Robert’s Photography Blog

Yip Cheong Fun’s superb photos in this month’s Asian Geographic magazine look more like duotones than black and white photos. Is it possible to reproduce that rich, historic look using images from a dSLR?

Yes, of course! Robert achieved a similar look and feel using images from Myanmar taken a few year ago with a Canon EOS 10D. To add an even more antique feel, you can apply a worn-away photo emulsion edge. All you need is Adobe Photoshop CS2. Here’s how to do it for free – no plug-in or add-on software required:

How to Create a Duotone:

Use your standard workflow to create web-ready color images. Sizes 400×600 or slightly smaller fit most monitors. Flatten any layers.
Instead of converting directly to grayscale, first change the Mode to Lab Color.
Go to the channels palette and drap the b channel to the trash can. Then, drag the Alpha 2 channel to the trash can.
Now, go back to Image -> Mode and click on ‘Grayscale’. See the difference!
Go again to Image -> Mode and click on Duotone. Click on Load, then on Pantone(R) Duotones. Click on the first one (144 Orange) and choose Load.
Then, click on the orange square and look for Pantone 146C. Click on it then choose OK and OK again. (Optionally, you can use my modified Pantone 146C – download it below.)
Go back to ‘Mode’ and choose RGB.
Save your work.

How to Create an Emulsion Frame:

Download one or both of my emulsion images (below).
Open the emulsion image in Photoshop along with your Duotone.
Rotate the emulsion image to the same orientation as your Duotone.
Note the size of your Duotone image.
Click on the emulsion image and choose Image Size from the image menu.
Click OK. Turn off ‘Constrain Proportions’ and enter the same dimensions as your Duotone.
Then ‘Select All’ and go to Edit and select ‘Copy’.
Click on your Duotone and go to Edit and select ‘Paste’.
Make sure that your Layers Palette is visible.
Click on the Emulsion Layer – from the dropdown box just above it – choose ‘Screen’.
Go to the Layer Menu and flatten the image.
Save your work.

Duotones were originally invented to deal with the problems that color printers have in printing black and white photos. If you are preparing a duotone for a commercial printer, you need to stick to one of the Pantone listed colors so that they can match the ink. Because we are printing to ’screen’, it doesn’t matter if we tweak the Pantone colors a bit. I prefer color of this custom duotone to Sepia. Others have told me they prefer Sepia. What’s your opinion?

Why convert photos to duotones? By removing most of the color, the eye focuses more on the subject and texture of the photo. It is particularly well-suited for travel photos from ‘culturely rich’ countries. In this region, countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, and Indonesia come to mind. Also, duotones are a good way to get around color correction and white balance problems.

The photo shown above (click on it for a larger version) was taken by Robert at the Hledan Market, Yangon, Myanmar in 2004. If you would like to see the rest of the series, check out my PBase gallery here.

Download emulsion #1 here.
Download emulsion #2 here.
Download emulsion #3 here.
Download Robert’s modified Pantone 146C here.

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