How to Create a Sepia Tone in Affinity Photo

[Enea]

Hi everyone,

I recorded this quick tutorial on how to create a sepia tone in Affinity Photo. I hope you guys find it interesting.

 

[GarryP]

In your image you still have non-brown colours (e.g. the grass is still green-ish) so that’s not what I would call a ‘traditional’ sepia image.

You might want to add a Black & White Adjustment (as an option for the user, if they don’t want it) so that the start point is greyscale, maybe with an explanation about why the user might want to use it or not.

[Enea]

Thanks Garry, good point. In the tutorial, I apply an HSL adjustment, but I bring the saturation slider to only -55%. To make "traditional" sepia, it might have been to be brought a bit further to the left, and probably also set the optical density of the lense filter adjustment a bit stronger (I set it only at 65%).

[joe_l]

14 minutes ago, Enea said:

To make "traditional" sepia, it might have been to be brought a bit further to the left, and probably also set the optical density of the lense filter adjustment a bit stronger (I set it only at 65%).

Or use Recolour and Black & White Adjustment, Live Filters Add Noise and Vignette. The imperfections were made with a Nik filter. Thank you for your video and inspiration. 👍

[smadell]

At one point, I had created my own version of a sepia effect as a macro. But, I later found a website by James Ritson (one of the staff at Serif, and the creator of most of the official Affinity Photo tutorials): https://jamesritson.co.uk/

If you visit the web page, and click in the "Resources Page" link at the top, James has a large number of downloadable files. Among these is a free collection of macros called "JR Filter Gallery Macros v4". This group of macros contains one called "Sepia Effect" and it is a great implementation of sepia coloration. It was much better than what I had created on my own, and it now serves as my go-to if I ever need a sepia color grade.

Adding a vignette and/or a paper texture is still an easy addition. But, the coloration provided by James' macro is superb. (Plus, you can play with all the other macros in the set, and some of them are also quite remarkable.)

Here's a before and after, using a photo from Front Street in Bermuda: