GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 1
In this tutorial, we will attempt to simulate the effect of
sepia toning a classic silver-gelatin print.

The first step is converting our colour photo to a black-and-

white image. And while there are a number of ways to do
this using The GIMP, we will simply desaturate the colours in
this tutorial.

Select Colors>Desaturate from the Image menu. In the

Desaturate dialog below, select the Lightness option and
click the Desaturate button.

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 2
Now that the image is rendered as a B&W, the next step is to duplicate the background
layer. The new layer will allow us to control the sepia tint being applied to different parts of
the image.

Select Dialogs>Layers (Ctrl+L) to open the Layers dialog.

Click on the Duplicate Layer button in the Layer dialog toolbox to create a copy of the
background layer. Rename the layer to something more descriptive by double-clicking the
name and editing the text.

Rename the top layer

Duplicate Layer button

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 3
With the Sepia Tone layer still selected, choose
Layer>Mask>Add Layer Mask on the Image window
menu to open the Add Layer Mask dialog.

Initialise the layer mask to Grayscale Copy of Layer as

shown below. Then click the Add button to apply.
Initialise the layer mask to a
Grayscale copy of the layer

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 4
In the Layers dialog, Alt+Click on the Sepia Tone Layer Mask icon to display the layer mask
in the Image window. You should see a green border around the Layer Mask icon that
confirms your selection.

Choose Colors>Curves from the Image menu to open the Curves dialog.

A green border indicates that the

layer mask will be displayed in
the Image window

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 5
This next step is the key to confining the sepia tint to the mid tones in our
image.

Click and add a Control Point at the centre of the graph line (at the
point: X:128, Y:128). Then click and drag the right (upper) endpoint down
to the lower right bottom as shown in the screen shot at right.

What this is effectively doing is "half-inverting" the layer mask. This partial
inversion will result in making the highlights into shadows so that only the
mid tones contain the lighter (less transparent areas) in the Sepia Tone
layer.
Mid-tone control point
Click the OK button to apply the curve.
Highlight control point

Shadow control point

Tone map of the curve

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 6
If all went well, your layer mask should look something like the
one I have here on the right.

The black areas of the layer mask will provide transparency

through the tint layer, allowing the underlying image to show
through.

The lighter, grey areas of the layer mask will control the
application of the sepia tint which we will create next.

Highlights are protected from toning

Shadows are protected from toning

Tint will only be applied to the mid-tone

regions in the image

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 7
In the Layers dialog, Alt+Click on the Layer Mask icon in the Sepia Tone layer to toggle its
visibility off in the Image window.

Now, Left-click on the Sepia Tone layer’s thumbnail to select it. You should see a white
border form around the thumbnail image (as shown on the right) to confirm the selection.

We can now fill the top layer with a sepia tint, and the layer mask attached to the layer will
control the application of the tint to only the mid-tone regions of the underlying image.

Sepia Tone layer icon

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 8
Click the Foreground Color swatch in The GIMP toolbox to open the Change Foreground Color
dialog.

Adjust the foreground colour value to: R=160, G=130, B=100 for an authentic warm, brown
sepia tone.

Click the OK button to set the new foreground colour.

Red

Green

Blue

Foreground Colour swatch

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 9
From the Image menu, choose Edit>Fill with FG Color to apply
the tint to the top layer.

If all went well, your image should look much like the screenshot
below. Note how the bright sky and dark shadow areas show no
tinting.

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 10
If the sepia toning appears too strong in your image, simply reduce the Opacity of the
Sepia layer in the Layers dialog (Dialogs>Layers).

For this image, I have reduced the opacity to 80% as shown on the right. A full-size view
of the image detail is shown below.

Layer Opacity

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GIMP Tutorial – Sepia Toning a Digital Image

Step 11
To add an ‘old-time’ feel to the image, choose Filters>Décor>Fuzzy
Border… from the Image menu. For this image, the default settings
worked well (however, I unchecked the ‘Work on copy’ option).
The result is shown below, and as the image has already been flattened,
it is ready to be saved and printed.

Copyright © 2008, Greg Perry

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