How can brown help me become a better photographer?  Well the proofs in the pudding.  Sepia tone is a technique used many photographers to give the "aged look" to their pictures.  The point I tend to make here is to get the effect you want you need to know when and how to use this technique.  What do I mean by this?

There are some amateur photographers who believe that adding the sepia tone to an image is an easy way to digitally age their work. Well, far be it from me to stop these dynamos from their plans; however, for the more serious amateur I would like to explain the fascinating area of sepia toning.

So, what can brown do for you? Simple, it can make you a better photographer and isn’t that the goal here? Sepia toning can be described as applying a brownish tint to an existing image or photograph. Now before you get all excited and open up your photoshop program and add the tint, you should know a few things about sepia toning.

Myth #1: Sepia toning is a process in which an original photograph is digitally aged to appear older.

Well, I’m sorry to have to break the bad news to you but this myth is 100% false!  Let’s see what really makes up the sepia tone.

Originally made from the Sepia cuttlefish, sepia pigment was used to treat printed photos to make them more durable. Consequently, many of the old photographs around today, such as portraits from the 1700s, appear in brown scales due to the sepia toning that has preserved them for so long. Sepia toning preserves pictures because of a chemical process that turns any silver in the developing photograph into a sulfide. This sulfide is more resistant to aging than silver. Of a black and white photo developed at the same time as one treated with sepia toning (stored in identical conditions), the sepia tone photo would last longer than the black and white.

Remember, back in the day when a photographer only had black and white film or monochromatic film to work with there was a great desire amongst these professionals to warm up the photographs. The resulting warming was the birth of a trend of applying the sepia tone to images to soften down the stark blacks and warm up the final image.

I’m ready and I want to make a sepia toned photograph

Ok, here’s the deal. If you’re using a regular old manual camera you need to follow a few tips:

• Select the correct film - When buying the film roll, ask for a monochrome film, not the usual colored one.
• Shoot the image - Remember that the developed images will be in single color, so choose appropriate light-and-shade while shooting.
• Ask for Sepia Tone Printing - When giving that film for exposing/developing/printing, tell them that you want the pictures to be printed in sepia tone (or any other single color). You can even get green, red, blue, orange, any shade. The film negative is the same; they set colors while developing.

Or if you’re using a digital camera there are a few other options:

• Use the Sepia Option - For digital cams, there's already an option for sepia.
• Use Any Graphics Software – Several different graphics software like any of the Adobe Photoshop series, CorelDRAW, or even some free online picture editing software.

Here's an example of a digital photograph that has been done in color and the steps taken to change it to a sepia tone.

Select the Image

Change it to Black and White

Change the tone to a warm light brown

Now Go Brown!