Hand Coloring black and white Photograph

Do you have old black and white photographs that you would like to color? Well you no longer have to undergo the torture of tediously hand coloring them anymore. You can use Photoshop to do the job for you. Follow below step by step instructions for more details:

This tutorial aims to show you just how this can be done. As the first step you need to select a black and white photograph and load it on to Photoshop. You can scan it or get it from a digital camera. The photograph we have selected is the one shown in figure 1. It is a pretty complicated picture.

Figure 1.

Note that the colored version of the same picture is also placed along side the black and white one for later use in this tutorial. Just look at the picture shown infigure 2.

Figure 2.

1) Make sure your image is set in RGB color mode. Go to Image>>Mode>>RGB Color as shown in figure 3.

Figure 3

2) We shall now separate the component parts of the image into layers  to facilitate the coloring process. Layers are like sheets stacked one on  top of the other and are very useful when you want to split up an image into component parts. Now click on the Layer menu and select “Create New Layer”  or use the New layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette or press  Shift+Ctrl+N to create the new layer. Do you have old black and white photographs that you would like to color?  Well you no longer have to undergo the torture of tediously hand coloring them anymore. You can use Photoshop to do the job for you. Follow below step by step instructions for more details: 3) The blending mode of the new layer needs to be changed to color. This is necessary as it allows us to apply color without losing the shades of gray that are part of the image. To change the blending mode, select the layer and click on the blending mode field at the top of the Layers palette as shown in figure 4and click on the down arrow and select “Color” as shown in figure 5. Figure 4.  Click here to view larger image. Figure 5.  Click here to view larger image. 4) Now reduce the opacity of the layer by 50%. To do this, navigate to the Opacity field near the top of the blending options dialog box, click on the arrow and drag the slider to the left as shown in figure 6. Figure 6 5) Let us change the foreground color to red by double clicking the foreground swatch and picking your favorite shade of red as shown in figure 7. Figure 7.  Click here to view larger image. 6) Select a brush icon in the tool bar. Preferably a soft round brush as shown infigure 8. Figure 8.  Click here to view larger image. 7) Lets begin painting the roofs of the houses red as illustrated in figure 9. Figure 9 8) Now we shall begin painting something else. Now create a new layer as shown in figure 10 and set the blending mode to Color and the opacity to 50% as you did for the previous layer. Figure 10.  Click here to view larger image. 9) We shall now select blue for the sky and begin painting it with the brush already selected as shown in figure 10. Figure 10.  Click here to view larger image. 10) We shall now select blue for the sky and begin painting it with the brush already selected as shown in figure 11. Figure 11. 11) Now we shall create another layer and select the blending options as color and set the opacity to 50% as above. 12) We shall now select leaf green for coloring the trees as shown in figure 12. Figure 12.  Click here to view larger image. 13) Now we shall create another layer and select the blending options as color and set the opacity to 50% as above. 14) We shall select a deep gray for the road and color it as shown in figure 13. Figure 13.  Click here to view larger image. 15) Now we shall create another layer and select the blending options as color and set the opacity to 50% as explained in step 3 and step 4. 16) We shall now color the walls of the houses burnt sienna as shown in figure 14. Figure 14. 17) The painting is now complete. You can now make adjustments to the colors in each of the layers if you so wish. To make changes select everything in the layer by Ctrl+Click on the layer icon of the layer(this is the thumbnail of the image of the layer). Now hold down the control button and left click on the icon. You will know if you have selected all the items in the layer if you see the selection marquee active as shown in figure 15. Figure 15.  Click here to view larger image. 18) Now let us see if we can adjust the brightness and contrast in the layer. Go to Image menu and select Adjustments>>  Brightness/Contrast as shown infigure 16. Figure 16.  Click here to view larger image. 19) Now adjust the brightness and contrast till you are satisfied with it as shown in figure 17 . Figure 17. 20) Now select Image>>Adjustments>>Hue and  Saturation as shown in figure 18. Figure 18.  Click here to view larger image. 21) Now tinker with the hue and saturation sliders till you are satisfied with the colors as shown in figure 19. Figure 19. 22) Now compare the colored picture with the original colored version as shown in figure 20 . Figure 20.  Click here to view larger image. 23) In the above exercise we colored every bit of the picture. However, parts of pictures can be colored to get special effects. In the rest of this tutorial we shall see how this can be done. We have selected an image as shown in figure 21which is a black and white image(randomly from the Internet) to highlight the foreground for dramatic effects. Figure 21. 24) Let us color the Baby’s eyes blue to create a dramatic impact. Create a new layer. Set the blending mode to color and the opacity to 50% as shown in figure 22. Figure 22.  Click here to view larger image. 25) Now Select a suitable brush and a deep blue color for the Baby’s eyes. Color the eyes as illustrated as shown in figure 23. Figure 23. 26) Let us add some colorful text to emphasize certain aspects of the image such as the loving embrace of the mother and the total trust in the eyes of the child as shown in figure 24. Figure 24. 27) Now let us color the entire baby and see what kind of dramatic effects we can produce. Create a new layer and set the blending options and the opacity as explained in step 3 and step 4. 28) Select a suitable soft brush and color and begin coloring the baby as illustrated in figure 25 . Similar effects can be used to an advantage to highlight an object by coloring it and positioning it in a black and white background. Figure 25. 29) We have selected a picture of a black rug for the background as shown in figure 26. This has been pasted on to a separate layer. We propose to create a mailer for Lipstick with this picture. Figure 26. 30) Now we need to place a lipstick image on this background and emphasize the color in the product. So we create another layer and paste a lipstick image on to the layer as shown in figure 27. Figure 27. 31) We shall now emphasize the golden color of the lipstick case by adding gold color to it. Create a new layer and set the blending and opacity options and select a suitable soft brush and golden color for the coloring and the resutant image would be as shown in figure 28. Figure 28. 32) We shall increase the red in the lipstick to emphasize the color. Create a new layer and set the blending and opacity options. Now select a suitable brush and color for coloring and the resultant image would be as shown in figure 29. Figure 29. 33) Now that we have the rich coloring in place, let us focus on the text which could run something like this “Whenever you see color,  think of us….” and the resultant image would be as shown in figure 30 . Figure 30.