Coloring Digital Black And Whites

[nick_evans1]

In the good old days when people use to 'hand colour' their prints,

it used to look very translucent and have a really neat look to the

finished print.

Now I know how to change a colour into black and white, using

Photoshop, and I can 'colour' the print back in. but can anyone

suggest away to emulate the way it was done (or still is done, no

offence mean't) to give the finished print that kind of translucent

feel to it.

Hope this makes sence.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Nick

[gaspar]

Whenever you choose the paintbrush or whatever tool you are using, you should see a control on the bar, at the top, that says opacity. Set the opacity to 50 percent or below and see what the effect looks like. I try several different opacities until I get the look that I want.

[chad_h]

I found a way that keeps current tonal range will allowing you to add color. Here's the steps:

 

1) convert image to grascale and back to rgb

 

2) select first area to be colored in by using magic wand or lasoo (zoom in for fine detail)

 

3) next copy selection to a new layer

 

4) go to image/adjustments/channel mixer and have fun. You can also adjust transparency of that layer to change the effect.

 

I'm sure this is one of many ways to do this. I'll post a picture later.

[solja]

As Chad said, there are a lot of ways to do what you describe. The way I add digital color to black and white images is similar to what Chad described, but instead of using the Channel Mixer, I use the Hue/Saturation adjustment and down in the lower-right of the dialog box is an option to 'Colorize' - I check that, adjust the hue to get the color I want, set the saturation to control how 'bright' I want the color, and use the lightness bar to change the apparent tonality of the selection. It works quite nicely, here are a couple of links to photos I've done this to:<p>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1023570">http://www.photo.net/photo/1023570</a><br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/1025728">http://www.photo.net/photo/1025728</a><p>

Hope this helps...

[steve_bingham]

1- Select an area by any method you choose. Feather 1 or 2 pixels.

 

2- Edit, Copy. Then Edit, Paste.

 

3- Window, Layers, then highlight top layer.

 

4- Now, with the magic wand select the area OUTSIDE the area you intend to color (your selection). Now select Inverse.

 

5- Edit, Fill, foreground color (your painting color)

 

6- Use the down triangle in the layer box, select Color rather than Normal. The color only will be applied to your selection.

 

7- Remember, after selecting an area ALWAYS feather 1 or 2 pixels!!!!!

 

One of a dozen ways but one of the easiest. Good luck!

[steve_bingham]

Method 2

 

1- If you are STARTING with a color image, simply select the area you want in color.

 

2- Feather 1 or 2 pixels. Select Inverse and change saturation to zero. This gives a color AND black and white image.