CS3 Tinting greyscale images.

RB
Posted By
Rob Bradford
Dec 29, 2010
Views
858
Replies
7
Status
Closed
Hi.

I need to tint a greyscale image to a specific RGB value; how do I do this?

Currently I greyscale the image, then revert to RGB (I think greyscale has a smoother tonal gradient to desaturation). Once this is complete I use:

Image > Adjustments > Variations

I then spend ages adding this colour, adding that colour until I give- up the will to live or get some where near to my target tint.

Is there a method (if you know the RGB valuses for the background tint), to do this with less pot luck/ messing about?

Any help appreciated.

Rob.

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N
nomail
Dec 29, 2010
Rob Bradford wrote:
Hi.

I need to tint a greyscale image to a specific RGB value; how do I do this?

Currently I greyscale the image, then revert to RGB (I think greyscale has a smoother tonal gradient to desaturation). Once this is complete I use:

Image > Adjustments > Variations

I then spend ages adding this colour, adding that colour until I give- up the will to live or get some where near to my target tint.
Is there a method (if you know the RGB valuses for the background tint), to do this with less pot luck/ messing about?

I’m not sure I understand what you are looking for. How could you tint an image to a specific RGB color if each pixel has a different greyscale value to start with? You will end with different RGB values because of that. If you mean you want to add a specific RGB coloring to the image, you could do the following.

1. Convert the image to RGB.
2. Add a solid color layer with the RGB value you wanted.
3. Change the layer mode to ‘Color’.
4. Flatten


Johan W. Elzenga, Editor/Photographer, www.johanfoto.com
J
Joel
Dec 30, 2010
Johan W. Elzenga wrote:

Rob Bradford wrote:
Hi.

I need to tint a greyscale image to a specific RGB value; how do I do this?

Currently I greyscale the image, then revert to RGB (I think greyscale has a smoother tonal gradient to desaturation). Once this is complete I use:

Image > Adjustments > Variations

I then spend ages adding this colour, adding that colour until I give- up the will to live or get some where near to my target tint.
Is there a method (if you know the RGB valuses for the background tint), to do this with less pot luck/ messing about?

I’m not sure I understand what you are looking for. How could you tint an image to a specific RGB color if each pixel has a different greyscale value to start with? You will end with different RGB values because of that. If you mean you want to add a specific RGB coloring to the image, you could do the following.

1. Convert the image to RGB.
2. Add a solid color layer with the RGB value you wanted.
3. Change the layer mode to ‘Color’.
4. Flatten

I have my reader set to kill-file all message with @gmail string (too many spams from @gmail and yahoo etc. account) so if you won’t mind me quoting yours.

I too don’t have any clue with the word "TINT" means (I know what TINT is but don’t understand what the OP means), but I read the words Greyscale -> Color so I am guessing the OP wants to turn some B&W to COLOR photo (wild guess).

I don’t remember all small detail, but repairing damged old photos and converting old B&W photos to color etc. were the things I did to start learning Photoshop. Or I was messing with those damged old photos to learn as many commands and tricks as I can, and the last time I did was around 5-6 years ago with newer Photoshop to show some folks how simple it was (better Photoshop with better options than older Photoshop). I don’t remember all small detail, but in general it’s pretty simple (if I do then I could take advantage of Layer and Layer Mask those weren’t available then).

– Selecting the area you want to change (like skin, hair, shirt, pant, eyes, lips etc.)

– Then use Hue/Sat (or whatever command I don’t remember) to change/adjust the color.

That’s it! and it can’t be much simpler than that.

Now with Layer, Layer Mask, Action etc.. you should be able to get thing done much quicker (start with sloppy selection), cleaner. Or it shouldn’t take more than few short minutes to do it.

P.S. I often say few short minutes, but only if you know exactly what to do and doing it so well. Cuz, for so many years I was doing Masking on nearly 98-99% of all photos I work on, but because of my health so I didn’t touch Photoshop for around 2 years.

Few days ago (Christmas photos), I had to work on some family Christmas photos and the first few photos it took me around 30-45 minutes to do some very basic Burn/Dodge and Layer Mask that I used to be able to do within 2-3 minutes (not only lot better but lot quicker). I still don’t like most of the results, and I was trying for small print (they should be ok with 8×10" print but not so sure about larger print).
JS
John Stafford
Jan 1, 2011
In article
,
Johan W. Elzenga wrote:

Rob Bradford wrote:

Is there a method (if you know the RGB valuses for the background tint), to do this with less pot luck/ messing about?

I’m not sure I understand what you are looking for. How could you tint an image to a specific RGB color if each pixel has a different greyscale value to start with? You will end with different RGB values because of that. If you mean you want to add a specific RGB coloring to the image, you could do the following.

1. Convert the image to RGB.
2. Add a solid color layer with the RGB value you wanted.
3. Change the layer mode to ‘Color’.
4. Flatten

Yes, that’s the way.

Johan, what do you think of using a duotone mode instead?
N
nomail
Jan 2, 2011
John Stafford wrote:
In article
,
Johan W. Elzenga wrote:

Rob Bradford wrote:

Is there a method (if you know the RGB valuses for the background tint), to do this with less pot luck/ messing about?

I’m not sure I understand what you are looking for. How could you tint an image to a specific RGB color if each pixel has a different greyscale value to start with? You will end with different RGB values because of that. If you mean you want to add a specific RGB coloring to the image, you could do the following.

1. Convert the image to RGB.
2. Add a solid color layer with the RGB value you wanted.
3. Change the layer mode to ‘Color’.
4. Flatten

Yes, that’s the way.

Johan, what do you think of using a duotone mode instead?

I’m sure there are several ways to get the same results.


Johan W. Elzenga, Editor/Photographer, www.johanfoto.com
J
jones
Jan 2, 2011
Love your website Johan. Very nice.
Katherine


Johan W. Elzenga, Editor/Photographer, www.johanfoto.com
J
Joel
Jan 3, 2011
John Stafford wrote:

In article
,
Johan W. Elzenga wrote:

Rob Bradford wrote:

Is there a method (if you know the RGB valuses for the background tint), to do this with less pot luck/ messing about?

I’m not sure I understand what you are looking for. How could you tint an image to a specific RGB color if each pixel has a different greyscale value to start with? You will end with different RGB values because of that. If you mean you want to add a specific RGB coloring to the image, you could do the following.

1. Convert the image to RGB.
2. Add a solid color layer with the RGB value you wanted.
3. Change the layer mode to ‘Color’.
4. Flatten

Yes, that’s the way.

Johan, what do you think of using a duotone mode instead?

I have never tried the Duotone option myself, but I looked at the video tutorial and I don’t think it’s what the OP after (I may be wrong as I can’t figure out what s/he has in mind).

Or the Duotone (I hope it the right option I have in mind) will change the color of the whole photo which is pretty similar to the regular command, except it has more option and weirder result (I don’t have any need for it so I never tried myself).
N
nomail
Jan 3, 2011
"jones" wrote:
Love your website Johan. Very nice.
Katherine

Thanks. I’m working hard to rebuild it and bring the ‘static’ part of the site into the dynamic blog part. Right now, the static part is built with frames and that makes it impossible to give somebody a ‘deep link’ directly to the Photoshop tutorials, for example. I hope to have the new site up and running by the end of the week at the latest. Content-wise it will remain more or less the same.


Johan W. Elzenga, Editor/Photographer, www.johanfoto.com

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