I really haven't tried colouring seriously, so don't quite know where to start. This photo that I recently discovered seems like it might be a good candidate, and I was hoping some of those gifted at this art might give me some pointers and ideas!

Attachment 1 is the unrestored version, 2 is restored. I'd also be interested in people's opinions if this woman is the same as the woman in attachment 3. If she is, then she is my grandmother! As she died when my mother was very young, she cannot identify her easily.

cathy,

lovely woman and lovely restoration!

and, i would say yes, it's the same woman. i put them side by side and sharpen more'd the unrestored one. no other cleanup, just the sharpening to help make the id.

Craig

Caitlin, I love the monochromatic effect of the original and your nice restoration. In this case I would say less is more. I just added a copper gradient and a little color on soft light layers.

Please excuse any rough edges. I'm working with a new monitor and one of my eyes is giving me problems.

Thanks for the confirmation Craig - the more I looked at the few photos I had last night, the more convinced I became. Extraordinary that my mother has never seen this photo before!

You're right MaryLynn, I think very subtle shadings are the way to go. I don't think I have grasped 'soft light' yet, but I will have to give it a go!

The eyes mouth and chin match too well, not to be the same.

One pic on top of the other.

Here's the coloring rendition I came up with. If you would like to know how I did it, let me know and I will write the steps for you.

~Amber~

Amber,

I think you did a terrific job! The color fits the picture very well. I'm especially impressed with the flowers and planter. I would like to know the details of what you did.

Bill

Hi,

Here's an unfinished version. As you can see I mainly concentrated on the skin, though I think I've gone a little overboard on the pink tones. Ambers is better.
(I'm still very new to this colouring lark!)

I will colour the flowers etc. try to alter the skin a little and repost sometime soon.

Great picture & restoration btw.

Nick

Thanks everyone for their ideas! Amber, your rendition is wonderful. I would really love to get some steps from you.

I've also attached another version of the portrait. After posting it last time I removed a bit of the paper pattern noise.

Caitlin...

I was looking at the second image thinking to clean it a bit an color it (the other was getting all the attention <G>) but I think the repair is beyond my skill. A couple of thoughts tho. I do think they are the same lady as I think you decided. And I assume you noticed the photo was altered. She is holding the hand of someone who has been removed. Looks like maybe a child. Might be worth looking to see if anyone in the family has the origional.

Bill

amber,

that is really lovely! very nicely done!

and nick, i like yours as well.

cathy, what a great photo and you're really doing it justice :)

Craig

and cathy,

might i suggest that there are a couple of other pictures within that picture. a head and shoulders crop would make a lovely pic. the pot/vase/flowers would make a great pic also.

and, if you're so inclined, i think this would make a great pic to post in the photo art area. i can easily see some oils and water colors here.

Craig

Hi Craig,

You are right - there are a couple of nice detail areas as well in this picture. I fell in love with it as soon as I found it, even when I wasn't sure who it was!

I will have a think about your suggestion on the photo art forum. My mother is very sensitive about her privacy and the memory of her parents, so I think may not like it if I let it be used elsewhere, or played with too much. I think I can picture what you are saying though and it could produce some nice results, but I think for now staying in the restoration forum somehow seems more respectful (sorry - that sounds daft, doesn't it??)

Bill - you are right - my mother spotted the hand too. I can only assume that it is her holding my mothers hand, though it is odd that she has been cut out of the photo. Sadly there is no one else in the family to check with - my mother was an only child, both of her parents immigrants from England with no roots left that I know of. I found this photo, with a lot of other unidentified photos in an old cigar box, basically all that is left of my grandparents, that I'm now sifting through, trying to find the patterns.

Photoshop. Craig - I'm Caitlin not Cathy! *lol* (Though I'm very flattered - I really admire Cazubi's work!)

(sorry - that sounds daft, doesn't it??) not in the least.

Craig

urp! caitlin! (not cathy!) (now who looks daft!)

Well you will see from the attached why colouring scares me off a bit - I'm just not good at laying it on! What do people think - too subdued? And I guess the $1000 question is, does it look nice coloured, or should it stay sepia?

Also I do find it hard to do the cross over areas well - ie. the hair/forehead/around the ear - I would love some advice on the best way of overlaying the hair and skin shading with a natural looking result?

Also, I'm very aware of Vikki's advice not to leave anything grey, but I'm not sure how to overcome this when I think I'd quite like the idea of leaving a lot of the image white?

i dont know the answers there, caitlin, but it looks far better than what i could do.

Craig

Wouldn't it be great if Vikki had a tutorial on coloring? Or a giant list of do's and don'ts for coloring that we could refer too (and often at that!) If she already has one-please point me in that direction! She is an inspiration!

Caitlyn, I think your coloring looks great. I can see a couple of gray spots but the colors are really good. The thing about the gray- even if you are leaving areas white, in real life white has a tinge of blue or other shades. so if you make a solid color adjustment layer of a light blue- change the layer mode to color then lower the opacity to approx 6-9% where it's barely there then use a layer mask and paint it in. That's the secret of my coloring is lots of layers and lots of masks. I never make selections of an area, I just paint in the black mask (hide all mask) I found a shortcut on this one that I had not tried before. With it being a very yellow sepia tone, I duplicated the original and then used Hue and Saturation to give it a more pinkish skin tone color- then used the Hide all mask and painted in the color on the face and arm. This was my beginning skin tone. After that I used solid color adjustment layer and gradiant maps on the rest of the photo. For the vase and her hair, I used a golden tan color- like that of Simba- in Color mode at an opacity of about 58% and I painted it on a black mask using a soft white brush. Lots of colors! Remember there are different modes, sometimes overlay looks better than color and vice verse. And opacity- I love to use masks and a brush at a low opacity so that I get lighter and darker shades using just one color and vary the opacity of the brush/mask.

How are you coloring, Caitlyn?

~Amber~

Hello Caitlin,

I gave your photo a try at coloring. I thought it was a beauty and very classical.
I also think the two woman are the same person.

Mostly I used layers with different colors and set the blend mode to either color or multiply.

cathy hunley

That's lovely Cathy - what have you done with the dress, it looks like you've added some yellow in there?

Thanks for the detail on your technique Amber - it's fascinating how there are so many ways to achieve colouring! I've attached a screenshot of how I did it this time - which may explain why I've ended out with some obvious grey bits.

I used layers set to colour and lowish opacity, and painted on the detail - which maybe is why I find it difficult to manage the crossover spots. I'm not sure where I picked up this technique now.

I did think of making the whole picture sepia - I think I remember reading that here before, but I decided I rather liked the dress and background being white?

I agree - a great big do/don't, handy tips list from Vikki would be marvelous!!

wow!

There's some really great colourings on this thread. I guess this image lends itself really well...

Here's another try, though still unfinished.

Thanks,

Nick

"That's lovely Cathy - what have you done with the dress, it looks like you've added some yellow in there? "


Yes, I used a very light yellow, RGB 250, 250, 213. and that layer mode was left on normal with a %75 opacity, with pure white high lights.

I'm new at these replies.

welcome to RetouchPRO, CathyH :)

and caitlin, like it or not, you seem to have created a challenge ;)

Hi Caitlin

Beautiful picture and very well done on your colouring.
You have got the skin tone colours just about spot on. I do not think this is under saturated at all in fact if I were doing this I may de-saturate it a little. But that is personal choice.

Your picture looks great on the screen but if you intend to print it then it may look a little strange.

Vicky always says to colour everything even if it should be grey. I agree with this and I think your background would look better printed with a bit of colour/noise.


Ken

Ken - that is absolutely lovely! Particularly the flannel flowers, you've done a superb job. Any chance of having a peek at your layers for that?

Hi Caitlin

Thank You for your kind comments

I have been colouring pictures for years. We used to take a Black and White Photo then Sepia tone it then my wife used to colour them with oil paint.
Now we use PS7 but I always feel like I’m still learning. I tried the three tutorials at the Worth site bit just can’t seem to get the hang of them so I always go back to layers set to colour like you did.

I have attached my layers but if you are looking to see how I did the flower it does not really show.

I created a brush for random flowers to add colour to grass and all sorts of other things.

The brush works on foreground and background colours. In this picture I set my colours to bright red and bright yellow. Brush size of 12 then I faded the layer opacity to 80%.

I am downloading this as a zip file from which you will need to extract the abr file.
If you don’t understand what to do with this the let me know and I’ll post instructions.


You could put your old avatar in there as well :grin:

Ken

Hi all,

As I've said there truly are some incredible colourings on this thread. And Caitlin's rendition seems very soft and.....well 'tangible'. But to me looks a little too 'painted'. The colour variation is great but not real.It looks like an amazing colouring rather than a colour photo. Even more so with Ken's flowers...

just my opinion,
Nick

Hi Nick,

I guess as the photo itself is not totally natural - it has been retouched and 'painted' a bit to give it that look, I wasn't expecting a totally photo-realistic colourisation. More just an attractive hand coloured appearance. I supose my expectation is that as this photo pre-dates colour photos, the look I expect is more a hand painted one, as was commonly done at the time. But that doesn't mean a more photo-realistic interpretation isn't good too.

Ken - I've finally tried out your fairy dust brush - how delightful! :tongue: I haven't enountered a multicoloured brush before. The combination of colours seems more complex that just foregound/background though, but from my testing so far I haven't figured out quite what it is....