is it possible to put a color wash over a sepia print?

[rlg]

Well I'm back. The biggest amateur with the craziest questions.

 

I want to use a sepia photo for the background of a book cover. But it is so Blah that I wanted to try to give it some interest.

 

I can handle the text and use the bright colors there, but it really needs help.

 

So can one [me] still taking baby steps after all this time, do anything easy to jazz up the background photo?

 

Thank you.

 

Renee

[Pixey]

Hi Renee and welcome back.  Since you were here last, we have updated to Paint.NET version 4 and you will need to make sure that the Plugins are up-to-date.

 

I can think of two ways, off the top of my head, that you could try. 

 

1. There is Color Match - @Pyrochild's plugin - and then navigate to a picture with a colour that you would like to change it to.

 

2. Also - Effects - Color - Color tint - by @Ed Harvey and also another Plugin called Color Flip/Rotate.

 

Hope these help

[SAND33P]

You could also make use of PDN4's new soft brush, select the colour you want, set a large size and 0% hardness, and then set whatever you have done to overlay, or any other layer blend, you may need to reduce the opacity a little but that will look pretty good, id love to see the end result!

[rlg]

Thank you both Pixie and Sand but I'm afraid I'm still at PDN 1 or maybe 2 level only. I guess my first step should be to download ver. 4?

 

I can get the photo I want to do something with colored for $100 an hour! And this for a $4 no royalty photo. Hardly think that makes sense. Maybe I should try another route. Any suggestions as to how to give the sepia [althought it really looks more gray than brown] some life? As I said I can do the title in bright colors but without trying it out, I don't guess I'll know if all that does is wash the background out even more.

 

This novel has really been a killer. Just the reseach alone...And the structure. And now finding something for the cover. It's set in 1863 and tentatively titled : Intrepid Tourist. So I had to have a hoop skirted lady, preferably in a traveling outfit, but this is as near as I could come--and afford! And unfortunately it's sepia.

 

Sorry I bothered you by asking advice when I'm such a klutz at PdN.

 

Renee

[Pixey]

Hi Renee - thanks for your PM and I understand what you are saying and that you need to keep things as simple as possible.  I would just stick with the version of Paint.NET that you have and try these steps to get a nice color for your sepia picture.
 
See here, I started with a sepia picture like this:

 
 
And then used Adjustments and Hue and saturation and play with the sliders to get a nice colour:

Edited February 22, 2016 by Pixey

[HyReZ]

There is a Sepia 2 plug-in by Kris Vandermotten to create great sepia effects

 

You can use the Manual Color option to create other monochrome effects

( Effect/Color/Manual color )

[rlg]

HyReZ, thanks for taking the time to reply, but you have it backwards. The photo is already sepia and I wanted to color it.

 

However that's moot now since I'm tying another route.

 

Pixey, your rose is lovely. Thank you. But now--I'm trying to take a Cross of St. George (I think that's the cross--the big one on the British flag) that I have as red on a white background. Luckily I need the white for the "band" around the cross. So I tried to crop the cross leaving a white border. Well, the only way I could find to do it was to cut the cross in sections and crop each section. It worked fine, EXCEPT now I have the two "banded" sections as background and can't put them together!

 

I used layering after I cropped the first one to crop the second but it made two principal parts.

 

So will you please--or somebody please--tell me how to crop the cross so that some of the white background stays around it as trim but it's not in two pieces that I can't put back together. Humpty Dumpty has nothing on me! And I can't hand draw the selection because of my less than steady hands.

 

Many thanks.

Renee

[Pixey]

Is this what you were aiming for?

 

I had to put it on a black background as, obviously, you can't see the effect with a white backgound.

 

 

Here is a way that should be simple and does not require you to download new Plugins.  The instructions are on the image I am posting below, but I forgot to mention two things:

 

 

1. when you first load your flag (I used one 533 x 328) use the Move Selected Tool to make it as close to the center of the page .... will make it easier to work with.

2. make sure your background layer is unchecked and your pasted flag checked, before you merge down and flatten.

http://i.imgur.com/RS2rRNm.png

Good luck!

[rlg]

Pixey I appreciate your help, but I'm trying to put a white border/frame about what? 1" around the cross. Also I rotated it so it runs north and south So am I right in that maybe the fill tool isn't needed?

 

Then too that's just half of my problem. After I get the cross the way I need it, I want to superimpose it on another flag's image.

 

I may be a klutz on graphics but you gotta give me this: I'm an ambitious one!

 

Renee