How to colorize black and white photos in Photoshop

You have never visited the desire to paint a black and white photo of his parents, grandparents? A few decades ago, people could not imagine that you can capture on film not only objects, but also their color. Today, color photo has become so commonplace that many, on the contrary, make the color photos in black and white for the purpose of artistic stylization. In today's lesson we will look at how to make black-and-white photo into a color by means of my favorite - Photoshop. To start pick up any black and white photo. If you decide to paint the old photos, the first of his, of course, need to retouch and remove traces of time (this is a topic of another lesson). Then you can move on to the process of "coloring". Step №1. Color Mode photos Open the photo in the program Photoshop (in this case the work is done in version Photoshop CS3) and check the color mode of the image. To do this, run the command "Image - Mode" ("Image - Mode") and make sure that you select "RGB". http://semagenelcerrahi.com/ http://princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=12-10-14stink http://www.redtread.com/ http://www.microfluidicscorp.com/about For the record: If you scanned the photo in black and white image, it will be shown in the color mode, "Grayscale" ("Shades of gray"). This mode supports only black and white and shades of gray. If you want to paint the picture, it should be converted into a color model "RGB". Before you paint a picture, you have to analyze it and to approximately determine the colors that will be used. If you want to paint a portrait, think, what color of eyes, hair and skin shall be a person that all combined together. As an example, I'll take a photo of her grandmother (Fig. 1). Painting technique is quite simple. You must first select the area to paint, and then by means of color correction set for her color. Step №2. Highlight areas In Photoshop, sufficient funds for the selected area. We'll use a quick mask. This method I like the most, because a mask can be isolated such complex objects like hair fluffy, six animal, etc. So, we proceed to the separation of the skin. 1. Enter Quick Mask mode by pressing the "Quick Mask" ("Quick Mask") [pic] in the toolbar. 2. Take the tool "Brush" ("Brush") and set the parameter "Hardness" ("Stiffness") equal to 10%. This means that you will paint with a brush with a very soft edge, in order to avoid abrupt transitions between different areas of the image. Now start paint the contour of the skin. Try to do it very carefully. I recommend to operate in a fairly large increase Image quality selection to perform. Once you obvedete skin contour, can be installed to the brush setting "Hardness" ("stiffness") of 100% and paint remaining portions. For reference: The default brush will paint pink - the color of the mask. 1. paint the skin, leave the quick mask mode, which again press the "Quick Mask" ("Quick Mask"). You will see that the shaded area into a selection. In fact, currently allocated to all that has not been painted over (Fig. 2), because the principle of the mask is that the areas that we paint over, masked, or closed, and the rest are allocated. But in this case it is easier to select the object, and then swap the selected and unselected regions. This process is called invert selection. Thus, the command "Select - Inverse" ("Isolation - Reverse"). Now select the area. For information: You can set the mask so that when you exit the selection mode it proved shaded area. To do this, double-click on the button "Quick Mask" ("Quick Mask") and in the window that appears, set the switch to the "Selected Areas" ("Selections"). In the same window you can set the mask color (this color is absolutely nothing on impact). Now it would be possible to go to the coloring of the skin, but we will proceed differently. First, we select all the desired area, and then we will deal with coloring. Save and make a selection using the command "Select - Save Selection" ("Isolation - Save Selection"). In the window that appears in the "Name" ("Name"), type the name of the selection - for example, "skin". Now deselect the command "Select - Deselect" ("Isolation - Remove"). When you need a dedicated leather, simply load the selection using the command "Select - Load Selection" ("Selection - Load selection") and selecting from the list of the selection you want. Now, in the same way you want to select hair, eyes, clothes, background, each time retaining each selection. Step №3. Adding color to the picture Now that you have identified all the required field, load the first selection, for example, for the skin, using the command "Select - Load Selection" ("Selection - Load selection") and selecting from the list of "Name" ("Name"), the name of the desired separation . To add a color in Photoshop there are several means. I'll tell you about them, and to you to choose how you want to use. "Hue / Saturation" ("Hue / Saturation"). Run the command "Image - Adjustments - Hue / Saturation" ("Image - Settings - Hue / Saturation"). This will display the corresponding window. Use the slider to "Hue" ("Hue"), you can choose the hue of the image, the parameter "Saturation" ("saturation") affects the saturation of the selected color, and "Lightness" ("brightness") determines how dark or light it is. Since we color the black-and-white photo, you must select "Colorize" ("Render"), and then move the sliders for a suitable shade. "Photo Filter" ("Photo Filter"). Run the command "Image - Adjustments - Photo Filter" ("Image - Settings - Photo Filter"). A window will appear where you can choose the color by clicking on the sample, and using the slider "Density" ("Density") to pick up the saturation of the selected color. In most cases, you want to disable the "Preserve Luminosity" ("Save glow") to get rid of the unnatural glow. Try to work with these two tools because of the different elements of the image fit different means. In addition to working with color, you can work with the tone of the photo. The simplest means to work with the tone of a "Brighntess / Contrast" ("Brightness / Kontarst"). It runs the command "Image - Adjustments - Brighntess / Contrast" ("Image - Settings - Brightness / Contrast"). With the help of sliders, located in the window that appears, adjust the brightness and contrast of a whole image or its individual regions. This coloring black and white image is completed.