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I did a search regarding sepia since I've heard about it but never really took notice of it.

What is Sepia and why would you use it? Black and White photos do serve a purpose in the way they signify something other than just pixels alone.

I feel that I might come across some Japanese temples with special effect gases or a monk smoking a bong, and would think that special effects such as these may enhance the occasion. Does the camera let you do this or is this done on the software?

Again, thanks for the advice and feedback.

Sepia just refers to a photograph or an image done in a brown tint. It can give a nice effect. There are many ways to obtain the effect. Some digital camera will let you select a sepia mode, but (to the best of my knowledge) D70 doesnt offer this gimmik. You have to do it in PP. Now i have a few techniques I use but im sure they are wrong or not 100% right so i will let someone with a bit more experience in the art of Sepia guide you, and watch from the background). BTW - Trivia: I believe the first sepia images were painted using ink from a cuttlefish.

Why? Traditionally, linen rag papers were used as the base for making photographic prints. Prints on this fiber-base paper coated with a gelatin emulsion are quite stable when properly processed. Their stability is enhanced if the print is toned with either sepia (brown tone) or selenium (light, silvery tone).

Paper will dry out and crack under poor archival conditions. Loss of the image can also be due to high humidity, but the real enemy of paper is chemical residue left by photographic fixer. In addition, contaminants in the water used for processing and washing can cause damage. If a print is not fully washed to remove all traces of fixer, the result will be discoloration and image loss. Staining also can occur on improperly processed negatives. The accepted current standard for adequate washing to remove the fixer is a minimum of 30 minutes with a total change of water every five minutes. (Commercial chemical preparations may be added to the bath to speed up the process.)

http://inventors.about.com/library/inve ... phytwo.htm

--Wade_<3_google

Hey print fans,

Wade is on the right track, SEPIA toning was devised as a means of enhancing image stability and longevity when the medium of Platinum/Palladium as a print emulsion gave way to the less stable Silver Bromide, which is still the main B+W photographic print emulsion in use today.

For quite a time SEPIA was very popular for portraiture because in a pre-colour world it gave skin tones a softer more life-like appearance. For hand-colouring (which was also immensely popular for a very long time) it was necessary to first SEPIA tone a print in order to weaken the depth of the underlying black & white image and so lend a greater sense of 'REALITY' to the effect of the colouring. True SEPIA involves bleaching out the silver image completely in a solution of potassium ferricyanide until it is just a faint yellow tone and then toning in a solution of sodium sulfide and potassium bromide. [Before you think of hand-colouring as being only those pastel tinted portraits of the long-dead stuck in a box on top of the wardrobe try and get a hold of a book called Walk Away René - the work of Hipgnosis which presents many of the record cover of 'Po' for the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, 10cc, Pink Floyd and so on - most of which were shot on Tri-X and then hand-coloured.]

As with many such processes SEPIA became popular in its own right as an effect. But SEPIA is by no means the only image toner or effect in popular use. As Wade suggested Selenium toner is also used - sometimes in weak dilution for very brief times in order to eradicate the olive green undertones of traditional B&W image colour by enhancing a slight metallic feel, to deepen the blacks and to enhance archival qualities; and sometimes in a bleach and tone process like SEPIA but giving a deeper chocolate colour than SEPIA's ginger brown. Other toners include Gold Toner, Copper Toner, and many coloured effects - many of which are used in tandem with each other to give a broad range of effects. Professor Tim Rudman travels the world lecturing on toning techniques and has written authoritative books on the subject. The effects of toners will also vary upon the use of various print developers and image tone of different papers - brand to brand and chloro-bromide and so forth.

In terms of digital imaging the use of toners such as Gold or SEPIA or Selenium are no longer a matter of archival concern but simply an effect. Image colour and variations in image colour throughtout the tonal range of an image can be varied by setting differing colour adjustments to the HIGHLIGHTS, the MID-TONESS, and the SHADOWS.

Something which I have not seen as yet but which I suspect may have great possibilities is to print with an ink-jet using whatever toning you might desire and then using wet hand-colouring dyes to add colour BEFORE the ink has fully set and dried in order to get the image to RUN or BLEED into the colour. Such a technique would give a uniquely individual result as a hybrid between digital control and real-world chance.

Worth a try?

Cheers,

Sheetshooter
Very nice article on sepia toning Sheetshooter
I was a fan of partial toning where the bleach is applied selectively by brush and the image was bleached away at different levels. This gave a whole series of copper brown tones, blues and black. Sometimes the print would hint at colours that were not there. The first "art" print I ever sold was a partially toned image of a cat running down a tree. I got $150 for that 10 x 8 in 1975. Hmmm. Should have charge $300.