Colorizing photos

[Lloyd I.]

Here is an image that I did of Ernst Barkmann. I was wondering if anyone else does this with black and white photos from the period.

[Lloyd I.]

And the original.

[Larrister]

Hello Lloyd I.

Colorizing photos is a hobby of mine. I get great enjoyment out of bringing life to b&w photos. I have been doing it only for a short time using Photoshop 8 but I'm getting better at it. Here are some recent examples.

[Larrister]

Still working on this one.

[Larrister]

3.

[Larrister]

Not so good looking bride.

[Thälmannpionier]

agree about the bride....but you all did a great job in colorizing pics.

Sounds like a nice hobby..
Is it difficult to do colorizing? I have Photoshop 7 but don't really know how to work with it like that

cheers
Andreas

[Darrick]

Excellent photos!!That is really,really neat.I have been wanting a period colorized photo for some time now to spruce up one of my apartment walls,but the ones I have seen can be rather pricey.I have many photos that I could possibly do this to and save some dough in the long run.Great thread!Thanks for sharing. Regards,Darrick

[Frank Heukemes]

Maybe one of you guys could post short instructions how to do that? Or has that been done already?

[Darrell]

agree about the bride....

I think you could change that to ..... bride(s) ........

[Lloyd I.]

Yes, I use Photoshop.

I start by making a selection for an area to fill in. I have an RGB (Red-Green-Blue) index with colors I use for flesh, ribbons, eyes, etc. When applying color I adjust the opacity so that the actual photograph details both add dimension and shading as well.

The Dodge and burn tools in photoshop come in handy for areas of shadow.

It is really a matter of preferences. It is a fun process. Here are a few more of mine.

[Lloyd I.]

FJ-This is one my first attempts. I didnt get the pigments right in the face and the shading isnt correct. Too dark. But I think I am making headway.

[Larrister]

Thanks Guys,

It's not too hard to colorize photos. First of all you need a good program like Photoshop 8. Photos must be clear, in focus and a high resolution scan is desirable. I made many mistakes but with a lot of practice and reading the Help
files I got better. A steady hand is also necessary. The actual process is a little
too technical to describe in this thread. I would be willing to colorize the occasional studio portrait photo for members but only on a limited basis. It takes quite a long time to do and my time is limited. I also am into repairing scans of photos that have dust marks, scratches, blotches and creases on them. Here is an example of what can be done.

[Larrister]

And the result....

[i.spring]

Nice job Larrister!
I also do a little colorizing in photoshop and find it a great challenge and joy when i do a good job.
Just my own idea, but i think the clarity may be a little wayning in the above photo (mostly due to the original photo), I would recomment the sharpen tool once, then go to Tone and bring it up a little, so the dark pieces and light areas become more defined.

Also juts a tip I leanred for colorizing photos, outline large parts like the uniform of the soldier, then in photoshop copy and past, this will create a brand new layer with just that uniform.
Then going into the colour bar, bring up the green and blue until you get the correct co0lour for the uniform.
This process can be repeated for all assential elements in a photo.
Then when your all happy, flatten all the layers, remeber to backup the original photoshop layers file .
From this you can go into the tone feature and mess around until you get a nice even period colour tone over your whole image.

Hope this helps, PS i love this stuff!
Ian