Close “before.jpg” without saving, then re-open it.

Now let’s make another duotone, this time with a black background. Save the image (File > Save As) and name it “green.jpg.” Close that file. Dragging the Lightness slider to the left lightens the color, and dragging the Saturation slider to the left increases saturation. When you’re trying this technique on other images, drag the sliders right and left and watch the results. For this example, adjust the Hue to 100, the Saturation slider to 50, and the Lightness slider to +40. Now, let’s create a duotone with white as the background. To preview the effect the settings will have, check the Preview box. The hue/saturation dialog has three settings to adjust: hue, saturation, and lightness. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Figure 4). Now that you have a black-and-white duotone look, let’s add some color. Set this image’s level to 151 and click OK. You want the important parts of the photo to show, and good detail and balance between the two tones.

The key to a successful duotone is to have a good balance between the dark and light pixels. The farther you move it to the right, the blacker the image will be. The farther you move the slider to the left, the whiter the image will be. Open “before.jpg” in Photoshop and go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold (Figure 2).Ĭlick and drag on the Threshold’s bottom slider to adjust its levels (Figure 3). This file is in the public domain because it’s from the United States Army’s image database. Click on this image to open a larger version you can save to your desktop. Save that image to your computer and name it “before.jpg”.įigure 1.

Step 1Ĭlick on Figure 1 below to open a larger version in another browser window. Photographs are great for print projects and Web sites, but sometimes you want something a little different.Ĭhanging a photo into a duotone makes it look more like an illustration, and a duotone’s simple color scheme can be easier to coordinate with an overall design.