Nordin
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Hello everyone!
Thought I would explain and show my way to color a black and white picture. It seems to be an area that is quite appreciated. There are different ways to color a picture, but below I show the method I find works well.
It is a method that makes it relatively realistic. A fairly advanced technique, but if you worked in Photoshop for awhile, this shall not be a problem at all. Are you a beginner is perhaps the "normal" coloring method easier, but as I said I show you with images.
If this technique shall work fully, is it good if the image is "stable". Not too harsh contrasts and completely dark areas. If you got a picture with high contrast, you have to be more accurate. To show, I took a picture with high contrasts...
My picture
STEP 1:
Okey. You have your image, start with making it to "CMYK color" instead of "RGB Color" by clicking: Image - Mode - CMYK color - click ok.
(It also works with RGB Color)
Now you have four color channels instead of three as it is in "RGB color" mode.
The method is to work with color curves. So we create a new adjustment layer by Clicking curves.
You got your picture and your adjustment layer. Now it's time to set the curves to the right level.
I choose to create her skin color first...
Click on CMYK and start with cyan. This is the hard part, to get the right color as you want. In the beginning, you need to experiment your way if you are not used by using curves. After cyan drag magenta and last yellow (not black right now) to the right level to get the color you want...
The curves of her skin tone.
The result looks like this now:
Select the layer mask (as the picture) and click Ctr + i to make it inverse. This allows us to paint her skin color
back where it should be.
Select the brush tool (white color) still standing on the layer mask.
And start to paint over her skin.
This is essentially the approach of making a black and white photo to color!
To proceed, simply repeat the same approach to color the other parts. Create a curve - pull the nuances wherever you want, to get the right color - Ctr + i - "mask out" the area you want to have the color - repeat
Thought I would explain and show my way to color a black and white picture. It seems to be an area that is quite appreciated. There are different ways to color a picture, but below I show the method I find works well.
It is a method that makes it relatively realistic. A fairly advanced technique, but if you worked in Photoshop for awhile, this shall not be a problem at all. Are you a beginner is perhaps the "normal" coloring method easier, but as I said I show you with images.
If this technique shall work fully, is it good if the image is "stable". Not too harsh contrasts and completely dark areas. If you got a picture with high contrast, you have to be more accurate. To show, I took a picture with high contrasts...
My picture
Okey. You have your image, start with making it to "CMYK color" instead of "RGB Color" by clicking: Image - Mode - CMYK color - click ok.
(It also works with RGB Color)
Now you have four color channels instead of three as it is in "RGB color" mode.
The method is to work with color curves. So we create a new adjustment layer by Clicking curves.
You got your picture and your adjustment layer. Now it's time to set the curves to the right level.
I choose to create her skin color first...
Click on CMYK and start with cyan. This is the hard part, to get the right color as you want. In the beginning, you need to experiment your way if you are not used by using curves. After cyan drag magenta and last yellow (not black right now) to the right level to get the color you want...
The curves of her skin tone.
The result looks like this now:
Select the layer mask (as the picture) and click Ctr + i to make it inverse. This allows us to paint her skin color
back where it should be.
Select the brush tool (white color) still standing on the layer mask.
And start to paint over her skin.
This is essentially the approach of making a black and white photo to color!
End result:
Hope this will be helpful! Ask if there is anything that is unclear and I'll update or help you with that! / Nordin
Hope this will be helpful! Ask if there is anything that is unclear and I'll update or help you with that! / Nordin
