Expert: LizaL - 7/7/2005

Question
What I am trying to do is to give a certain look to images. I am not publishing online, but I probably will print these pictures. For example, the easiest way i have found to get a sepia toned image is to convert the image to duo-toned image, then use black and brown as the two colors. My question is 1) is there a better (easier) way to do this? 2) Is there any problem with printing these kind of duo-toned images? whould i convert back to RGB before printing? also, if I am trying to achieve a certain look, what is a better way to limit the color palette? For example, if i don't want any reds in my picture, how can i accomplish this short of selecting the Reds and desaturating them? Thank you for your time.

-Vince



-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I am pretty good at photoshop but have a question. If i want to remaster an image to only use a limited color pallete, how do i acomplish this? I have been using tritone quadtone color things, but what if i want to use more potential colors than the four offered with quadtone? Is their an easier way to do this? I know that i coudl make an image that just has the colors i want and then use the color match feature, but there must be an easier way that i am missing. Thank you fo ryour time.

-Vince
Answer -
Hi Vince,

I really need some more information in order to figure out what to tell you.

First, are you using these images online? Also, why do you want to use more colors than four, for a quadtone (or more than three, for a tritone, etc.)? That sounds like it might be defeating the purpose of having those options available for creating certain effects. After all, the duo-, tri- and quadtone effects are all suited to generating combined color casts over an image. If it's overall color added to an image that you want, that can be done in a number of other ways than to use the quadtone (et al) effect.

I'm also not too clear on why you want to limit your color palette. Are you trying to compress information so you can use the images more effectively on the Web?

Anyway, if you would, please post back and be a bit more descriptive as to how you're going to use these images, and your reason for using the tri- and quadtone effects, and why you want to limit the images' color palettes, as well. There are different ways of assigning color and color palettes to Photoshop-generated images, and we can talk about those once I feel like I'm clear on what you're doing.

Thanks,

Lisa

Answer
Hi again Vince,

Thanks for posting back with more info. I hate asking people to do that, but it does help.

I see now what you're talking about. And I think using a duotone for the sepia-toned image is the best method -- that's what I'd do, for sure; it's the easiest way, and I think it gives the best results.

But one of the other things I was thinking was to use an adjustment layer, especially if you wanted to add more colors than a quadtone will allow. You can click on the Add Adjustment Layer icon in the layers palette, and add, for instance, a Solid Color layer above your image, then set it to Multiply and make the layer 50% -- which is what I've done in this example:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/adjustment_layers.png

It just adds an overall cast to the image, much like the duotone (et al) effects. And you could do this same thing with a duo- or tritone. Of course, you can play with the settings to get the effect you want. I just added a kind of putty-looking color over a regular RGB JPEG.

That said, you could also use an adjusment layer to limit the palette in your image. Specifically, you could use Hue/Saturation or Color Balance -- and you wouldn't have to really desaturate any one color, although you would be adjusting that color's levels.

(BTW, I asked if you were saving these for Web viewing, because I'm sure you know that when you use Save for Web, you can adjust the number of colors used in the image.)

As far as printing, there shouldn't be any problem printing duotones -- but that said, the quality of your print will have a lot to do with your printer, and of course, the resolution of your image.

You should, however, convert to CMYK for printing. Leave Web images as RGB, and convert to CMYK for printing is generally the rule of thumb.

Hope this helps! And please post back if you need me to clarify anything.

Lisa