How would I create this monochromatic look in Photoshop?

May 1, 2015 11:50 AM

I want to know how to try to create this look with one of my own jellyfish shots, but I'm a bit of a Photoshop noob and have no idea where to start or even what to search for in order to find a tutorial. Any suggestions?
posted by figaro to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

I don't own Photoshop, but in Paint Shop Pro I'd do that by using "Histogram Adjustment" by colors and place a floor value on Blue and Red. Or by changing the curve for Green to make it hit 0 earlier than the others.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:55 AM on May 1, 2015

This image isn't exactly monotone, which is like a grayscale image except with a color instead of black. In this image, you can see yellows as well as pinks. You might try converting your image to duotone, with a magenta as one color and a yellow as the other.
posted by the_blizz at 11:56 AM on May 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

I don't think that photo is Photoshopped. I think it's just a naturally-colored Chrysaora fuscescens on a pink background.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 12:01 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

You could get something close to that example in a couple of quick steps using filter layers and adjustment layers.

1. add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of the photo, check "colorize" and play with the hue and lightness until the black lines are the color you desire.

2. add a filter layer with Color Overlay, choose the color you want as the background with the eyedropper, say pink in the example you provided, make the blend mode Multiply, and play with the opacity until you like the look. You can add the filter layer to the adjustment layer above to keep things tidy.

(In the example you provided, there seem to be some yellow hues in the original image, and this process would not preserve those kinds of things unless you masked away some of the adjustment layer to let those colors show through.)
posted by mullicious at 12:05 PM on May 1, 2015

I'd use a gradient map adjustment layer, picking the hues you want, then maybe jiggle with the curves (in the adjustment layers too) after if necessary.
posted by Cuke at 12:09 PM on May 1, 2015

To me it looks like maybe Image > Adjustments > Color Balance and then using the slider to adjust the color levels would create this effect. I have CS5, and the shortcut for this is Ctrl + B.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:17 PM on May 1, 2015

I think what you want to do is either a duotone. There's a tutorial here.

In short,
Image->Mode->Grayscale
Image->Mode->Duotone...
Select Duotone (or tritone)
Change Ink 1 to the dark color (in your sample it will be a dark pink) and set the other to the light color.
posted by plinth at 12:34 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

nth-ing duotone mode, with the additional advice that you should run Image > Adjustments > Black & White before converting to grayscale. Doing it that way gives you finer control over the tone mapping in the final image.
posted by fifthrider at 1:12 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

1. Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate
2. Create a New Layer on top of your existing image. Paint bucket your new layer the color you want to achieve.
3. Change blending mode of new layer to Overlay.
4. ??
5. Profit
posted by axismundi at 1:45 PM on May 1, 2015

It's possible that the image was inverted before the colour adjustments were made. This would account for the lighter background. Most untreated jellyfish pictures I've seen have have a darker background and a lighter foreground.
posted by pipeski at 1:47 PM on May 1, 2015

Like Cuke, I was thinking of a gradient map. I'm not at my computer right now so I can't doublecheck, but I could swear there is a default gradient that will result in pretty similar if not identical colours, even.
posted by sailoreagle at 2:10 PM on May 1, 2015

I don't have Photoshop, but I use the rip-off online program Pixlr. Using Pixlr it'd be a very simple matter of clicking Adjustment, then on the pull-down menu clicking Color Balance. Three sliders would appear, one each for red, blue and green. You could slide the red slider to the right to up the red in the picture, then slide blue and green to the left if you wanted to make it even more red. The entire process would literally take seconds, without using multiple layers or anything.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:39 PM on May 1, 2015

Add a new layer over you image. Click EDIT then FILL then fill the layer with the main color you want (in the example I'd say they used a soft red). Then go up and adjust the layer setting from normal to SOFT LIGHT. If that doesn't do the trick play around with some of the other layer settings including COLOR and HUE. One of them is bound to get the look you want. Keep in mind that you can adjust the opacity of the solid color layer as well. The opacity setting is just below the layer setting itself.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 9:13 PM on May 1, 2015

You're probably not going to get this exact shot, because I would wager it was shot with coloured gels for that effect, but you can certainly experiment with the suggestions above. (Just wanted to chime in in case you're wondering why it's not looking JUST like the picture after time in PS.)
posted by Nyx at 9:20 PM on May 1, 2015