| After the Capture: Sepia and Beyond |
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| Written by Tim Grey | |||||||
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Sepia-toning of photographic images has long been a popular way to alter the appearance of an image. The effect dates back to the late 1800’s, when a pigment derived from a particular species of cuttlefish was added to the chemicals used to process photographic prints. The result was a black and white print with a brownish tone to it, and an image that incidentally would not fade as quickly as a traditional black and white print. Along with a variety of other traditional printing variations, sepia-toning has become more popular recently with the ability to reproduce such effects quickly and consistently using Photoshop and other software tools. A Basic Approach As you might expect, there seems to be no shortage of ways you can approach the application of a sepia effect in your image. In Lightroom you can use the “Creative - Sepia” preset found in the Lightroom Presets section of the Presets list on the left panel in the Develop module. I actually find this preset to apply far too much of a “faded old photograph” effect, so I recommend fine-tuning the Tone Curve if the image appears washed out, and also working with the Hue and Saturation settings in the Split Toning section on the right panel in the Develop module to get the color more to your liking. For example, with most images I find I prefer to have the Hue for Highlights set to about 70, and for Shadows set to about 50. I’ll then set the Saturation for both to a value somewhere between 20 and 40, usually with a lower setting for Highlights than for Shadows. 
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