Photoshop Duotone the Easy Way

Duotone in Photohop, the Super Easy Way

Creating a Duotone effect is very popular amongst digital photographers right now. You can create a duotone the the hard way, which I may write a tutorial on later, or you can use this quick guide to do it the easy way. Keep in mind, we’re kind of cheating the system here. Your photo will still be in RBG format, but it should look quite duotone if you follow this guide.

Open the color photo you want to convert to duotone. Usually the hardest part of using this method to create a duotone photo is choosing which color you’re going to use for the duotone effect. You can use the color swatch to try to pick out a color, or you can go to istock.com and find a duotone picture with the color you want. Just copy that picture to an open photoshop document, and use the eyedropper tool to pick out the color you want to use.

Now that you have your color picked out, create a new layer in the layers palette above your original color picture. Make sure your new color is selected as your foreground color swatch and press alt-backspace to fill your new layer with your chosen color. Change the blend mode of the filled layer to color, and BAMMO! Super easy duotone photograph… even though it’s technically still color.

Before and After