Duotone images by Pixelo. Used with Creative Commons Permission.
Ever thought of playing around with colors for your fashion snaps and powerful portraits? You can now do it when you post-process by converting them into modern and stylish duotone artworks. Thanks to design resource website Pixelo, you can now give any image a vibrant new look with their free Duotone Photoshop Actions.
There are seven different actions created with carefully selected colors to make your photos pop: Casual, Hype, Mystique, Vibrant, Savage, Forceful, and Heated.
However, you have to create a Pixelo account in order to download. If you’re also dabbling in graphic design and other related creative professions, it might be worth the sign up to gain access to their other freebies. These downloads come with personal and commercial license so you can use them for your personal portfolio and professional work.
The duochrome trend is a tricky one, if you ask us, as there can be too many colors clashing and the flood of saturation can drown some details. It works well, however, if you pair the duotone rendering with minimalist and contrasty portraits, as Pixelo has effectively demonstrated in these sample snaps. This way, the colors feed into the dark portions of your photo and make the duotone effect pop nicely.
We also see how this can be fun to play with for digital artworks, but if you want to get it in an instant, we highly recommend trying out the Duochrome Instant Films by the Impossible Project. The effect is more low-key but adds a nice splash of colors to the dreamy look of instant film. The Duochrome films, compatible with all Polaroid 600 cameras, I-type cameras, and Polaroid SX-70 cameras (used with a Neutral Density filter), are currently available in Black & Pink and Black & Yellow. We hope they restock the punchy Black & Red soon, too.
Visit Pixelo’s Behance page and website to see their portfolio and download their free Photoshop actions if digital duochromes would do for you…for now.
