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Week 11 – Technical: Split Tone2017-08-21T10:12:07+00:00

The theme for this week is Technical: Split Tone

Split Tone is an editing technique where the shadows are toned one color, and the highlights a second color.

At its very base, split toning is a division between the lights and darks of an image and the coloring of each of these independent of the other. This does not affect brightness, or amount of shadows or whites, but simply the color.

The best outcomes are achieved by having an understanding of colour theory.  I highly recommend you read this short article to give you an idea of what colour theory is and some examples of how it can applied.

It’s a technique that can really make your photos stand out and is often overlooked when tweaking an image.  The examples below are the before and after shots where I used split tones to create the header image for this page.

 

 

This is a post processing technique so you’re going to need editing software to do this.  Feel free to use your normal processing software

If you don’t have any software and you are using your phone:

  • You can download the VSCO app for iPhone here and Android here.  It’s free (but requires email registration).  I tried it out last week and it’s pretty straight forward to use.  Only limitation I found is the colours you can use are predefined by the app.

If you are using your DSLR etc I’m assuming you already have some type of software to manage & edit your photos.  Here are some instructions for using Lightroom

The subject choice is yours but photos with a lot of contrast work better to show up the colour change.  If you want you can send me your original as well so everyone can see the impact split toning makes.

Send your shot to photos@iyt.org.au.  Remember to include a description which covers the subject and/or the process.

SUBMISSIONS

TANIA

Technical always makes me feel a little nervous but I gave it a crack.

Here are my before and after shots. Perhaps not the best starting shot but it was fun to play.

BEFORE

AFTER

JOSIE

Today was about family , and we all enjoyed watching this gorgeous little family sticking together

BEFORE

AFTER

LINDA

Had lots of fun with this technical challenge and also lots of fun at our friends farm this weekend

BEFORE

AFTER

MEG

Did it!  Not sure how I did it, but with a bit of VSCO and Danya, this is it

BEFORE

AFTER

JO

Dilemma Dilemma. The one that looks almost normal – just better colours than on the day or the one that’s a fraction over the top, but looks good. Fraction over the top won me over. The purple tones make the white boats pop.
Sandringham anchorage from Green Mile point. Last week is was first shot of the shoot. This week last minute decision to take a couple more from a new vantage point, this was the last shot of the shoot. Cloud was changing the whole shoot, which was perfect for this challenge. Really fun to play around with the tones.
Shot from my trusty Olympus penlite EPL5 with larger lense.

BEFORE

AFTER

SAMARA

The edited photo is the pink and green one. It was taken on my iPhone because I was being lazy. It’s been a long week. In addition to the split toning, I increased the contrast and the clarity and increased the exposure of the ‘whites’. I really enjoyed this week. Each photo I worked on turned out better than I thought it would. Glad we don’t go super technical every week but loving learning.

Can’t wait to see everyone’s final result! The discussion in the group was super inspiring this week 🙂

BEFORE

AFTER

TESSA

Saw this pot plant and thought it would be a good ‘prop’ to use

BEFORE

AFTER

SARMA

A quick visit to Fairfield Boat House this week. I do love the purity of a ‘realistic’ shot, but it is fun to see what else you can create.After lots of experimenting, this was my favourite result. Used orange and brown (can’t bring myself to use unrealistic colours for nature shots) with burn mode on one layer which really brings out the light areas. Gotta love GIMP, so much of the functionality of Photoshop, but free!

BEFORE

AFTER

KOSTAS

I call this submission “Kodak Summer in Winter”. It has taken me back to my childhood years when my father and I used to shoot together on an old Canon Rangefinder with Kodak film.

BEFORE

AFTER

DAYNA

t’s been a wet week, but that’s no reason to stop riding. So naturally I’ve snuck my bike into the photo. I couldn’t go past the puddle without a photo or three.
In addition to highlight (red) and shadow (blue) tints (which I have only just found/learnt) I’ve made the usual adjustments (in this case: exposure, tint, saturation and clarity) this time using the VSCO app (instead of just the Apple Photos app), and cropped it to 3:2.

BEFORE

AFTER

ANDREW

We found this spectacular sunflower field just 3 miles down the road. Really was quite a sight to see…went on for miles.
Used the VSCO App for split toning (cranked up the purple for highlights and a touch of green for the shadows.  I also used the app to change the contrast a bit (which seemed to give the photo some more impact.

BEFORE

AFTER

PAUL

This weeks challenge was a struggle to try and get a satisfying outcome. I have taken this landscape and enhanced the shadows in blue and the highlights in Yellow using the VSCO app.

BEFORE

AFTER

CORY

Riding home from work, through a flooded underpass.

 

Just the Instagram tweaking, as discussed. Purple shadows. Green highlights.

BEFORE

AFTER

ALEXIS

My photo – “Two green bicycles  locked at a bike rank at a railway station”.

 

This week’s challenge was just that..a challenge!! which, “one” almost became obsessive & “two” finding myself continually trying out all the technical components the challenge being put forward by the suggestions of our group, which was fatastic!!!
The split tone effect in my photo was created using VSCO. I used green for the highlights & purple for the shadows. My goal was to make the colour of the bicycles, the main objects of my photo “pop out”.

VINCENT

The photo was taken with a polariser, that the sky was a bit too blue to be realistic. So I tinted the highlights with light blue. As I always like warm colours, I chose orange/yellow in the dark (in this case, less bright) areas. The original photo is bright overall so I set the Balance more to the left, so that the mountain and weeds will look warmer

BEFORE

AFTER

ANTHONY

Malvern Central carpark.  Green highlights and brown shadows to accentuate the unreal fluorescent lighting.

BEFORE

AFTER

HILARY

I had never heard of split tone before this week and I am not sure I really understand it. Anyway here we go: original state and altered state.

BEFORE

AFTER

JENNI

Had to do this in instagram , last minute and I haven’t totally worked it out. Only tweaked the shadows. This is a Catholic church in Bavaria. I was shown it by locals I’m staying with and am stunned by what I saw inside. Interesting challenge which requires more investment of time. Can’t wait to see everyone’s work.

BEFORE

AFTER

AMANDA

So technical has never been my strength and I was a little stressed about this challenge. But I thought this year is about stretching myself, learning and moving out of my comfort zone.

I was very thankful for everyone’s tips, split tone apps and examples of split tone photos. I downloaded VSCO but couldn’t really work with it. Thank goodness for Lightroom from Brett as I really started to enjoy this challenge with this app. In the end I had heaps of split tone photos to choose from. Yay!
In this photo I used reds for the shadows and a bluey purple for the highlights. I really liked the effect and had lots of fun with this challenge.

BEFORE

AFTER

DARYL

Given that a cat is guaranteed to get internet points, here is Meep. I’m cat sitting him this month.

BEFORE

AFTER

BRETT

I took the original shot Sunday morning as the sun came up so I could capture some colour in the sky.  I’d never used split toning before this challenge and was amazed at how most of the shots I messed around with came out.

For this one I used a lot of blue in the shadows and a small amount of purple in highlights.  I then boosted the saturation and contrast to deepen the colours (probably a little too much..)

BEFORE

AFTER

SHAWN

1st one is original, 2nd one is using split tone from Lighthouse and third is VSPC editing. Not sure whether 2 or 3 meets the brief. Photo was taken today from Darwin Ski club at Sunset looking over the Arafura sea. Left home this morning at 4 degrees and got to witness this sunset at 30 degrees, life’s good!

BEFORE

AFTER V1

AFTER V2

HELEN

I’ve had a great time playing with split toning this week. I started with Visco but got frustrated with the lack of options and ended up with my new favourite app – lightroom for Android.
Across the river. Sony Xperia Z3, edited in lightroom for Android. Split tones in purple and yellow add an over the top sepia vibe to the old city of Zurich. Hopefully adding interest to an otherwise ordinary happy snap.
Thanks again. This week was a completely new technique for me.

BEFORE

AFTER

KIM

An old photo from my camera roll – played with split toning functionality in Lightroom on my iPhone!

BEFORE

AFTER