Master the Split Toning panel

Learn how to add atmospheric tints to your photos and mimic the look of analogue toning processes with this powerful tool

Sometimes a straightforward black-and-white conversion can leave you wanting more. So why not try a split-tone effect? This is very easy with Camera Raw and Lightroom’s dedicated Split Toning panel. Simple options allow you to add separate colours to either the highlight or shadow parts of your photos.

You can create all manner of subtle colour tints or mimic the look of traditional analogue processes. For example, you could get the look of a selenium print and its distinctive reddishbrown or purple tint. Alternatively, you could try a sepia treatment. In the analogue process, a sepia wash converted a print to shades of brown, which greatly increased the longevity of the print. These kind of colour changes are easily achieved, and can transform the mood of your monochrome photos.

Split Toning can be accessed either in Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin, or in Lightroom’s Develop Module. The controls are very similar in both, although Lightroom has a slight edge as it offers an extra colour chart with access to common toning colours. Here are the key features…

1 Begin with B&W If you’d like to apply the split-toning effect to a monochrome image, begin by converting the photo to black and white. Either head to the Profile Browser within the Basic Panel and choose one of the B&W presets; or select Treatment: Black and White, then head to the HSL/ Black and White Mix Panel to fine-tune the conversion. Here you can adjust the luminance of eight colour ranges within the image. 2 Hue and Saturation The Split Toning Panel works by adding a colour tint to either the highlight or shadow tones. The Hue slider determines the type of colour. Its numbers go from 0 to 360, as this corresponds to degrees of angle on a standard colour wheel. The Saturation slider controls the intensity of the chosen Hue. It’s shown as a percentage value from 0-100%. 3 Temporary views When you initially drag the Hue slider in either the Highlights or Shadows, nothing seems to happen. This is because you need to dial in Saturation first. But how much? You could simply add a rough initial amount, then tweak afterwards – but try holding Alt as you drag Hue, as this temporarily shows you 100% Saturation, which makes judging the colour much easier. 4 Balancing act The Balance slider controls the bias of highlights and shadows in the image. Say you’ve added a red tint to the highlights and a blue tint to the shadows. By dragging Balance to the right, more pixels are considered as highlights, and the image will go more red. Conversely, drag to the left and the bias shifts to the blue shadows. Hold down Alt as you drag the slider to temporarily view colours at 100% Saturation. 5 Just one colour While it’s tempting to add a tint to both the shadows and highlights, sometimes it might be more effective to target just one or the other. For example, if you add a warm yellow tint to the highlights, you can give your image the subtle look of an old print, as the toning mimics the way paper will age over time. To do this, add yellow to the highlights, then push Balance to the left so that the adjustment only affects the very brightest pixels. 6 Save Profiles Split-toning effects are ideal for turning into Profiles. If you make a split-tone effect you like, head to the Presets Panel and Alt-click the New Preset icon to open the New Profile box. Choose a name, select the adjustments you wish to include and click OK. The new profile appears in the Basic Panel’s Profile Browser. You apply it quickly to any image you like, and adjust the intensity of the toning effect with the Profile Strength slider.