Map the shadows to one ink and the highlights to another. The poster and record sleeve look, without opening Photoshop.
Open the editor with this effect
A duotone takes a photo and rebuilds it from two colours: one for the shadows and one for the highlights, with every tone in between mixed from the pair. It started as a printing trick, running a black plate and a coloured plate to get richer tone from cheap presses. Today it is the look of festival posters, playlist covers and brand campaigns that want a photo to feel owned rather than borrowed.
The first is a tone map. Every pixel is measured for brightness, then placed on a line between the shadow colour and the highlight colour. Detail and gradients survive, so the photo still looks like a photo, just in two inks. This is what the Duotone filter in Bitgrain does, mapping deep indigo shadows to warm gold highlights.
The second is a dither into a two colour palette. Instead of a smooth blend, the image is broken into dots or pixels of each colour. It looks printed rather than graded, closer to a screen print or riso pull. Palettes like Cyanotype and Duotone Magenta work well for this.
Both are useful. The tone map is better for photography and subtle portraits, the dither is better for posters and covers that need to look physical.
Contrast between the two colours matters more than the colours themselves. A dark shadow and a light highlight give a full tonal range. Two mid tones give a flat, muddy image no matter how nice they look as swatches.
Keep the shadow colour dark enough to carry detail. Navy, deep purple, forest green and oxblood all work as the dark end.
Warm highlights against cool shadows feel cinematic. Two colours of the same hue feel calm and editorial.
If the photo has an important colour, like a red jacket, a duotone will remove it. That is often the point, but check it first.
Set contrast before the colours. A duotone exaggerates whatever tonal range the photo already has, so a flat photo becomes a flatter duotone.
Simple compositions read best. A single subject on a plain background keeps the two colours from turning into noise.
Stack carefully. Grain on top of a duotone adds a printed feel, a halftone turns it into a two ink poster, and a vignette pulls the eye to the centre.
Open the editor from this page and the Duotone filter is already on. Drop in your photo.
Adjust contrast and brightness first, until the subject separates cleanly from the background.
For a printed version, switch to dither and pick a two colour palette like Cyanotype or Duotone Magenta from the palette panel.
Export as PNG for social, or use it as the image on a poster or album cover template in the studio.
A photo rebuilt from two colours, one for the shadows and one for the highlights, with the tones in between mixed from the pair.
The Duotone filter uses a fixed indigo and gold pair. For other pairs, dither the photo into one of the two colour palettes, which gives a printed finish instead of a smooth blend.
A colour filter tints the original colours. A duotone throws them away and maps brightness to two new colours, so the result is consistent across very different photos.
You can use it without an account. Free exports carry a small watermark at web resolution. Pro removes it and exports at full resolution.