[ARENA]

I just want to know what techniques the talented Macnn community designers use to colorize pictures with PhotoShop.

I mean taking grayscale photos and getting them to look realistic in color.
There was a challenge about this a few weeks ago with a picture of Samuel L. Jackson and some very good 'colorizations' were posted.

I use the 'Color' blending mode and paint in a layer above the background image. It gives me very decent results, but i'm sure some of you might want to share some other techniques that can be used to achieve better results.

So there you go PS experts, share the power of knowledge!

[godzookie2k]

Personally I prefer to paint on a layer *below* the greyscale version and leave the greyscale version layer on multiply. I just feel like I get better results, but that might just be my imagination. It also helps the blacks effect the shadows and light of the color, not other way round. I don't really colorize black and white images all that often though.


Nick

[ 02-13-2002: Message edited by: godzookie2k ]

[rjenkinson]

use the paths tool to outline only the area you want to paint (or use variations on). it's a little time consuming, but you can be more precise.

-r.

[Miniryu]

Originally posted by ARENA:
<STRONG>I just want to know what techniques the talented Macnn community designers use to colorize pictures with PhotoShop.

I mean taking grayscale photos and getting them to look realistic in color.
There was a challenge about this a few weeks ago with a picture of Samuel L. Jackson and some very good 'colorizations' were posted.

I use the 'Color' blending mode and paint in a layer above the background image. It gives me very decent results, but i'm sure some of you might want to share some other techniques that can be used to achieve better results.

So there you go PS experts, share the power of knowledge! </STRONG>

I have never done this with an actual photograph, but use your normal color tools (airbrush, etc) on a separtate layer putting each color on a new layer. Use the eraser or a white pencil/brush to clean up the parts where you "go out of the lines".

Or you can just do what I do: print the picture, pull out some crayons and go to work !

[MacMerc.com]

When I colorized Sam L Jackson, I used the original black and white image as the bottom most layer and painted colors (one per layer) set to multiply on top of that. Then using a darkened copy of the original image as a mask I applied a soft gradient from pale yellow to white to re-establish some highlights.

Unfortunately, those images were casualties of my sites switch to PHPNuke.

[ARENA]

Originally posted by MacMerc.com:
<STRONG>When I colorized Sam L Jackson, I used the original black and white image as the bottom most layer and painted colors (one per layer) set to multiply on top of that. Then using a darkened copy of the original image as a mask I applied a soft gradient from pale yellow to white to re-establish some highlights.

Unfortunately, those images were casualties of my sites switch to PHPNuke. </STRONG>

Too bad you lost them.
I think yours were the best results for that picture.
What filters did you use for it...i remember you gave it some sort of comic book look.

[MacMerc.com]

Originally posted by ARENA:
<STRONG>

Too bad you lost them.
I think yours were the best results for that picture.
What filters did you use for it...i remember you gave it some sort of comic book look.</STRONG>

I used Andromeda Screens to get the comic book ink line effects and the standard Color Halftome filter to simulate the comic book dot screen.

I'm glad you liked them — I enjoyed the challenge. If I am able to retrieve them, I will probably publish a tutorial on the effect. Thanks!

[ARENA]

Originally posted by MacMerc.com:
<STRONG>
I'm glad you liked them — I enjoyed the challenge. If I am able to retrieve them, I will probably publish a tutorial on the effect. Thanks! </STRONG>

That would be cool. Let us know if you do it.

Regards,