Color photography is fabulous. As a technical innovation, it was many, many steps ahead of any photo advancements that had come before. But, frankly, there are times when going back to the “old days” of black and white. As you may know, many professional photographers prefer black and white. Even today they convert their color digital photos to black and white.
The photo on the left is of Locomotive #90 at the Strasburg Railroad. It was scanned from a 35mm color negative that was taken about 20 years ago.
color photo, 35mm negative
The photo on the right is the same picture, but has been converted to a duotone. Black and white is duotone where the two colors are, guess what, black and white! The variations in the tones create a range of gray. In this case, the duotones are white and a warm orange or sienna color that creates a sepia effect similar to what is found in very old photographs.
Photoshop is the most popular tool for creating these effects, but there are dozens of other programs and apps. If you are not a Photoshop user you can search the Web and find any number of other goodies to try.
Duotone