I am restoring this picture for a lady at work, it was quite a mess, I had to basically reconstruct a face that was not there, anyways, I have it all restored, now she wants me to attempt to colorize it. All the dresses are pastel colored, what I do is make a layer above the picture, color on the layer, then blend with the color option. Am I doing this correctly? I colored each dress with a pastel color and then blended it and some of the pastel colors come out rather dark because the dress is rather dark, any advice on how I can keep the pastel look with the dark dress to blend into?? Thanx in advance. Cindy.

Hi Cindy,

I usually try to 'sneak' out of colorizing jobs .... :D

I gave a go at part of your picture following this Tutorial (http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015&page=1) which is not the easiest but, once you get the hang of it, it can give excellent results ... Vikki, here, can really do magic with it!

As for the dark shade of the dresses which result in dark colours after the blending, you could try to lift their shadows using either Curves or Levels while leaving the rest 'as is' with the help of a Layer Mask ....

P.S. ... surely not the colours you had in mind but, somehow I liked it ....

:wavey:

I put this message in the wrong thread the first time, sorry, but here is my problem, I had to restore and colorize a picture for a co-worker, I will provide the before and after. It is a B&W pic and she really wants it colorized. She said each dress is a pastel color, she told me what 6 pastel colors they were, what I do is make a layer above the picture, color with the pastel colors and then blend using the color mode. The darker dresses come out making the pastel color look darker, and not really pastel looking. Any idea how I can overcome this?? I appreciate any input you can provide. Thanx a bunch, Cindy.

Before Restoring (http://www.pbase.com/snobunny61/image/34197212)

After Restoring (http://www.pbase.com/snobunny61/image/34197213)

Thanx a bunch Flora, I will try what you suggested, wish me luck and thanx for the link to the tut, I will check it out. Cindy.

P.S. I posted this under the need help post, I didn't see that before, anyways, I posted the before pic also if you would like to see what I put into this already. :o:

Hi Cindy,

That's really an impressive restoration job!!!! :bigthmb:

I'll try your colorizing way on the dresses after 'lifting their shadows ... I'll let you know....

P.S. I'll try to 'merge' your two threads ... I've never done this before ... :o:

:wavey:

It seems to have worked OK!!! :pleased:

Thanx a bunch Flora, I appreciate it. :normal:

Hi Cindy,

I'm not sure if this is closer to what you have in mind, but I managed to lift the shadows and darker mid-tones in the dresses so the colours result lighter and brighter...

I just used the Curves ... pressing the Ctrl key I clicked on a point of the darker mid-tones...this created a small black square on the diagram which was my starting point. (see attachment).

I, then, colorized the dresses by creating new empty Layers (Blending>Color) and painting on them.

:wavey:

Wow Flora, that is great, I will give it a go, thank you sooo sooo much for taking the time, how do you keep up with all the posts anyways?? :bow:

This is freaking hard!

I've spent hours on this and this is about the best I can come up with.

LOL Mark, I agree, it is freaking hard, that's why I'm here looking for help. Your colorizing is wonderful, except it isn't really pastel, that is the problem I am having, I am going to try Flora's advice and lighten the darker dresses. If I can't get it to look pastel that way, then I am going to have to talk to her before I put to much more time into this. Thanx for trying. Cindy.

Cindy,
Just an observation, but to me, it doesn't seem as if those dresses could have originally been pastels. The tone just looks too dark, and could be the main reason you're having a difficult time getting a good pastel.
Nice job on the restoration!

I use the CMYK colouring method using channel masks and curves (http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161018) - works well for colourizing an image and you can adjust the lights and darks all in one go.

Mark

Hi Cindy,

I usually try to 'sneak' out of colorizing jobs .... :D

I gave a go at part of your picture following this Tutorial (http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015&page=1) which is not the easiest but, once you get the hang of it, it can give excellent results ... Vikki, here, can really do magic with it!

As for the dark shade of the dresses which result in dark colours after the blending, you could try to lift their shadows using either Curves or Levels while leaving the rest 'as is' with the help of a Layer Mask ....

P.S. ... surely not the colours you had in mind but, somehow I liked it ....

:wavey:

Hi!

This tutorial is realy great, but how do U know about the real colors of the picture? Is there any method?

Saby

Hi,

Cindy,

Thank you so much for your great feedback!!! :pleased:

Mark, (Adams)

I fully agree with you .... It was very hard!!! (and I worked on one of the girls only!!!) :o:

Vikki,...it doesn't seem as if those dresses could have originally been pastels. The tone just looks too dark....
My thoughts exactly ... but I wanted to try to lift those midtones anyway!!! :grin:

Mark, (murkyt)

Thank you so much for the link :pleased: ... I had missed that!!!

Saby,...how do U know about the real colors of the picture?
Unless being told or given a sample ... well, I don't know ... I just try until the results seem natural and acceptable for the subject I'm working on ....

:wavey:

Thanx so much for everyone's input, I agree that the tones just don't fit the "pastel" that she says they were. I worked all weekend, so haven't been able to play with it yet, going to do so tonight, will post what I come up with. Saby, I know what the colors were only by what my co-worker told me. This is a great site, very informative and many helpful people, I appreciate the time and energy everyone put into this. Thanx again, Cindy. :bow:

........ but how do U know about the real colors of the picture? Is there any method?
Saby
Normally there is no way to know the colors, although some people :wavey: may have a better guess / intuition than others.

That said, this case is a little more interesting. We do have some clues:
- There are six different colors (no white, no grays, no black);
- The colors are all pastels (same lightness?);
- As they were a group, the colors should combine (saturation?);
- The black/white (grayscale) conversion was done by the B/W film.

So, if (??) the grayscale conversion of the film is something like Photoshop's luminosity we can say that green is brighter than red which os brighter than blue. Thus, taking the six basic colors we would have (lightest to darkest):
Yellow, Cyan, Green, Magenta, Red, Blue.
Of course that doesn't mean that these are the real colors, but it does mean that if you color the lightest dress with yellow and so on down to the darkest dress with blue, it should look more realistic.

Just trying to help..

Roland

Ok, here is the finished picture. She sure is getting her money's worth with all the time and effort I put into it. :pleased:

Restored and colorized (http://www.pbase.com/snobunny61/image/34355337)

Hi Cindy,
I gave a go at part of your picture following this [URL=http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161015&page=1][




I've seen that tutorial before and it's now my method of choice for colorizing. I've adapted it, though by using adjustment layers rather than copying the original layer. That way, I can always go back and make corrections without changing each layer.

Cindy - Your coloring has a very vintage coloring look to it. The only thing I would recommend, is that before coloring, apply a light sepia to the photo. This covers the grays, that are not colored and provides a nice warm tone for the skin. For example, if you look at the fingers, you can see some gray showing through. If it had a sepia tone, they would look as if you had colored them.

M_Hnatiuk - Using adjusment layers is a good way to cut down on file size, and the results look the same, but I don't see how it's easier to go back and make changes, as the mask is where the changes are made.

M_Hnatiuk - Using adjusment layers is a good way to cut down on file size, and the results look the same, but I don't see how it's easier to go back and make changes, as the mask is where the changes are made.
I also prefer adjustment layers.

I think what M_Hnatiuk was referring to is the possibility to "go back and make changes" in the colors and not in the masking. In the other, duplicate layer, method you choose (fix) your blue/ red /gold tones at the start and then only paint the masks.
If you used adjustment layers, after doing the masks you still have the oportunity to easily open up the adjustments and do some overall tone changes.

The downside is that the layers are now cumulative, but in this case a little tweaking won't harm anything.

That's the way I see it, if I'm wrong please tell me.

Roland

M_Hnatiuk - Using adjusment layers is a good way to cut down on file size, and the results look the same, but I don't see how it's easier to go back and make changes, as the mask is where the changes are made.
I was referring to restoration changes rather than colorizing changes. I most always overlook something first time around :o:

First, I have to agree, that was a fabulous restoration. WOW!

As to figuring out the colors, perhaps, my black & white film experience will lend a clue. It appears to me that the original was shot using a dark red filter. This was often done to clear up any acne blemishes on young women especially. Assuming this was the case, then the very light colored dress would have been pink. The medium dresses probably were more of the bluish colors, and the dark would have been most likely the greens. If there was a yellow, then it would be between the lightest colored dress and the middle toned dresses.

Richard Hanlon

It appears to me that the original was shot using a dark red filter....... Assuming this was the case, then the very light colored dress would have been pink. The medium dresses probably were more of the bluish colors, and the dark would have been most likely the greens. If there was a yellow, then it would be between the lightest colored dress and the middle toned dresses.
Thanks for the valuable input, Richard. :thumbsup: That really makes things interesting. This way you seem to have explained how the darkest dress got to be so dark that Vikki and Flora had to "lift the midtones" to be able to put in a pastel color.
I was thinking along the lines of straight luminosity and so to contemplate a dark red filter I'll have to rethink some numbers. (Goody, goody, goody :)- can't wait to get home!)

Ro