How to Tone a Photograph

Analyze the light of the scene you are intending to shoot. A light meter may help to determine the color temperature (the orangeness or blueness of light), but you can also use your naked eye. Look for an area in the scene that should be white--such as snow, a white building or a road sign--and note the color under the scene's lighting conditions.

Choose a color filter to balance or enhance the lighting of the scene. For instance, night shots under tungsten lights (most street lights) will appear warmer, or more orange. This effect can be neutralized with a cooling blue filter. Alternatively, the same filter can be used underwater to exaggerate the blueness of the water.

Screw the filter to the front of your camera lens. The filter will have threads that match the threads on the end of your lens (the same threads that are used for lens hoods or other types of filters). Screw the filter clockwise until it is snug against the lens.

Disable the automatic white balance of your camera. Digital cameras analyze the tone of photographs and automatically apply adjustments to neutralize any color casts. Since your are using the colored filters to intentionally induce a tone, you must disable the white balance.

Look through your camera's viewfinder, which collects the light coming from the lens. Because the filter is placed directly over the lens, the image will appear with the same tone through the viewfinder as on the final image.