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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Photographic print toning. () |
Sepia tone refers to the coloring of a traditional black and white photographic print that has been toned with a sepia toner, like Kodak Sepia Toner, a two part process. This process is often simulated using a computer and digital photo-editing software. The resulting image has a warmer tone than straight black and white prints or cooler-toned black and white prints.
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Digital sepia tones
Sepia can be produced in many digital cameras and camcorders, or it can be produced in the digital darkroom. Many photographers prefer to use software, like Photoshop or The GIMP, because these offer more control over how colorful to make the image, and exactly what hue. There is no single color known as “sepia”—the term covers a range of yellow and brown mixtures. More sophisticated software tends to implement sepia tones using the duotone feature. Simpler photo-editing software usually has an option to sepia tone an image in one step.
- Adobe recommends setting Hue = 27 and Saturation = 21 and checking the Colorize box in the Hue/Saturation filter in Photoshop[1]
- Microsoft recommends:[2]
R' = (R × 0.393 + G × 0.769 + B × 0.189); G' = (R × 0.349 + G × 0.686 + B × 0.168); B' = (R × 0.272 + G × 0.534 + B × 0.131);
The sample photographs below show the process of removing color from a photograph, then applying a conversion to grayscale. The last sample photograph shows the same colored photograph converted to sepia.
 Color image |
 Sepia-toned image |
Sepia tones in pop culture
Sepia-toned images are heavily associated with the 1800s and "that old-time feel". Many photographs of the American Old West were recorded in sepia tones, particularly Edward Weston's photos of Carmel. The Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz were in sepia tone, until Technicolor takes over in the land of Oz. Wings of Desire, by Wim Wenders, is filmed in sepia mostly, to depict that the movie protagonists, invisible angels, lack the usual human senses; when the angels are not present, the movie is shown in full colour. Jaws The Revenge integrates footage from the first film in the series, which is sepia-toned to indicate that they are flashbacks. The Penny Arcade webcomic characters Twisp and Catsby appear mainly in sepia-toned comic strips. America's Next Top Model flashbacks are in sepia-tone.
See also
References
- ^ How To: Create sepia toned images. Retrieved on 2007-03-17.
- ^ .NET Matters, Sepia Tone. Retrieved on 2007-03-17.
