Ramin Hossaini (blog)

Photoshop: The split-toning effect

You might have seen this effect:

It has become pretty easy to do in something like Adobe Lightroom. But - if you're interested in the manual process, here's one way of doing it:

1. Convert an image to B&W using your preferred method (desaturate or channel-mixer or other)
2. Duplicate layer (CTRL-J), use smart-sharpening filter (optional)
3. Flatten (SHIFT-CTRL-E)
4. Add a Colour Balance layer adjustment, select SHADOWS -> Move the yellow-blue sllider to the right. Move the cyan-red slider to the left.
5. Add another colour balance layer adjustment, select HIGHLIGHTS -> Move the cyan-red slider to the right this time. Move the yellow-blue slider to the left.
6. Select the blending options for the current layer-adjustment. In the blend-if section, select 'blue' from the drop-down
7. Move the left slider first to about 60, then press ALT and drag it to about 200 till you have the effect you want.
8. Flatten image
9. You can reduce the saturation on it at this stage and you can also use the burn tool to emphasize shadows

Related posts:

1. Photoshop tutorial: Creating detailed-masks from channels
2. Improving Photoshop CS4/CS5 Performance
3. Basic Auditing in Oracle