Wide's World

Duotones

by

Widearea

Porno-Graphix

More Image Fun

This week we will look at the basic process of creating a duotone image. A duotone is an image that is printed in two colors. The duotone can be used in background images and is also an effective method of conserving file size in our adult advertising elements.

1. Select File -> Open and locate the image file you want to make into a duotone.
2. Select Image -> Mode -> Grayscale and convert the image to grayscale.
3. Select Image -> Adjust -> Levels and use the histogram sliders to fine tune the new grayscale image as discussed in previous Wide's World articles.
4. Select Image -> Mode -> Duotone to bring up the duotone preference dialog.

5. Select the two colors for your duotone image by clicking each swatch in the dialog. In our example we are using shades of blue. Try experimenting with different contrasting colors. For a monotone image select only one swatch, for tritone select three, and for a quadtone select four color swatches.
6. Select Image -> Mode -> RGB to convert image to RGB. This is necessary to create a final jpeg.
7. Save file as jpeg, etc.

Well, that's the way to make a basic duotone image for your adult websites. The effect is that of a monochromatic image and can be very useful in downsizing and simplifying our graphic files as well as to create the effect of a colorized image from a black and white photo. Enjoy the power of the duotone and find your own use for them in your sites that suits your style. Try subsitituting a duotone for a full color image in a banner or tour design and see how much data you save, while simultaneously enhancing your design. Also, you can build a vintage pics gallery by converting your gallery images to duotones, if you are short on that vintage content... Until next time, Happy Hunting!

Reference
Sketchpad.net - Graphic tutorials, free fonts and more!
Arraich - Photography and Photoshop tips
Eyewire's Photoshop Tips - Good resource of step-by-step tips