B&W with pastel

[heretic messiah]

You know those romantic looking Black and white where you have a bit of pastel colouring on the cheeks or another part of the body or around...
How do you do it?
I tend to just to turn the pic in black and white and then create a duplicate background and add colour with my mouse and the paint brush. It does not give me the look I want.
An suggestions ladies and gents? ;\

 

[Welles]

Hi h-m,

This is one subject which has so many different potential techniques it is astounding. I ran a quick Google search for 'colorizing black and white Photoshop tutorial' and found many different tutes. Here are three...

http://www.sitepoint.com/blog-post-view.php?id=186357

http://www.absolutecross.com/tutorials/photoshop/photos/colorizing/

http://81.138.9.90/lolaness/tutorials/colorchange.htm

http://www.mandarindesign.com/tutorials/colorizing.html

I'd suggest checking out these, running your own search, practicing a bunch of different techniques, and settling on a technique which works for you.

The basic steps will include creating selections adding color on a new layer, using blend modes and/or opacity. Let us see a result!

 

[JoeD]

I tend to just to turn the pic in black and white and then create a duplicate background and add colour with my mouse and the paint brush. It does not give me the look I want.

Some tips;

a) look very carefully at the kind of image you want to achieve, try to analyze what you're actually seeing and try to translate this to photoshop with the right techniques.
First look at the B&W conversion. Does it look right? Maybe too much contrast or maybe it needs needs an additional technique to make it look more like the B&W images you're after? How do the colors blend in?

It's my experience that some people rush too much into things. A good preparation can save you many headaches.

b) use the right blending mode(s)
c) use the right opacity, either for layer or brush
d) use soft brushes, change colors, sizes, softness or opacity as often as possible, learn the shortcuts
e) be patient, work in small steps, don't go for a high brush opacity, but a low one instead to have more control

 

[heretic messiah]

Thank you Welles ( you are becoming quite my personal angel in terms of PS work) and for your advices JoeyD.
ok could not find a good quality photo but tried out anyways. This is not spectacular per se but got me the basic I wanted.

 

[JoeD]

Looking good

Btw, wanted to added another point to what I said earlier; zoom in.

This might sounds obvious, but I've seen too many people making the mistake not to zoom in.
Also learn the zoom shortcuts and use the amazing space bar to move the area that you're viewing (just in case you didn't know).

 

[heretic messiah]

Thanks JoeD...I got plenty to learn and to develop still but I will cetainly continue 8))