January 26 - Duotone Technique

Welcome to day 26! The end is in sight - which is both kind of exciting and kind of sad. I hope you enjoy today's challenge which incorporates a photo coloring technique.

I sometimes look to the graphic design and advertising world for scrapping inspiration. One trend I've seen in both web design and print is the use of bold two-color images. There's a word for these images: duotone.

Here are some examples:


Duotone is just what it sounds like - an image composed of two colors. Historically, duotone images were created on printing presses using 2 shades of one color, or black and one tint. In the digital age these images have branched from the traditional print technique to also using two complementary colors or two contrasting colors.

Your challenge today is to scrap a photo that you have converted into a duotone image. As with most things in scrapbooking, there are multiple ways to achieve the effect. Today I will show you how to get the look using gradients. I am using Photoshop CC.

So, Let's get started.

First choose your photo. A fairly simple photo with high contrast is probably going to be your best bet. I selected a photo I took of my daughter playing her violin. You may want to make a copy of your photo and hide the copy before you start working.



1. Pull your photo into your workspace. With the photo layer highlighted Go to the Layer menu and choose New Adjustment Layer - Gradient Map.



2. You'll get this little dialogue box. Just click OK.




3. Once the layer is created, double click on the gradient scale in order to manipulate the colors.



The gradient editor will open. There are four boxes - one each at the corners of the gradient scale. We will be using the bottom boxes. By clicking on the bottom left one I can select a color to replace black (for the darker portions of my photo). Clicking on the bottom right square allows me to choose a color for the highlights in the photo. It's pretty fun to play around with the color combinations.

continued...

 

4. Click on the bottom left square of the gradient scale and choose a color.



5. Repeat the process for the bottom right square.

6. You can grab either of those two boxes and slide them along the scale to create the look you desire.

* If you are not getting the look you want, try a different photo. Remember to keep it simple and use a photo with high contrast.

Here's what my photo looked like once I finished playing with the sliders:


Here is my page:



Here are the Challenge Requirements:
1. Convert a photo to duotone and scrap it. You may have multiple photos on the page, but one must be a duotone photo.
2. You may use black OR white as one of your colors, but not both black AND white. While black & white may technically be duotone, the point here is to try something new.

Gradient maps are available in PSE and Artisan. @JillW has created the look in Corel Paint Shop Pro. If you have questions about your software capabilities, post here and hopefully we can get fellow scrappers to offer assistance.

As a last resort: There are free duotone converters on-line. I tried this one successfully: https://medialoot.com/duotones/

Additional Tip for Creative Cloud users:
Photoshop actually has a duotone converter. I chose not to go that route, but if you want to try it there are two steps:
1. convert your photo to grayscale. Go to Image >>Mode>>Grayscale
2. convert to duotone. Go to Image>>Mode>>Duotone

As with all MOC challenges:
Your page must be a new page in order to count for the Month of Challenges. Your page must be posted in three places:

1. Uploaded to the TLP Gallery (not an outside hosting site).
2. Posted in your page thread you created in the MOC Layouts Folder. You should have one post per completed challenge page. If you complete all 31 challenges, your thread should contain 31 posts. Please do not comment in the participants’ page threads so we can keep them clean.
3. Posted in this thread. People can comment here if they wish.

Pages should contain at least 75% current Lilypad product (currently for sale in the store from either permanent designers or guest designers).

Ok, that's a lot of information! I hope you have fun with this. Can't wait to see your pages.

 

Updates and clarifications will be posted here as needed.

Q. Is it permissible to change the photo to black & white first.

A. Yes, you may change the photo to black and white as a step in the process. However, the final photo must have color (two colors). One of those colors can be black or white.

Q. Is further editing of the photo permitted?

A. Yes, blending and other techniques are OK as long as the duotone technique is obvious. Please, try to keep with the spirit of the challenge - 2 colors clearly evident in your converted photo.

 

Hmm, ok. Let me work on that.

 

How about now?

 

Great! Sorry about that!

 

Yes, you can change to black & white as one step in the process. But your finished product should include color. Black or white can be one of the colors. Does that make sense?

 

Found this link - if you scroll down a bit there is a section on using colors with gradients.
http://services.panstoria.com/Chann...Elements/El Working with Colors and Fills.htm

 

Oh, I see what you mean. Maybe @BevG can weigh in on this?