Lightroom-like split toning

[undavide]

Hello to you all,
I'm wondering how to simulate in Photoshop the Adobe Lightroom Split toning for grayscale colorizing (for those who don't know it, Lightroom has a channel mixer grayscale conversion followed by a Highlights/Shadows hue/sat sliders) and I need help...

The first obvious way (two sat colorizing adj. layers with alpha mask: select, color range, highlights the first and shadows the second) gave horrible posterisation, compared to the Lightroom smooth result.
So I tryed again the two sat adj layers with different alpha mask (a luminosity mask and an inverted one) but again no luck. Better, but not as subtle effect as Lightroom's one -- and if you switch the sat layers you get different colors!

I can't figure out how to proceed... I'd like to avoid messing around with duotones etc. It must be an easier way, but I'm not able to find it. Any clue? All suggestions greatly appreciated!
Best regards,

unDavide

[undavide]

Gradient map adj. layer in color blending mode maybe?

unDavide

[PhotoVagrant]

I'm not familiar with Lightroom so I'm not sure the effects are the same but 1click have toning and split toning actions for Photoshop that work well and I can recommend. The split tones are in volume 2

[NancyJ]

Originally Posted by PhotoVagrant

I'm not familiar with Lightroom so I'm not sure the effects are the same but 1click have toning and split toning actions for Photoshop that work well and I can recommend. The split tones are in volume 2

Call me an old cynic if you like but 11 of your 12 posts here have mentioned 1 click - sounds like thinly veiled advertising to me.

[Photo678]

Im sure you know this, but split toning is passing a print through two sets of chemicals a gold toner and something cool, one for the highlights and one for the shadows.

digitally, you can do two things


1: Create a color balance layer on top of your bw image (must be rgb, obviously) and adjust for the sepia, or warms

create a second layer on top of that and adjust for your cools.

go into your blending options and, and in the "blend if" area move the slider towards the midtones.

tweak the left sliders a bit until you see what you are looking for, and you can also lower the opacity of the layers to help.

2: create reference layers of brightness contrast...one for hightlights, and one for shadows....select shadows, by color range, add the fuzz...do a feather, 3-4 pixels, return to base image (or new layer), while shadows are selected and do a color balance for your warms.

repeat with cools....

its been a while since ive done this so my memory may be fuzzy...good luck

[smiley guy]

Colour balance is what I use and have had a fair bit of success. I usually do a warm colour adjustment for highlights and a cool one for shadows and usually keep midtones where they are. It's all right there in the one window and stays as one adjustment layer. You don't like it? Go back in and change it without destroying the original picture. One adjustment layer doesn't add that much to the size of the file either.

Play, play, play and see what works for you. I usually do a very subtle adjustment just to add a bit of interest to my b&w photos.

[Godmother]

Originally Posted by NancyJ

Call me an old cynic if you like but 11 of your 12 posts here have mentioned 1 click - sounds like thinly veiled advertising to me.

But you are right...

It's funny actually.

[undavide]

Originally Posted by Photo678

go into your blending options and, and in the "blend if" area move the slider towards the midtones.

Yessss!
That's what I was looking for! It happens to me, sometimes, to forget about PS features I actually knew: I know it's possible to achieve that particular effect, but... some days... I can't remember how! (this means: I need vacations )
Thanks to all of you that answered,
best,

unDavide