About the author

Nolan Hester has worked as a darkroom technician, ad studio assistant, and photojournalist. His photos have appeared online and in print for a variety of outlets, including ZesterDaily.com, Alaska magazine, and The Los Angeles Times travel section. His landscape, travel, and Web photography have inspired many of the timesaving tips and techniques described in his more than 20 books for Peachpit Press. Like every photographer, Nolan truly believes he’ll eventually find the perfect camera bag.

The head shot, btw, is meant to be a bit of a meta-photo: I'm holding a WhiBal card, firing the camera with a remote, and dangling the glasses that portrait subjects usually hate to be seen in. Oh, and I applied Lightroom's split-tone process.

Comments

[Tom Upton]

So then you used the white bal card for the Twilight preset? Ihave yet to bond wit the split toning panel...Thanks for keeping the stage blood off the glasses.

I arrived here because i am inclined to buy your Lightroom Quickstart. I am cramming to teach a class full of civilians here in Palo Alto. Codifying and distilling Lightroom is like solving a Rubick's cube in a burning house.

Good sense of humor, I'll buy the book! and yeah, I hate camera bags. I have five. Domke wins every time but there is no padding...

Tom Upton
PhotoTrainer.com
tomstudio.com
Palo Alto

[Nolan]

Ah yes, that photo's meant to be a bit of a head shaker. The white balance card is really sort of a prop, since I've overwritten it by applying the split tone.

Two ways to get a better feel for applying split tones to a B&W photo:
1) Apply some of the Preset panel's existing effects and see which ones strike you.
2) Just pick two tones in the panel and drag the sliders all the way in each direction to see if something strikes you. After finding a mix you like, create a Preset.
In any case, split tones are still kind of novelty and, so, best used for limited purposes.
(See pages 170-171 for details.)