Adding Sepia Tone to Digital Photos

Sepia tone used to be known as the natural process that overtook older photographs as they faded into the obscurity of age. Just like a newspaper article left in archives, photographs go through a similiar process over the years that give them a brownish hue. Photographers and developers wanted to capture this special look and created the darkroom process to sepia tone photographs and give them that unique aged aspect.

In order to create a sepia tone photo in the darkroom, a photographer would first expose their roll of film and begin the normal development process. During that time, they would add a brown dye to the mix and expose the picture for a certain amount of time depending on how much of a hue they wanted to add to the picture. Exposing the picture for too long would make the picture too dark whereas underexposing would make the picture too light; it is all about finding the right balance for the shot you are developing.

As photography went digital, digital camera makers wanted to ensure that photographers would be able to utilize the sepia tone look without having to edit. After all, going from a film camera to a digital camera is supposed to make things easier for photographers of all skill levels. Thus, the sepia tone setting is a general feature on most digital cameras nowadays and can be used with ease. The added benefit of a digital sepia tone feature is that with one click, the camera does all the hard work for you and finds the balance between color, gray scale and sepia tone to get the right hue to enhance the natural lights and darks of the photograph.

There are two ways to apply sepia tone to digital photographs: By changing the settings on your digital camera to automatically apply it or by using photo editing software to manually apply it. Either way, you can find the right color and hue for your photos and give them a unique touch without too much work.

The easiest way to apply sepia tone is to set your digital camera up to automatically take the picture with the appropriate hue. Depending on your camera, this can be as easy as changing the settings in your menu. Check your camera's instruction manual and learn exactly how to do this to get the desired results. Most cameras will automatically take the picture with a sepia tone hue that fits the lights and darks of that particular moment. This eliminates all the guesswork and makes it easier for the novice camera user to experience the benefits of a sepia tone photograph.

For the more advanced digital camera user, programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop all have features to allow you to select the level of sepia tone your color or black and white picture will work with the best. First, you take a picture with your digital camera and upload it to your computer. Then, open up your program of choice and follow the necessary steps to apply sepia tone to the picture. Each program has its own steps to follow in order to get the desired as well as having a general feature to sepia tone pictures, much like your camera automatically taking them in that hue.

Here are the ways to go about applying sepia tone for two of the most popular image editors:

Paint Shop Pro

First, you want to gray scale your color image to sort out the lights and darks of the picture. You do this by going to Color > Gray Scale. Once that is complete, save the image so that you have a backup of the file. From there, go back to Color > Increase Color Depth > 16 Million Colors to bring out as many pixels as you can in the particular photo. This will help ensure that each shade of brown is concurrent with the picture itself; it will also help bring out the vibrancy in the brown hues each pixel takes on later. After that step, go back to the Colors Menu. Select Adjust > Red/Green/Blue. Start at 15 for Red and -15 for Blue, then, click okay. Your picture should have undergone a radical change as browns become the primary colors. You can adjust the Red/Blue percentages to change the hues as you see fit. By playing with this last feature, you can determine the best shade of brown for your particular picture. Finally, if you decide you do not like the particular color, you can always start over from the initial gray scale image you saved until you find the right balance.

Photoshop

Depending on whether or not your image starts out in color or gray scale determines how you start applying sepia tone to it in Photoshop. If your image is in color, go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate. Save a copy of your image for future reference. From here, you will want to use the Fine/Coarse slider and move it down a notch or two below the middle. Add yellow hues and red hues and continue to increase them until you feel comfortable with the hues of brown throughout your picture. Now, if your image begins in gray scale mode, go to Image > Mode > RGB Color. Then, go to Image > Adjust > Variations and from there, you would go back to the Fine/Coarse slider and follow the same set of instructions until you find the right hue of brown. If at first you do not succeed, use your original saved image to start over again until you find the right fit for your picture.

The more time you take to practice with each program, the easier it will become for you to sense the perfect balance for your photo. Save your different variations and attempts to reference later to help learn the particular quirks of the program you use. This will help make it easier down the line to add sepia tone to photos and soon it will become second-hand nature for you to age your photos with grace.