Colorize your old Black and White photos with Photoshop

[Radon]

Well you must be seeing many of your local studios' ads that say Black&White to Color. Well don't waste money by paying them. You can do it at you home with just a PC and Photoshop installed. Get your photos scanned and open it in Photoshop.



Note: I am using a pic of our lovely Ash for this tut. (Also this may not be the simplest way of getting around things.)

1) Open your photo.



2) Image---->Mode---->RGB Color (if it's not already in that mode)



OK. Now in this pic there are various elements that need to be colorized. There is skin, her dress, the background etc. (well, it’ll depend on your image)



3) Take out your Lasso Tool and make a selection around the skin area.

TIP: When using the Lasso Tool, select while using Shift key to add to you existing selection. This comes in handy while selecting different parts together like face, hand etc. Similarly use the Alt key to minus from the existing selection.



4) Right-click inside the selected area and click the Layer via Copy option. (We are doing this coz we don’t want to damage the original image.) . In the Layers window (Window---->Show Layers) right-click on the newly created layer and click Layer Properties and rename the layer to Skin.



5) Image---->Adjust---->Variations. Feel free to play with the colors here and select the most appropriate color for the skin.

6) Next select the background layer in your Layers Window and with the Lasso Tool select the background. Make a Layer via Copy. Name it background. Repeat the step 5).



7) Continue like this until you colorize all parts of your image. You can also go into real details like lips,teeth, eyes etc etc.



Here is my final image:

Please rate this tutorial.

If you have your own tutorials, you can post it on our website too

Please register an account with Tech-Arena

http://www.techarena.in/forums/register.php

Your tutrials, will be listed on our homepages.

We have an Excellent Guides/Reviews SEction Feel free to check them here. WebSite homepage - www.techarena.in

Guides - http://www.techarena.in/articles.php?action=cat&id=8

Reviews - http://www.techarena.in/articles.php?action=cat&id=9

Also check our Games Section here, Compete Against users..

http://www.techarena.in/forums/arcade.php

Radon..

[ferrari]

Radon you are superb maan I'm gonna try this out eventhough I'm bad in designing Keep it up buddy

Regards,

[kirthu_darling]

Yeah, I think most of the local studios do use this method. But the one flaw about it is, the person should have a good idea about the exact colour, and shade of colour in the original - its a guessing game. most of the local studios dont have much time to work on this, so the colourised photos they make have very "basic" colours, not the correct shade, etc.

[Radon]

@kirthu_darling
well....this tut is for colorizing those old b&w photos....yes u r correct that it is very difficult for us to know the exact shade and alll.....the more we pay attention to details the better the photo becomes....

[digen]

gr8 work Radon.very useful.

[kirthu_darling]

@kirthu_darling
well....this tut is for colorizing those old b&w photos....yes u r correct that it is very difficult for us to know the exact shade and alll.....the more we pay attention to details the better the photo becomes....

Yep, exactly. better attention to details, better the photo. Was wondering if there was any program that could do that for us, analyze the black and white and guess the appropriate shade. The human eye can only do so much

[Radon]

@kirthu_darling
unfortunately there is no program available for this purpose.....u c when u talk about shades the shades may vary at every angle of light....but using the technique about you r still retaining the lighting and shadows as in the real scene....

[bottle]

good tutorial anyway.. thanks

[GunshotSilence]

well doing it in phtoshop is new for me

but those of u from digit forum muts have seen me edit abu (masks' pic) and mine to look like THE mask.
i did it in acdsee photocanvas 2.0

[GunshotSilence]

but photoshop one seems easier and better

[redsky]

This is the first way to make color image from black image.

[suvarna.skhekhar]

nice tutorial out there radon thank you for sharing your knowledge

[Seshaajju]

This is simply superb. Kudos for your patience

seshaajju