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TLR B&W Toning for Photoshop Elements
BWToningForPSE.png

Duotones, tritones, and quadtones use spot color inks and multiple passes on a printer. They are expensive to produce because of the separate plates and press washes. Photoshop has a duotone mode. Printing these images on an inkjet printer results in a pseudo-duotone. These can be very lovely images and nearly indistinguishable from a true duo/tri/quadtone.

If all you want to do is produce a toned B&W print, there is no need to convert your image to Duotone mode. You can stay in 16-bits per channel and RGB/CMYK/L*a*b with the TLR B&W Toning action set.

You can use the TLR B&W Toning action set to apply a variety of tones to your monochrome images. Just be sure you have a color image in RGB, CMYK, or L*a*b. The actions apply a gradient map to your image rather than converting to Duotone mode. 

Basic Tones

The actions for basic tones apply a moderate color tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. You can double-click on the layer and adjust the gradient. You can choose from Blue, Brown, Burgundy, Cyan, Green, magenta, Mauve, Purple, Red, or Yellow.

Sepia Tones

The actions for sepia tones apply a light to moderate sepia tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer.

Color Cast

The actions for color casts apply a light tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. The tones are designed to impose a slight cast to grayscale images or remove a slight cast by applying a neutral gray gradient map. You can choose from Gray Green, Gray Mauve, Cooler Gray, Neutral Gray, or Warmer Gray.

 Traditional Tones

The actions for the traditional tones apply a moderate tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. The tones are designed to simulate traditional toning processes from a chemical darkroom. The available tones include Cyanotype, Gold, Palladium, Platinum, Platinum Palladium, Selenium, Selenium, Selenium Brown, and Silver Gelatin.

Multi-Tones

The actions for the multi- tones apply a moderate tone to the image using a gradient map adjustment layer. Instead of applying a single tone, a combination of tones are applied to the image. The multi-tone actions include Aqua Gold and Burgundy Gold.  

Here's what Len and Joan Weinstock have to say about the TLR B&W Toning action set:

"Your black and white conversion and print toning actions have been extremely helpful in our first attempts at developing a digital monochrome method. We found your platinum tone to be particularly applicable in our latest series. Thanks so much for this assistance."

Below is a before and after example of the action set using a gray green tone.

The B&W toning effects are accomplished with Gradient adjustment layers. That makes them easily adjustable.

Tool details
Tool type: 
Photoshop Elements action
Compatibility: 
Photoshop Elements 7 and later
Version: 
1.0b (31 October 2009)
Author information
Author: 
Glenn E. Mitchell II, Ph.D.
Author Bio: 

Glenn Mitchell is an avid digital photographer, technical writer, and university administrator. He is an author with a long list of publications in trade magazines, peer-reviewed academic journals, and co-authored books. He is creative force behind The Light's Right. His photography can be seen at his gallery site: www.thelightsrightstudio.com.

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