here's my attempt of colorizing an old photo of my grandpa. This is my first time trying this and I don't really have much experience with photo retouching at all, but it's somthing I've been getting into in my freetime lately.

Lemme know what you think about this and what I need to improve, thanks
after (http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3866/after1eq.jpg)
before (http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7199/before2st.jpg)

justin,

welcome to RP.

i'll just point out a couple things on this cause i'm off to bed soon.

first, it looks very good overall.

second, you've cut off the bottoms of his irises just a bit.

and third, the shadows on his neck look more like hair or dirt than shadows.

if i were grading it, B+

(it's actually pretty darned good)

craig

Hi Justin,

Nice job overall, good skin tones.

I agree with Craig about the eyes. Also the outline of the hat looks a little too sharp (compare with original), could do with softening very slightly.

But these are pretty small faults on an otherwise well executed colouring.

Very nicely done!
Because his glasses do not have a frame along the bottom, you might try lighting the skin area the under the glass just bit. A subtle change in color might help as well.

Excellent skintones!
As far as colourisation goes its pretty flawless. There are a few spots that I can see (if you look long enough) where the colouring doesnt quite match the shading but its very good for a first try.
not sure about the colour of the gold but thats a minor quibble.
The base image could have done with some work beforehand though. I think most of the comments being made could have been avoided if you'd worked on the base image a little more first.

Just to demonstrate what a cleaned up background image can do. Pasted yours in over the top and set the blend mode to colour (didnt have time to color it myself)

Hey everybody, thanks alot for the feedback so far! Great forum y'all have here, i'll definitly take a look into working on all the areas everybody pointed out.

I definitly do need to finess the original image a little, all I had done was a level and tone adjustment. I"ll make sure not to forget about doing more cleanup work on the original in my next one. Thanks again.