Hand Coloring Help

Dear Debbie,

I have both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop. If I want to color the berries red in a grayscale image, how do I do it? How do I colorize part of a picture that I changed from color to black-and-white?

Thanks for the help,

Stuck in Monochrome,
Central Lake, MI

***

Dear Stuck,

Hand coloring is fun and easy. Convert your image to black-and-white, then use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to paint the color in where you want it. I'm sure you have very good taste, but beware! Use this technique for good and not for evil -- do not over-greeting-card your world.

Follow these steps to make your hand tinting happen:

Step 1:  Make sure you're starting by opening a black-and-white image, or converting your color shot to b&w. Then create a new blank layer on top of the background by clicking on the New Layer button. The New Layer button looks like this in Photoshop, and resides at the bottom of the Layers palette. It looks almost the same in Elements, but hangs out in the top row of the Layers palette there:

(Photoshop's New Layer button)

Step 2: Pick a color. For a quick starter set of hues in Photoshop, go to Window > Color and click the Swatches tab of the color palette. In Elements, go to Window > Color Swatches. Click on one you like.

(Photoshop's Swatches Palette)

Step 3: Hit “B” to get the brush tool. You can control its size and how soft or hard its edges are in the Options Bar that runs along the top of the screen. Pick one with soft, fuzzy edges, and start painting.

If you think the color’s too intense, dial down the opacity of the layer. It’s not a bad idea to make a new, separate layer for each color; that way you can monitor the intensity of each individually. If you color too far outside of the lines, hit "E" on your keyboard to get the Eraser tool, and wipe away your paint. But remember, a little bleed at the edges is part of the hand-tinted look.

(My hand-colored layers in Photoshop)

Here's my original picture:

And the black-and-white version:

And finally, my hand-colored photo:

Hope that helps! As always, post your questions in the comments section.

All the best,
Debbie

Comments

[Hollie]

That was awesome information, I learned that technique in college and forget it and had been looking for a tutorial on it. Thanks a lot!

[Gerry Gully]

How do you restore the original color of the flowers in a B&W photo

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