Well, with Susan's lead, I decided I needed to try a colorization. Something I never really thought about doing, but Susan inspired me. I decided to work on my grandparents' wedding photo. I've always loved the photo, but it is starting to yellow and needed a little touch-up work before I even got to the colorization.

I spent WAY too long doing this - about 6 hours total, I think. (Does practice help reduce that to less than an hour? I can't see people paying me for that much time just to colorize a photo.) I should have been reading Eisman's book instead (which may have given me some tips to reduce the amount of time I spent on it) or working on my business challenge entry. Instead, I spent hours analyzing and second guessing myself on skin tones, lips (what a pain in the butt!!) and hair color.

Anyway, I'd really appreciate feedback - esp. any comments on how it could be better. Thanks, Jeanie

Fantastic job!

The background looks nice, the skin tones are great, even the brass buttons glow! My only criticism is that her teeth look a bit blue. Other than that I am most impressed. In fact, you have inspired me, and I think I will have to try my hand at a colorization! And I must add, what a cute couple!!!

The teeth! Of course!! I didn't touch them with the colorization, so they're actually straight grayscale. But against everything else, they do look out of place. Well, I thought I was tired of working on it, but just one more little tweek couldn't hurt, huh? ;) -Jeanie

It makes me feel so good to watch y'all inspire each other :)

This is a good colorization. Not even 'good for a first attempt'. Just plain old good :)

I do agree that the blues appear to be a bit prevalent. Overall a cold cast. Rather than toning down the blues, maybe crank up the saturation on the warm tones a tad? But not if it compromises those nice blues.

OK, I lightened the teeth and increased saturation (too much?) on the faces/hair. (I've got so many different selections saved for this photo that it's easy to isolate just about any part in an instant.) Definite improvement! Thanks for the tips, T Paul and Doug.

I tried changing the background color to more of a pink to warm the overall picture tone, but it just didn't look as good. So, I think I'll stick with the blue background.

For those following this thread, I've attached the "new & improved" version. (Doug, please let me know if I attach too many pictures to my posts.)

Susan, as for the color of the brass - it was complete experimentation. Pure yellow looked fake, so I kept adding a little orange into the mix until "looked right" to my eyes. (I also played with the opacity quite a bit on ALL of the colors.)

Thanks for all of your encouragement! Now I eagerly await a response from my mother (whose parents these are.)
:)

Jeanie

Jeanie,

Your mother just called me. She is *VERY* impressed, as we all are. Excellent work!

Ed

Jeanie

Great job!!!! You really did superbly on the coloring. It looks like it was originally color. Keep up the good work girl. We need that kind of inspiration.
DJ

Jeanie,

The teeth look a lot more natural now. Nicely done. I am sure your mother will be thrilled with what you have done. In fact, you have given me some ideas for some gifts for my relatives.

-T

Good job, it looks great

I think it looks great. Love the shot and love the color. Not overdone just right.

jeaniesa


All I can say is that I definitely tip my hat to you. That is truly one of the best coloration jobs I've seen, you definitely have a good eye and I'm jealous at what you've done?


Yes, practice does reduce the time that you do such things, but practice always allows you to do things more quickly anyway.

One thing I did notice, was that there seemed to be a slight darkening around the lips, though.

other than that, it's a wonderful job.
Did you use any plugins at all?


Rick

PS:

If you don't mind, and if you can remember, an excellent example of a before and after picture as well the steps that you did would truly be appreciated.

Rick, I don't have time to type in the details of what I did until later today, but I WILL post it here soon (as well as the "before" photo.) -Jeanie

OK, I found some time I didn't know I had. ;-) Let me preface this by saying that I have NO previous experience or even book knowledge about how to colorize a photo. I used the (limited) knowledge that I have of selections and layers, combined with a couple of tips from Doug and “vogonpoet”, and just “went for it” as they say. That being said, here is what I did…

Before coloring, I needed to restore the photo a bit, as it was turning yellow and had some stains along the edges as well as some black lines along the left side where the mat had been stored in stuck to the photo. To restore the photo, I worked in RGB mode and examined each channel separately. What I found was that the staining along the sides of the photo almost disappeared in the red channel, but the faces and white shirt looked washed out. The light and shadows on the faces looked the best in the green channel; and the blue channel contained detail showing the wrinkles in the white shirt that the other channels didn’t. So, I decided to work with the green channel, but copy the background of the red channel on top of it, as well as the white shirt from the blue channel. (If you don’t need the details on how I did that, skip the first paragraph in the next message.)

I've attached the original scan of the photo here.

(continued)

I have no idea if there is a faster way to do this or not, but it works for me.

First I created a “new” photo with the same dimensions (in pixels), resolution and mode (RGB) as the original photo.

Working in the original photo, I clicked on the green channel. Selected the entire photo, then copy/pasted that selection into the NEW photo. (The “new” photo now contained only the green channel of the original photo.)

Back in the original photo, I clicked the red channel and selected the background (using a feathering between 3-8 depending on how sharp the line was along the selection path.) I SAVED the selection, then copy/pasted that selection in the NEW photo. I think I had to move the selection around to make it line up correctly, but that was fairly simple using the arrow keys to “nudge” a pixel at a time when I got it close.

Back in the original photo, I clicked on the blue channel and selected the white shirt. Again, I varied the feathering depending on the area I was selecting. For example, the shadow area on the right side of the selection had a larger feathering than the shoulder. And again, I SAVED the selection, then copy/pasted the shirt from the blue channel into the NEW photo and moved it around until everything matched up.

The resulting “new” photo now had three layers and each of the RGB channels were identical. I flattened the image (merged all of the layers) and started cleaning up the stains/marks that still needed attention. Once done, I saved the “new” photo as the restored version of the original.

I've attached the restored photo here.

(continued)

Working on the restored version, I decided to work on one piece at a time. The basic process was:

1. make a selection of the piece I wanted to color (e.g., my grandmother’s face)
2. save the selection, make a new “layer via copy”
3. load the selection while working on that new layer
4. change the blending mode of the layer to “color”
5. choose an appropriate foreground color(*)
6. “fill” the selection
7. change the opacity of the layer to make it “look right”

(*) I found choosing the appropriate color to be extremely time consuming for the faces and lips. Even though I used Bruce Beard’s skintone color charts that are in the resource section of this site, I found myself endlessly tweaking for more or less yellow/red and experimenting with the opacity setting. Perhaps part of my problem was that I know what my grandparents’ skin tones were – AND once I was happy with the colors I chose for my grandmother, I also had to make my grandfather’s skintone look realistic, but also look good against the color I’d used for my grandmother. Yes, I did use different tones for both of them.

In the end, I had 12 layers and a HUGE file! Since the photo is 8x10 at 300dpi and I wanted to keep it that way, the file size of the final version before flattening the image was 171MB!! Luckily I’ve got about 450M RAM. (I knew I bought all that memory for something. ;-) I suppose I could have flattened the file as I went, but it seemed well worth it to have all of the layers in the end, because I could go back to any layer (i.e., any piece of the photo) and tweak the color, opacity, curves, etc. to balance the overall color and/or brightness.

If you’re interested, here are the layers (selections), along with the color and opacity that I used. (Remember, all layers were blended using "color".)

1. Woman’s face minus eyes and lips – #F0D6BF – 80%
2. Woman’s lips – #820700 – 35%
3. Iris of eyes (man and woman) – #5B7898 – 50%
4. Woman’s hair – #DCD0BA – 65%
5. Woman’s shirt – #B4C1EC – 60%
6. Man’s face – #FFE0C6 – 75%
7. Man’s lips – #420D01 – 70%
8. Man’s hair (and eyebrows) – #554838 – 100%
9. Brass buttons and gold trim on shoulder – #FFCC00 – 70%
10. “Patch” on shoulder – #2A2A4E – 65% (I have since learned that the patch should be black, so it was easy to go and delete this layer to return the patch to the correct color.)
11. Background – #273D9A – 15% (not a typo, that’s fifteen %)
12. Woman’s teeth – #FFFFE3 – 50%

In addition to that, I made a few tweaks on the background layer. Specifically, I loaded the selection for my grandfather’s face and used curves to lighten it slightly. I also loaded the selections for both sets of lips (separately) and used curves to lighten my grandmother’s and darken my grandfather’s. I also used curves to lighten a selection of my grandmother’s teeth. I used an airbrush at 20-30% opacity to give a hint of color to the cheeks on both.

I saved the 171MB file with all of the layers and selections as a Photoshop file (to make it easy to update based on feedback – it also allowed me to go back and provide the details above, since I hadn’t written those down as I worked), then flattened the image to make it a more manageable size. Once it was flattened, I loaded all of the selections for the heads/faces and increased the saturation by 20%.

Looking back on the process, I’m sure it would have been easier just to paint the color in the various areas (on different layers?), but I also think it was nice to have all of the selections at the end when I wanted to tweak individual pieces. Now I think I’ll go read a couple of books and find out how the pros do it! ;-) I’ve attached a side-by-side before/after comparison here.

Jeanie

I don't think I ever addressed Rick's comments/questions:
Originally posted by Rick
One thing I did notice, was that there seemed to be a slight darkening around the lips, though.
I think this has to do with my selection/feathering process. I'm not quite sure how to get around this, but for an example of what happened, try this:

1. Create a new (empty) image in your favorite photo SW.
2. Choose the eliptical (or square, or any one that you want) selection tool and "select" a large area.
3. Choose a bright foreground color (I chose something close to magenta) and fill the selection.
4. Invert the selection.
5. Choose another bright foreground color (I chose green) and fill that selection.
6. At least in my sample, I get a dark ring near the outside of the magenta.

Perhaps this is a case of feathering too much, or not completely understanding how feathering and inverse selections work (probably both). So, something more to learn.


Did you use any plugins at all?

Nope.

Jeanie

I'm totally impressed. I might snatch this picture and see if I can do something along those same lines, if you don't mind.

Looking more closely at the original, the Darkening seems to be in there too. It could simply be that she put on the lipstick a bit heavier there and (for the lack of a better word) sucked in the light and made it appear darker then the surrounding areas.


Definitely good work, I can only imagine what you'd do with a little bit of polishing, if you need it at all. :)


Rick

<tosses a couple of pennies>

Originally posted by Rick
I'm totally impressed. I might snatch this picture and see if I can do something along those same lines, if you don't mind.
Yes, you (or anyone) may use the photo for practicing if you'd like. If you do work on it, I'd love to see what you come up with. :) However, I do request is that it doesn't end up in a portfolio or on a website somewhere (other than this one and my future one.)

Thanks, Jeanie

Absolutely beautiful work. The description of your procedure is a way I haven't come across but it sure works well. The colortones you used are perfect. What a wonderful gift that will be.

Jeeminy. That is just wonderful. Your work, yes, but especially your description.

The huge file sizes are an unfortunate byproduct of this technique, but the amount of control is unbeatable (and you can always burn it to cd and delete it when you're done).

Fabulous work!!! You've done a wonderful job. The woman's hair color is excellent.
The only flaw I saw (and I may be wrong) but, it looks like you colored her ear the same color as her hair.
Her's a tip that I use: After working on something for a long time, it helps me to flip it horizontaly, just to get a different view. Many times it helps to reveal overlooked areas.

Vikki

Great idea on flipping a photo to get a different perspective! I’ve heard of a similar technique in editing. Once you have read something over and over again, you don’t usually catch the mistakes, but if you read it backwards you do.

Vikki, I have looked and looked at that section of the photo and still can't figure out if it's her ear or not. If I look at the original, I don't think so. But, when I look at my colorization, I do think so. I suppose since it doesn't bother me (the way some other changes that people have pointed out), perhaps it's OK to just leave it as is. But, I tried a version which makes it look like her ear anyway. I still don't know which I like best.

And while I was making those changes, I decided to try changing the color scheme a bit. I got some feedback from one of my friends that burgundy was a popular color back then (her grandmother's wedding dress had a burgundy bustle), so I tried changing the photo to use a burgundy (and subsequently warmer) color scheme. I had a hard time choosing a background color and finally used the eyedropper to pick a color off of her face - that way I was guaranteed the color would at least blend with the rest of the photo. If nothing else, I think it looks more "vintage." If anyone cares to take a look (you must all be sick of this photo by now), I've attached the file here.

Jeanie

I like the blue scheme better, but that's a personal choice. I think it brings out their eyes and works better with their skin tones.

-T

Well T Paul, that must mean I got the skin tones correct! They definitely looked best in blue in "real life" - as do I. ;) Thanks for the feedback. -Jeanie

I have been following this thread with interest and I must say that the burgundy certainly adds warmth to the photo whereas the blue, in my mind, does not really convey the intimacy of the moment.

The insight into the development of this piece of work has been interesting.

One word - INSPIRATIONAL!

Regards
Edgeley

Now that I've see the ear colored, I think it's an ear (well, I like it anyway).
I prefer the blue color scheme too. I don't know why, but the colors of the people seemed more natural

Originally posted by Vikki
I don't know why, but the colors of the people seemed more natural Just goes to show you how surrounding colors can affect perceived skin tones. I didn't touch the actual colors of the people - just her shirt and the background. -Jeanie

I just have to pop in here and comment that this has to be one of my favorite threads ever. Threads like this were what I had in mind when I first started thinking about a site for restoration and retouching.

It has everything I could have hoped for. A user inspired by other users, helpful and involved critiques, detailed and informative descriptions, and dramatic before/after examples. And, once it was all done, the experimentation began!

I'm just so proud of you all. :D

I've been following this thread with interest too. So I just had to download your photo and give it a try.

Thanks for the step-by-step instructions.

I prefer the blue to the burgundy. Of course, blue is my favorite color.:)

Sharon:wavey:

A couple of people have expressed interest in trying my step-by-step instructions. If you haven't gotten too far along with the small version of the original photo I posted, you might want to work with this larger version instead. It's still not huge given the limitation of 100KB, but I think it will be easier to work with than the previously uploaded files. Have fun! Jeanie

Hi Jeanie

Good job on the colorization! I used bascially the same technique when I colored a picture of my dad (see 'akj first colorization' thread). I was just wondering--how did you add the pink color to the cheeks? The tone seems to be just right. I'd like to add some pink to my pop's cheeks. :)

Thanks

Amanda

Hi Amanda,

Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact color I used. I'm pretty sure I used one of the "reddish" ones from the Skintones Color Chart. Then, I used the paintbrush with a soft edges and a very low opacity (20% I think?) and painted the cheeks on the same layer I'd used to color the entire face. If you're not working on a separate layer, you might try changing the paintbrush to "color" mode rather than "normal". In that case, you might want to set the opacity a little higher. Sorry I can't be more specific, but if you play around with those ideas a bit, you should be able to find something you like.

Hope that helps, Jeanie

Thank you for the great detailed description, I really needed it. What is the letters and numbers you had for each layer and the percentage. Is it color and where do you get these colors? That's the only part I got lost on.

You are very good at colorizing and thank you for sharing all this with us!