The basic technique is to create a "Sepia Tone" that will apply a sepia
color layer according to a layer mask that is based on the tonality of
the image.
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Here is the original image, loaded into the GIMP. It has a bit
of an old-time look, so I thought it might work well as a
sepia-toned image.
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You can compare the result we will get below to the GIMP's
built-in script-fu for sepia toning (Script-Fu/Decor/Old Photo)
as shown at right.
Come back and compare to this when you get to the end of the
tutorial.
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Duplicate the original image (Image/Duplicate or Ctrl+D). You
may want to minimize the original now (or close it) so you don't
choose it by mistake.
Using whatever technique you like best, convert the duplicate
to B&W. I recommend the
channel
mixer for best results, but you can also convert to
grayscale (Image/Mode/Grayscale) or desaturate
(Image/Colors/Desaturate).
Whatever technique you use, convert the B&W image back into
RGB mode when you're done (Image/Mode/RGB).
In this case I simply did a mode change to grayscale, then back
to RGB mode.
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Double-click on the foreground color swatch to bring up the
Color Selection dialog. Dial in the color RED=162, GREEN=128
and BLUE=101 (you can experiment with this color to get
different tones; this is a good starting point though.)
RED=162, GREEN=138 and BLUE=101 also gives good
results (slightly lighter and more traditional sepia)
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Bring up the Layers dialog (Ctrl+L) and click on the button for
a new layer. Give it the name "Sepia Tone" and choose the
option to fill it with the foreground color. Click OK.
You should see nothing but the color now in the image window,
since it obscures the image in the layer below. Now change the
Mode (blending mode) of the layer to "Color". This applies the
color from the Sepia Tone layer according to the layer mask to
the image.
If you like the strong sepia cast of the image you can stop
here.
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In the traditional sepia toning process, the tinting occurs
most in the mid-tones: the lighter and darker areas appear
to be closer to B&W. We can mimic this behavior with a
layer mask. The lighter a pixel is in the layer mask, the more
opaque the corresponding pixel is in the upper layer; the more
opaque it is, the stronger its effect will be in blending with a
pixel in the layer below. The trick to getting the desired
effect is to make our layer mask be an "half inverted" copy
of the background image. Read on, and you'll see what I mean in
a bit.
Right-click on the Sepia Tone layer and select Add Layer
Mask. In the Add Mask Options dialog, choose White (Full
Opacity).
In the Layers dialog, click on (select) the Background layer.
Go up to the image window, select all and copy (Ctrl+A then
Ctrl+C). In the Layers dialog, click on the layer mask icon in
the Sepia Tone layer (the little white square). Then go back up
to the image window and paste (Ctrl+V)
In the Layers dialog, click the Anchor button to anchor the
pasted image into the layer mask.
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With the layer mask still selected (it should be, if you just
pasted into it), bring up the Curves dialog by right-clicking in
the image window and selecting Image/Colors/Curves. Click to
add a control point in the middle of the linear graph. Then grab
the right (upper) endpoint and drag it down to the lower right
bottom as shown at right. What you are doing is
"half-inverting" the layer mask: making all highlights
into shadows so that the midtones are the brightest part of the
image. When you're all done click OK; you should see a
subtle difference in the way the tinting shows up in the shadows
and highlights and overall the toning effect is more pleasantly
subdued.
To more clearly see the effect of the layer mask, hold the
Control key and click on the layer mask icon in the Layers
dialog: a little red outline should display around the icon and
the image window will change to show the blend without the
effect of the layer mask. Control-click the icon again to
toggle the effect of the mask back on.
If you want to do further image editing on the image it might be
a good idea to save your work under a new name at this point, or
duplicate the image (Ctrl+D) and flatten it (RC/Layers/Flatten
Image). If the GIMP had adjustment layers, we'd just create one
of those to continue with further enhancements, but lacking that
it's a good idea to give yourself a "checkpointed" result that
you can start over with if further edits go awry. You can
experiment with changing the hue and saturation, punch up the
contrast with levels and curves, or do any other necessary edits
at this point on the flattened version.
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Once you've got the base image, you can duplicate it (Ctrl+D),
flatten the duplicate (Layers/Flatten Image) and then experiment
with:
- Hue and Saturation (Image/Colors/Hue..Saturation)
- Color Balance (Image/Colors/Color Balance)
- Levels or Curves (Image/Colors/Levels|Curves)
- etc. etc!
You can always compare the result to the base image. If you want
to start over, just duplicate the base image again and off you go.
Here I decided that the image was a little flat and so I punched
up the contrast using curves.
As a final touch, I ran the "Old Photo" Script-Fu
without the "sepia" and "mottle" options. You could
also try adding film grain to make
the image look old.
Here is the final image.
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