This post is the first in a four-part series of posts on how to do advanced toning of your monochrome images. The techniques shown in this series are all done using Photoshop CS4.

In many cases you can add a touch of sophistication to your monochrome images by adding some subtle toning. Often toning your monochrome images can also help you emphasize a particular mood or feeling in your images. This four-part series on advanced toning will show you how.

Starting Point

If you are starting out with a full colour image and you want to apply a digital toning effect you should make sure to convert your source image to a black and white (or desaturated) image in the RGB colour mode before you start. There are several ways you can do this but the most straight forward way is to simply drain away all colour by going through the menus Image>Adjustments>Desaturate to ensure the result stays in the RGB colour mode.

Using Photoshop CS4′s Variations Dialog Box

Found under Image>Adjustments>Variations (as shown below), the Variations preview window displays your image as a colour ring-around.

You’ll see your image in the centre box in its original state, surrounded by six colour variations, with a lighter and darker version on the right hand side (see the dialog box window below).

In the top right of the dialog box you’ll notice a slider for increasing or decreasing the ‘volume’ of your change. You can start out by pulling this slider all the way to the right (towards Coarse) to first get a good idea of the colours you’re working with. Then I would recommend that you pull the slider back all the way to the left (towards Fine) which is probably the best place to start in order not to over do the effect. You can always increase the ‘volume’ later if you think it’s needed.

Also notice in the top right of the dialog box how you can choose between toning the Shadows, Midtones, Highlights or Saturation of your image. The midtones are selected by default, but I suggest you experiment with what the other choices look like as well.

Click on any colour variation that looks good and watch it affect the centre image. For example if you click ‘More Cyan’ Photoshop will add the selected amount (Fine to Coarse) of cyan toning your image. If you click on ‘More Cyan’ again Photoshop will apply another increment of toning to your image.

You can apply as many adjustments as you like and if you go too far, just click on the ‘Original’ in the top left area of the dialog box to revert to your starting point.

This way of toning your images is probably one of the easiest and quickest way to achieve a nice over all toning of your images. The results you can achieve can look very nice though some people may argue the effect lacks the depth you can achieve by chemical toning in the darkroom.

Here is an example of an original monochrome image and three different toning results of the same image:

More Resources

If you’re looking for a great resource on learning more about digital photography and Adobe Photoshop in general, then check out Vincent Bockaert’s The 123 of Digital Imaging which has impressed even Adobe Evangelist Julieanne Kost.

You can also check out the great Adobe Photoshop tutorials available at Lynda.com for more resources.

Finally I can also personally recommend many of the excellent courses at BetterPhoto.com. When I was starting out in photography I took 8 of the courses including a one with specialised training in Photoshop. Check them out.

The How to do Advanced Toning in Photoshop CS4 Series:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

If you liked this article, you may also like these:

• How to do Advanced Toning in Photoshop CS4 – Part Three
• How to do Advanced Toning in Photoshop CS4 – Part Two
• How to do Advanced Toning in Photoshop CS4 – Part Four