One way of creating an eye-catching landscape is to remove the image’s original colour information. This helps the eye focus on tonally contrasting shapes and textures in the scene.

You can further enhance your mono conversions by gently re-introducing a delicate wash of colour to the shot’s shadows and highlights.

A hint of colour can make a monochrome shot look more interesting and influence the mood that it evokes.

In our split toning end result, for example, the shadows have a cool dark blue tint, while the lighter tones have a warmer wash of yellow. These colours also help to tease out the different textures and shapes.

Photoshop CS users have a Split Tone command in the Camera Raw editor, which enables them to independently colourise a monochrome conversion’s shadows and highlights.

As the cheaper Photoshop Elements lacks a dedicated split-toning command, here we’ll show you an alternative technique that involves using layers, Blending Modes and gradient maps.

We’ll also demonstrate how to use Elements’ Convert to Black and White command to create an effective mono conversion in which key features in the scene (like the tree) stand out due to a range of shadows, midtones and highlights. You can then add washes of colour to the contrasting tones.

Split toning step-by-step in Photoshop Elements

01 Duplicate layer
Go to File>Open and browse to your start image. Click Open. Click on the locked Background layer’s thumbnail. Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. You could just remove the shot’s colour information, but that risks giving a low-contrast wash of greyscale tones.

02 Convert to mono
To make key features stand out more in your monochrome conversion, go to Enhance>Convert to Black and White. By choosing the Infrared Effect preset you can darken the tones of the blue sky so the clouds stand out. Click OK to apply the changes.

03 Burn in contrast
The foreground grass lacks contrast. To reveal more texture, choose the Burn tool from the Tools palette. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker and set Size to 1,000 pixels. Set Range to Shadows and Exposure to 15%. Spray over the grass.

04 Add Gradient Map
Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map. In the New Layer window click OK. In the Adjustments Gradient Map panel, click on the greyscale preview bar to change the colours that make up the gradient. The Gradient Editor will now appear.

05 Sample shadow colour
By default you’ll have a black-to-white foreground-to-background gradient. To change this to another colour, click on the black colour stop at the bottom left of the gradient preview window. Click on the colour swatch to open the Select Stop Colour window. Sample a bluey-purple. Click OK to apply the change.

06 Change the Blending Mode
Click on the white colour stop at the bottom right of the gradient preview. Now click the colour swatch icon to change its colour. Choose a yellow colour and click OK. Click OK again to close the Gradient Editor. Finally, set the Gradient Map’s Blending Mode to Overlay and its Opacity to 44%.

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In the traditional darkroom, split-tone effects are applied to images using a combination of chemicals to tint different tonal areas, such as shadows and highlights. This can be created using Photoshop, and is a great way to add creativity to black-and-white shots. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to use the powerful tools in Photoshop CS3′s Adobe Camera Raw editor to apply a split-tone effect.

Mono images can be given extra warmth by converting them to sepia. To create the classy, antique look you can always use Photoshop to alter the hue and saturation of your raw format image, but Adobe Camera Raw’s Split Toning feature can be used to create more depth. You’ll also learn how to use the Balance tool to accentuate the tint in shadows and highlights.

1. Set preferences

Our source file is a JPEG, but we can still edit it using the tools in the CS3 Raw 4. plug-in. Go to Edit > Preferences > File Handling. In the File Compatibility section tick the Prefer Adobe Camera Raw for JPEG Files box. The Sepia_toning_before.jpg source file will now open in the Raw interface.

2. Go grey

For an image with more ‘punch’, click on the Basic tab. Drag the Exposure slider to +0.35 to brighten the whites. Drag blacks to 5 for stronger shadows. Click on the HSL/ Grayscale tab. Click on the Convert to Grayscale box. This creates a monochrome version of your image.

3. Tint the highlights

Click on the Split Toning tab. Drag the Highlight’s Hue slider to 42. The Saturation slider’s preview bar will show you a wide range of reddish brown colours. By setting the Highlights slider’s Saturation value to 36, the highlights and brighter midtones will be tinted a warm, sepia colour.

4. Tint the shadows

Go to the Shadows slider and drag Hue to 42. A range of sepia tones will appear in the Shadow slider’s Saturation preview bar. Set Saturation to 32 for a more gentle shadow tint. You can use this slider to tint the shadows any colour you like for striking duotone images.

5. Get the balance right

You can accentuate the tint in either the shadows or highlights by using the Balance slider. As this shot consists mostly of midtones and highlights the shadow values are less tinted. Drag Balance to -56 to increase the strength of the sepia tint throughout the image’s darker tones.