blend mode, a black image is shown to show that there is no difference:

And when applied in Exclusion mode, an effect similar to color solarization occurs (black remains black, shadows are lightened, neutrals change little, highlights are darkened, white becomes black):

If, instead of overlaying the image on itself, you use any “flat” color, the image is instantly separately tinted into a contrasting pair of colors.

The Difference blend mode will give a more aggressive result:

And the Exclusion blend mode is softer:

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Note that when using both blending modes, the shadows of the original image are tinted in the direct color (the one we are blending), and the highlights are tinted in the opposite color. For the redhead in this example, the opposite is blue.

Important. The saturation and brightness of the superimposed color also influence how the picture will be changed and toned. To achieve the best results, dark and saturated colors are often (but not always) chosen. In this case, everything that is darker than the selected color is tinted in it, and everything that is lighter is tinted in the opposite way.

Application practice

Based on the above, we shade this photo separately:

Let's create a new color fill layer (this will make it more convenient to change its color if necessary): Layer → New Fill Layer → Solid Color (Layer → New fill layer → Solid color). Let's choose dark blue as the fill color (#001867 in the example).

Let's set this layer one by one to the Difference blending modes:

Let's compare the results and choose the most visually pleasing color. In order to evaluate the result of Difference, it is a good idea to reduce the Opacity of the toning layer.

In principle, this preview is already enough to understand whether a given color (generating a contrasting color pair) is suitable for toning a photo. Further actions will only bring the result to the required intensity of toning of lights and shadows. Therefore, if the colors do not “fit”, you should correct them by double-clicking on the Solid Color layer icon and select a new color in the window that appears. The preview of the result when choosing a color will change dynamically, which makes the color selection process as simple and visual as possible.

After choosing a color for toning and a blending mode (in our example it is Exclusion), you need to decide on the intensity of toning for shadows and highlights.

The result is also visually similar to toning using a pair of layers in the Lighten and Subtract blend modes, but in this case using the Exclusion blend mode allows you to preserve more tonal detail in the shadows.

If we are satisfied with uniform intensity, it is enough to simply adjust the opacity of the toning layer.

If you need to tint lights and shadows with different intensities, you need to carry out the following procedure.

Create an adjustment layer Brightness/Contrast (Brightness/Contrast) and move it under the toning layer.

In this case, you can take any adjustment layer that, with zero settings, does not affect the image in any way.

Let's make the toning layer active and set it to clipping mask mode to the Brightness/Contrast layer. To do this, either use the command Layer → Create Clipping Mask, or right-click to the right of the layer icon and select Create Clipping Mask from the menu that appears, or Alt+Click between the Brightness/Contrast layer and the toning layer ( is in Exclusion mode).

Now the toning layer acts only in those places and within the same rules as the Brightness/Contrast layer (in this case, on the entire photo). If the Brightness/Contrast layer is set to any blending mode, then the toning layer that is in the clipping mask mode for this layer will act according to the rules of this blending mode, in addition to the one in which the toning layer itself is set (in our case, this is exclusion).

In other words, using the “auxiliary” layer Brightness/Contrast and setting the toning layer to the clipping mask mode for Brightness/Contrast will give us the opportunity to put the toning layer in two blending modes at once (its own - Exclusion and the blending mode that we set for Brightness/Contrast ) without the need to create auxiliary layers with pixels.

As a blending mode for Brightness/Contrast, choose Darken (Darkening), as a result, the effect will be limited to only highlights.

Let's copy the resulting pair of layers: Brightness/Contrast and the toning layer placed next to it in clipping mask mode. In the resulting copy of the pair of layers, set Brightness/Contrast to the Lighten blend mode in order to limit the effect of this pair only to the shadows of the original image.

Now let's adjust the Opacity to our taste to tint the highlights and shadows. Since the toning layers are connected by the clipping mask mode to the corresponding adjustment layers, there is no fundamental difference in the opacity of which layer (toning or adjustment) should be changed.

In this example, we'll choose an opacity of 80% for a pair of shadow toning layers and 36% for a pair of highlight toning layers.

All that remains to be done is to return, if desired, the original tonal (brightness) contrast of the image.

Unfortunately, a layer cannot be set to three blending modes at once. Therefore, making sure that the color of the tint and its intensity are exactly what we need, copy everything that we see to the top as a separate layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E), set the resulting layer to the blending mode Color (Color), and For convenience, let’s group the four previous layers together (Ctrl+G after selecting the layers in the Layers panel) and turn off the resulting group.

Article tags: Steve Lasmin, post-processing, lesson, Adobe Photoshop, color correction
Date: 2015-02-21 | Views: 18316

Split toning- this is a method of toning in which the image is painted with two colors: the first is used for dark areas, and the second for light areas. The result is a very stylish and interesting effect.

Now let's look at how to create it. Open any image you like and get to work. The first thing you need to do is duplicate the main layer; to do this, press the key combination “Ctrl+J” on your keyboard. Next, desaturate it using the combination “Shift+Ctrl+U” or the menu item “Image -> Correction -> Desaturate”. We do this so that in the future, when tinting, extraneous shades that are completely unnecessary will not come out.

The next step is to create a new “Gradient Map” adjustment layer.

Left-click on the scale. The Gradient Editor opens. Now we need to load the new standard gradients. To do this, click on the gear in the upper right corner and select “Photographic Toning” from the drop-down list. In the window that appears, click on the “Ok” button.

You should now have new gradients. If you try to select one of the gradients, you will notice that the photo begins to be tinted automatically. Here we select the color that we like best. Let's choose as in the screenshot below. You can choose your own gradient. Finally, press the "Ok" button and close the settings.

In addition, you can change the "Opacity" of the layer to somewhere up to 75% (if the effect seems too strong) in order to weaken it.

As you can see, the light areas are colored one color, and the dark ones another. Photography seems very interesting now, the forest has become more mystical. In principle, we could stop at this result, but we will go a little further and weaken the shadows. To do this, create a new adjustment layer “Curves”.

Anton Mukhin

As easy as pie

Guys, hello! I am with you again, Anton Mukhin, I hope you are already bored and are waiting for a new debriefing from me! This time, I will show you an option for processing a portrait with backlighting. And we will make this beauty very simply and quickly! Personally, the whole processing took me 15 minutes! Don't believe me? Let's see this together!

Let's look at the original photo and my processing option:

Tip: if the sun is very bright, then, if possible, close the aperture as much as possible; in my photo, the light was quite soft, so I left the aperture open at 1.8.

Anton Mukhin

How will we work?

Let's start with, as you may have guessed, Adobe Camera Raw. As you can see from photograph to photograph, my actions are repeated, but this does not mean that the processing will be the same, it means that there is a certain algorithm of actions that you can apply to many of your photographs.

• "Basic". Let's work with white balance, exposure, contrast, white and black points.
• "Tone Curve" Let's build a curve to increase the contrast.
• "HSL, Grayscale". Let's adjust the color a little.
• "Camera calibration". Final color work.

Let's go to Photoshop. This is where the fun begins.

• Framing.
• Drawing the volume.
• Increase the contrast.
• Create adjustment layers Selective Color and Channel Mixer to work with color.
• Making the glare from the sun brighter.
• We place accents.
• Let's make the final contrast.

Here are all the necessary materials for training: PSD And RAW .

So, let's get started immediately!

Step 1: Adobe Camera Raw. Basic

My task is to take a photo with a warm tone and add volume. I want to note that I reduced the contrast, since I will work on it in the curves tab. I also set the highlights, shadows and white point to minus to get rid of overexposure and make the photo softer and more balanced. To give additional volume, I will increase the clarity. I raised Vibrance, but lowered Saturation so as not to oversaturate the color too much.

Step 2: Adobe Camera Raw. Tone Curve

I'm working with a curve. I achieve a pleasant contrast by darkening Daks and increasing Lights. I lower the Highlights even more for additional softness of the picture. Let's raise the Shadows to bring out the lost details in the shadows.

Step 3: Adobe Camera Raw. HSL, Grayscale

Here I do everything to my taste, add a little purple tint, and increase the luminosity of the red to increase the highlights on the skin.

Step 4: Adobe Camera Raw. Camera Calibration

I'll adjust the color in the red and blue channels quite a bit:

Guys, what do you say? As for me, it’s absolutely nothing complicated!

Step 5: Photoshop. Let's start with framing

And so, I open the picture in Photoshop and the first thing I do is crop it, cut off the pillar sticking out from behind the hat. I will also put even more emphasis on the model.

Step 6: Drawing Volume

Using the Dodge tool, I will make the model’s face a little lighter by painting with a brush in places with natural highlights.

Step 7: Contrast

To increase the contrast, I created a curve layer with the following values:

• I will move the bottom of the curve a little to the left by 10.
• In the shadows: Input - 60, Output - 59
• In midtones: Input - 124, Output - 143.
• In highlights: Input - 220, Output - 224

This is what should come out:

Step 8: Selective Color

I tear off the Selective Color adjustment layer, my method of use is this: twist the sliders and look at the eye, if there is no specific task to change the color to a specific one. I want to achieve a warmer brown toning, so I paid special attention to the red and yellow colors.

Step 9: Channel Mixer

In Channel Mixer, I tweaked the colors to have a little more tones, in particular I toned the sky a cooler shade and got rid of the purple in the highlights.

Step 10: Drawing the Highlight

I would like the glare from the sun to be richer and brighter. How to do it? Easily! I create an empty layer, select the brush tool with a nice orange tint and use the Screen blending mode to paint on a highlight, that’s all!

Step 10: Adding Accents

I would like to highlight the girl even more, for which I will darken the bright parts on the sides of her, thus creating depth. For this action, I will use an Exposure adjustment layer, and shift the Gamma Correction value to the left by 0.70, then making a black mask, I will draw the areas I need, in my opinion, like this:

Step 11: Adjust the complexion a little

After the color correction was done, it seemed to me that the girl’s face was too red, fixing this is a piece of cake, you just need to call a curve, go into the red channel and lower it a little as shown in the picture, thereby I add a little green to the red color, muting the unpleasant tint. Having drawn only the face through the mask, I get the following:

Step 12: Final Contrast Work

So, we are on our way to our goal! We just need to add a little contrast, saturating our color. To do this, I create a curve with these numbers:

• In the shadows: Input - 50, Output - 60.
• In midtones: Input - 102, Output - 144.
• In highlights: Input - 200, Output - 228.

this is what happened:

That's all, they ripple, about 15 minutes and it's done, but what is the result:

In conclusion...

I want to say a very important thing: don’t think that brilliant processing will save your not-so-successful shots. I am with both hands in favor of obtaining a high-quality picture using all known methods, and you must agree that it is easier, faster and more pleasant to work with such material. I repeat that I have basic color correction and color correction for a better perception of the photo. How long will it take you to process this portrait? Try it and write your impressions in the comments! And if you have any questions about shooting or processing, you can ask me personally!

Guys, good luck, great shots and a great mood!

Click on the buttons in the properties panel, as shown in the figure, and select “Photographic Toning” as a result.

A window will appear asking "Do you want to replace the current gradients with those contained in Photographic Toning?" (Replace current gradients with the gradients from Photographic Toning?), click on OK.

As a result, the default set of gradients will be replaced with a new one:

The thumbnails look nice, but it's hard to tell just by looking at the thumbnails what each preset is. Therefore, again click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the window with gradients (in English it is called Gradient Picker) and select the menu item “Large List”:

You can increase the size of the Gradient Picker window by dragging the bottom right corner down:

Now that we've loaded and set up the Photo Adjustment Presets' thumbnail previews to show, all we have to do is click on a preset from the list to have Photoshop instantly apply it to the image.

Presets are divided into two groups. The top half, Platinum to Copper 2, applies one tone to the entire image. Simply click on any icon from this group to see a preview of the tinting action in the working document window. For example, I'll select Platinum, and Photoshop will instantly apply the effect to the image. Since we're using an adjustment layer, we're not making any permanent changes to the photo:

And this is what “Antique Sepia” gives us

The second half of the presets, starting with Sepia Selenium 1, are split-toning gradients that apply different toning to the dark and light areas of the photo. As with the first group, all you need to do is click on the desired item from the list. I'll choose Sepia-Cyan:

Applying a gold-copper gradient gives an interesting grunge effect:

If you need to switch back to the default gradients, click on the gear icon in the upper left corner of the gradient preview window and select Reset Gradients.