To tone or not to tone (digitally)

[PMahoney]

Before I start, I know toning, whether digitally or not, is a matter of personal preference. But I thought it was worth asking how many tone their digital scans for print using more traditional tonal looks.
If you do tone your scans, what method or approach do you use? Quadtones, curves adjustments in RGB, etc?
Also, do you find yourself consistantly using the same tone adjustment from one scan to the next or do you vary it depending on the image and its characteristics.
Below I've attached two images: the first is what the scan originally looked like with slight curves and contrast adjustments and the second using Ken Lee's Warm Bronze Quadtone (which is one of my favorites, thanks Ken).

Hillsborough River State Park, Florida
Shen-Hao 4x5 w/Roden 150mm
1s @ f/32

[Walter Calahan]

I don't tone, but if I did, I'd do it in LAB color so as not to infulence the B&W detail. The A & B channnels only adjust the color. I'd use curves to change the two channels.

To back up, I scan my B&W as RGB color negs, then desaturate the color.

[Kirk Gittings]

I use the tint adjustment in Imageprint which also incorporates a split tone function separating the tone in the highlights and shadows on a fully changeable percentage basis.

IMO every image requires a different application. I recently did a special limited edition for a museum sale of three images. I wanted them to work as a set even though two were predominantly light tones vs. one which was predominately dark. The warm tone highlights of the lighter images was negligable on the darker print so the ratio of the splitone mix had to be changed on the darker print to include a broader range of tones to be tinted. This can be done without IP too but it is a bit complicated.

Having said all that though I often think initially that I want a strong tone as you have shown above, I always back off to a very slight tone, cool in the shadows and warm in the highlights which gives a bit of three dimensionality.

Paul Butzi has some useful stuff on his site related to doing this with normal PS tools rather than IP. If you use his curves in a separate layer you can easily adjust their intensity.

[Ken Lee]

...do you find yourself consistantly using the same tone adjustment from one scan to the next or do you vary it depending on the image and its characteristics.

I rarely use my own curves at 100% strength. After converting to quadtone, I often convert back to RGB and then apply a layer which lowers the saturation by as much as 50%, depending on the image.

The page which shows these curves has been updated in recent months, to illustrate this approach.

Once you are back in RGB mode, you can cool the shadows, warm the highlights, or perform any other adjustments you like.

[Brian Ellis]

Hillsborough River State Park! The only decent site for landscape photography in all of Hillsborough County (at least the only one I ever found, which may say more about me than it does about the County). I must have photographed the area you've included here at least 20 times. Whenever I'd get desperate to go out and make a photograph and couldn't think of a place to go I'd often end up here. Did you flip the negative? I can't figure out any other way of having the water running towards you and also running from left to right (I don't mean to suggest there's anything wrong with flipping the negative, I'm just curious since I know the area so well).

But I've digressed. One of the many reasons I like printing with Photoshop is the ability to try so many different ways of toning. I like the Ken Lee bronze curve that you've shown here and I use it occasionally as well as the other curves that Ken has made available. I also use duotoning and tritoning curves in Photoshop. As Kirk said, I think that each photograph calls for its own tones and methodology, I haven't found a universal system that I liked with all photographs.

[Leonard Metcalf]

Until recently I was toning using curves, and am now printing from a greyscale image through Quadtone Rip, and creating the tones through the mixtures of warm and cool curves.

[paulr]

I use quadtone inks that have their own color (based on the size of the carbon particles ... similar to how untoned silver can be warm or cool).

This eliminates choices, unless you're printing on different papers. But it also reduces headaches. I spent years of my life in the darkroom, and just outside of it, holding prints under every imaginable color of bulb, squinting, wondering if this print is really greener than the last one or if I'm going crazy. Give a little, get a little. At least now I know the prints will go with each other.

If I was using CMYK inks or some equivalent, then it would be more like the darkroom--a range of choices, with all the corresponding benefits (and frustrations). I think it would be silly to have all those colors of ink and not feel that your at liberty to use them.

[Gordon Moat]

I am guessing you just mean for inkjet printing. In such a situation, I would recommend toning, since a true B/W without some colour cast is not possible in most images when using colour inksets. Many people will not see the difference when a print is mounted and under glass. I have no desire to debate this, nor to start a war about inkjet printing, if you don't see the colour cast on a B/W inkjet print, then no worries.

If going to publication, or offset, then the recommendation is using Duotone or Tritone. Choose the Pantone ink you want to mix with black to create a plate to give the resulting toned image. You can control the Pantone plate(s) curve to vary the mixing with black. It is recommended to have printing samples showing Duotone and Tritone mixes before attempting, since most hard copy proofs from such converted image files will be poor simulations for actual Pantone inks.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat
A G Studio

[robc]

no silver gelatin print was ever completely neutral. Digital allows that possibility but why you would want a truly grayscale image I don't know. Just look at all the papers and developers and printing techniques that are available to put colour into a black and white silver gelatin print. Why wouldn't you want to tone a print? or Why would you want a completely neutral print?

[PMahoney]

First, thank you all for your responses. I'm relatively new to film photography, having only been practicing LF for approximately a year now. I develop my own negs, but I've unfortunately never had the opportunity to create darkroom prints (don't have the space or tools to do so). Whereas I have been practice digital photography for longer and have had the tools necessary for digital output (Epson 4990 w/ an Epson 2200). When I first started in B&W film, I was somewhat dissatisfied with completely neutral prints, but loved the look of what I was seeing in traditionally toned prints. I would agree with what many of you have said and feel that toning to some degree is important. I was just curious how many actually did it.

Kirk-
Thanks for the advice. I have visited Paul Butzi's website (a great resource) when I first started out with toning, but found (at least with my experience level) to have less control of the process than with duo-, tri-, or quadtoning. Ultimately, I think I would like to find a program that gives such control as ImagePrint during the output process. I'll have to give it a shot.

Ken-
Thank you for the help. I had never considered controling the intensity through adjusting saturation in RGB (and have since visited your website to review). Great idea! I've yet to print and compare, but I can already tell it will look nice.

Brian-
Yup! You're absolutely right. It is by far the best place I've found in Hillsborough County and one of the best in the central part of the state! Saturday was the first time I had ever visited and I took easily three times the photos I normally do on a days outing with a higher yield of what I would deem good photos. BTW, the neg IS flipped horizontally. I started working on it before I realized I hadn't flipped and when I did, I didn't like it. I hope I am not violating some law of landscape photography! Any recommendations for good places to go throughout the state that you've had some success in the past?

Leonard-
Do you think the quadtone RIP with Piezo inks is worth it? I've heard tremendous things about it, but seeing as I haven't pursued selling photos, I can't legitimize the expenditure (or better yet my wife!).

Thank you all for your responses,
Peter