Toning With
Paint Shop Pro

Toning images with the Curves dialogue in Paint Shop Pro produces fabulous results which are more dramatic than the pre-sets in Paint Shop.

From the moment photography began, the desire for coloured images sent photographers and scientists in search of ways of changing their Black and White pictures.

During the 19th and 20th centuries toning and tinting turned the mundane monochrome into the magical, until the arrival of viable colour processes like the Autochrome. All manner of toxic chemical brews were used to achieve this objective. Sulphur, selenium, uranium, platinum and gold compounds feature highly in the chemical cookbooks.

Digital photography allows the 21st century practitioner to emulate the effects without the darkroom danger.

The built-in scripts of Paint Shop Pro allow one to copy these effects but the pre-sets are limited; the use of "curves" opens an infinite world of possibilities.

Emulation Of Toning In Digital Images

This method is adapted and expanded from the Photoshop tutorial devised by Thomas Niemann.

The procedure is to make adjustments to the Red, Green and Blue channels. This is the image that will be used for this tutorial. It is a street in scene in Switzerland ...

Step One

Select your image (colour image from a digital scanner or a colour or black and white image from your scanner). Once the image has been chosen you need to convert it to black and white ...

Effects > Photo Effects > Black and White, or
Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Hue/Saturation/Lightness and move the Saturation slider to -100, or
Image > Grayscale

Make sure that your image is an 8 bit image - Image > Increase Color Depth > 8 Bits

Step Two

With the image open create a new Curves Adjustment Layer - this is what you will see ...

The RGB will be highlighted so click on the down arrow and select one of the three Channels (either Red, Green or Blue).

We will start with the Red Channel.

Here is the Curves for the Red Channel.

Take a look at the Curves dialogue for the Red Channel - you see three dots (two white and one black).

What you want to do is place the dots at the same place on the line where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect the diagonal line.

When you hover the cursor over each of the points you will see read outs like the following ...

First Point
	The first point is placed at the intersection of the left and bottom lines. When the point is placed a readout will appear at the top left, in this case 64 > 64. The first value is the original value and the second number is the output value. The values can be changed by using the up and down arrows to adjust the output values and the left and right arrows to adjust the original value. The advantage of this will become apparent later.
Second Point
	The second point is placed at the intersection of the left and bottom lines. When the point is placed a readout will appear at the top left, in this case 128 > 128. The first value is the original value and the second number is the output value. The values can be changed by using the up and down arrows to adjust the output values and the left and right arrows to adjust the original value. The advantage of this will become apparent later.
Third Point
	The third point is placed at the intersection of the left and bottom lines. When the point is placed a readout will appear at the top left, in this case 194 > 194. The first value is the original value and the second number is the output value. The values can be changed by using the up and down arrows to adjust the output values and the left and right arrows to adjust the original value. The advantage of this will become apparent later.

These are the starting points for the Green and Blue Channels as well (of course the curves will be either Green or Blue when the points are placed for the Green and Blue channels).

Step Three

Now for some adjustments to get started. Each of the points on the curve needs to be adjusted.

When the mouse is hovered over the bottom left point it will turn black and two nunbers will appear in the top left of the Curve dialogue, like this ...

toning input output

The two numbers are the Input (left number) and Output (right number) values.

The input numbers will remain the same and the output numbers will be changed according to the toning charts..

The easiest method to adjust the numbers is to use the arrow keys. The left and right arrow keys change the Input values (left number) and the up and down arrows change the output values (right number).

If the point is not placed correctly (and they usually are not exact) then use the left/right arrow keys to make sure the input number is correct and then move the output number to match the number on the chart.

In the following chart the lower left input is 64 and the output is 71.
.

Red Input	64	128	194
Red Output	71	129	194

Here is the view of the dialogue after the first point has been adjusted.

The up arrow key was used to move the output value up to 71.

Make sure that the image preview is selected .

Notice how the image has become slightly tinted with red. This colour will be modified as we adjust the values of the other channels.

Once all of the adjustments have been applied to the Red, Green and Blue Channels click OK and you are done.

If the effect is not to your liking simply go back into the Curves Adjustment Layer and tweak the numbers. They are not carved in stone so mess with them until you are satisfied.

When the three Red points have been adjusted drop down the Channel list, adjust the Green Channel and then adjust the Blue Channel.

Click OK when all three Channels have been adjusted, sit back and admire your nicely toned image.

Toning Values

This is where the imaginative photographer in you is revealed. In the tables below are suggested values to emulate some of the other well known tonings from the 19th and 20th Centuries.

What you need to do now is to try them for yourself, and more importantly experiment to find your personal values in the way that the early photographers had their own formulations for their chemical brews.

In the dialogue box for the curves, there is a little disc icon. When you've made your own formulation, you can click on the icon - give the formulation a name - and save it for recall at a later date for your next masterpiece

Copper Uranium

Input	64	128	192
Red Output	117	197	255
Green Output	36	88	162
Blue Output	28	81	159