Sepia Tones
Did you know that Sepia tones were introduced to photography in the 1880’s? The addition of a pigment from the cuttlefish reacted with any remaining silver and converted it to a sulphide which resulted in photographs that would not fade over time. The Sepia tones that we are familiar with, and which define an era of photography, were designed to give photographs a longer life. That is why the only photos that have lasted from that time frame are ones that are Sepia toned.
Since the onslaught of color photography and modern printing methods, this isn’t a process that we do anymore except for the visual effect. And that effect isn’t done by adding pigment from the cuttlefish!
Our Tip of the Week, brought to you by Durbin Digital, is about changing your color photos into Sepia tones using Photoshop Elements (Version 4.0 and later) and Photoshop CS3. Try your hand at a few of your own photos and post them up. We’d love to see your results!
