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The WebXealot  Workbook Page 3
A Duo-tone Photo Effect

In the past Workbooks, I have explored different uses of colored photos to create a variety of effect. This next technique was discovered while making conversions of black and white photos to duotones for the website of our local newspaper. I was rather impressed with how nice the final images looked.

Duotone effect 1

Step 1 Select a photo bitmap and right click on a deep red color (RGB 153, 0, 0). Xara automatically creates a two-color red and white image as shown above right.

NOTE: If your color units are set to percent instead of 0-255 your color values will show RGB 60%, 0%, 0%.

 

Duotone effect 2

Step 2 Clone (Ctrl k) or Duplicate (Ctrl d) the photo (Clone makes an in place copy, Duplicate makes an offset copy). Right click on the dark green color (RGB 0, 102, 0) on the screen palette.

 

Duotone effect 3

Step 3 Select the top bitmap and apply a Flat, Stained Glass transparency. Adjust the slider to get the optimal effect. In the image above, I used 20%. This will differ with the image. This produces a deep, rich, sepia colored duotone effect.

 

Duotone effect 4

Step 4 Another approach is to apply a Flat, Bleach transparency. The difference between the two images is brooding vs. cheerful. Or at least that is how I see the difference in the two effects.

 

Duotone effect 5

Step 5 And here is another interesting effect. Apply a Flat, Hue transparency. Again, try different slider settings. In the image above the slider setting is 0%.

Weird, huh?