Continuing and contrasting with the concept in yesterday’s post, the concept of cyanotype processing. Except, unlike in the link just preceding this, I refer to *digital* processing of a cyanotype.
Following the duotone instructions, it’s certainly possible to achieve a similar result, but it’s not really true-to-form. Then again, nothing in the digital world is. But the folks at Nik have done a pretty good job of getting close with their Silver Efex pro tool.
So, for creating a cyanotype with their tool:
1: open the image for processing
Original Image, for converting
Notice that I’m using the same image as before.
2: Fire up the NIK Silver Efex tool
Select Silver Efex Pro
3: Scroll down the presets to Cyanotype
Don’t forget to select it. This gives us a starting point.
Select starting settings
4: Customize settings to your preference
In my case, I wanted a darker, higher contrast end result. Spike up the contrast, drop the structure, and drop brightness (slightly), and I’m pretty much there. I did add in a red filter, though:
Final Result, Cyanotype processing
Thoughts
Personally, I like a nice, dark feel to this type of photo. At this point in my life, at least. What I *really* like: how quickly Silver Efex Pro does this processing. Notice that there are far fewer steps to get here – for the same result in duotone, I’d be doing masking, vignetting, selective burning, and a whole host of other details. 30 minutes in PS vs 3 in Silver Efex.
