Introduction
  Duotone - The Basics
  Duotone - Advanced
  Direct from RGB
    - HSL
    - Colour Balance
    - Selective Color
    - Color Hue & Tone
  Using Masks
  Conclusion
 
 3. Duotones - Advanced
 

Corel Photo-Paint comes with quite a few interesting and useful presets for creating Duo-, Tri- and Quad-tone images.

Lets try some of these.

   
 

Reset to Checkpoint

First, we must restore the current image back to the gamma-corrected grayscale version.

   - In PP8 click Edit > Undo Special > Restore to Checkpoint.
   - In PP9, use Edit > Restore to Checkpoint.

   
 

Convert to Duotone once again.

   - In PP8, use Image > Convert to > Duotone.
   - In PP9 use Image > Mode > Duotone.

When the Duotone dialogue box comes up, select the LOAD button.

Photo-Paint opens the browse window (normally in the Custom\Duotone folder).

All of the Duotone profiles begin with d*.cpd, the tritones with t*.cpd and the quadtone profiles with q*.cpd. The *gray*.cpd files load a grayscale profile while the *color*.cpd files load a colour profile.

   - Load several different presets and observe the effect.

Here are some samples:

   - Click on the small icons below to change the main image.

Each of the above presets is fully customizable. You can reshape the curves however you wish to alter the effect.

   
 

Changing the Base Colours

You can also load any colour or set of colours you like into the colour set.

If you have changed the image then restore back to the Checkpoint we set earlier.

   - Open the Duotone dialogue box once again and
   - Select Duotone from the Type dropdown list.

Now change the colour used for the tone.

    - Double click on the colour swatch or on the Pantone Process colour 'text'.

Photo-Paint opens the Select Color dialogue.

In PP8 the top four colours are the process yellow, cyan, magenta and black colours while in PP9, these four base colours are a couple of clicks down the colour list.

   - Scroll down the list and choose   Red 032 CV,    then
   - Click OK.

   - Adjust the curves as shown here - >

 

 

You should get the red image below.

 

 

 

Note:
In PP8 you can actually select ANY colour from any palette in the Select colour dialogue to replace the original colour.

However, in PP9, if you try to select a non-Pantone colour, the program asks you if you wish to convert it to a Pantone equivalent. Saying No cancels the operation.

   

Examples of Changing the Preset Colours

Changing the preselected colour and modifying the shape of the curve can give some pretty interesting results as shown in the following examples.

   - Click on the icons to change the main image.


   
 

Here are the settings for these images:

Mauve Tritone custom colours and curves settings.
Red-Blue Tritone custom colours and curves settings.
Gold Negative Tritone custom colours and curves settings.
Try this variation of the gold negative also.

   
 


In the next section I look at adjusting the RGB colour space directly rather than through grayscale. This gives a lot more scope for colour changes in our images.

 

Copyright ©, 1999. David Mutch Ph.D. and Visionary Voyager Corporation.
All rights reserved.