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.

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

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

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

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AFTER
JO

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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 🙂

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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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ANDREW

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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.

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CORY
Riding home from work, through a flooded underpass.

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

VINCENT

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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..)

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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!

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AFTER V1

AFTER V2
HELEN

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KIM

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