Can someone please tell me how can I find the above charts.

Gerald McClaren

http://www.retouchpro.com/pages/colors.html

I've seen those skin charts before, but I have no clue how to use them. Reading from left to right and from top to bottom, there seems to be four series going from light to dark. If I'm right so far, when would I choose one over the others?

The hair chart is even more mysterious. Nobody has monochrome hair so what's the point of the single patches?

I use gradients built from light, middle and dark samples to colorize, but I would like to learn to use those charts too.

Pierre

Well I've found the Bruce Beard Color Charts very handy for colorization of black and white photos. First add colors from the charts to your palette of colors "swatches." Make sure your black and white photo is converted to RGB mode. Then paint on a separate layer over the skin or hair areas using color "blending mode." By painting in color blending mode the luminosity of the lower layer is preserved.

Speaking of black and white photograph coloring-- you should check out Akvis's Coloriage program. It allows you colorize a black and white photograph in minutes based on matlab calculations. I tried the demo awhile ago and it was a superb program. I would definitely purchase it if I had any demand for colorizing black and whites, but then I'm on the edge of purchasing it anyway simply because it amazes me.

The charts are also available (zipped up with matching palettes) from our Resources section under Miscellaneous.

I looked at their samples on the website, and I am not impressed at all. I downloaded the program so I'll probably try it, but almost every colorized image they have for a sample looks so fake... almost like it's out of a Roadrunner cartoon, especially bad on skin tones. Everything is very much "one color", it lacks those subtle nuance changes.

Aye, but that depends on how much you put into working with it-- Coloriage is a tool, and like anything, it depends on how you use it. The examples on the website hardly do the program justice.

Just a question, I just tried to get into the resources section but all I get is a blank screen :sad:

Any other way I can download the zip files?

Due to lack of interest the Resources section was closed. The same files (unzipped) can be obtained from the link above.

I don't think Akvis's Coloriage is worth no $100. oh wait, the price goes up to $250 if you get it for your business.