HDR Photography Tutorial 2: Strong blue toning in 3 steps

It is a pleasure to read all your thoughts, questions and interests, thank you!
I have received a lot of editing questions lately, such as “how do you edit your photo to a strong blue tone photograph?”.
In this tutorial I’ll explain how you can add such rich blue tone very easily.

Tutorial introduction

- In this tutorial I use my own photo as an example -
All the steps I explain in this tutorial are based on personal experiences.

I know there are many ways to Rome, but I’ll explain you just the way I have edited my blue toned photographs.

Blue tones

Some photographers use strong black and white editing to emphasize the composition and the contrast (so do I). What I really like is to add a blue tone to make the picture look just a bit more stronger.
There are chemicals that can be added to the photo paper during the darkroom process, but I’m not an analog photographer;-).

Step 1: Let’s start!

1 ) This editing technique works great with dark/dramatic photos, so take a look in your photolibrary.
Tip: For the best dramatic results, choose a photo with some dark atmosphere in it and you will be suprised at the end of the tutorial!

For this tutorial I have used a HDR photo taken in the early morning. In Photoshop I have done basic adjustments. I have boosted the contrasts, played a bit with the curves and lighted up the tree on the right (I have used the overlay technique for that, which I have explained in Tutorial 1: Strong Black & White HDR Photo).

Now you have chosen your photo it is time to open Photoshop.

Step 2: Using standard Photoshop functions

2 ) Open the “Layer Window” (F7). In the layerswindow click the button “Create new fill or adjustment layer” (see example below) and choose for “Black & White..” Keep the default settings.

Step 3: The trick

1 ) Now you need to add a new layer on top of the “Black & White” layer and fill it with a solid blue color (I recommend using the color: #152c52)

2 ) Set the layermodus of the blue layer to “Color” and play with the opacity till you’re satisfied.