Colorize project

[learninlady]

I have a friend that took this wonderful photograph of Jennifer for her husband. His name is Ron of Thomason Photography. To give him credit. so duly deserved.

I thought it would be fun to colorize it. Fun for practice or testing a new skill!

I've attached the Black and White version along with my attempt at colorizing. I've only attempted colorizing a few times and enjoy any time I get a chance to practice. Let's see what everyone comes up with.
You can use any color that you feel like.
Most of all have fun at play!

[skydog]

so what technique did you use?

[learninlady]

Honestly I do not know what I'm doing. This is only my second attempt of this and have no idea of how to properly do it. Im sure I did it the hard way. but here goes.
hue/saturation - colorize is what I used to change the BW to the color I wanted then cloned it onto my copy. I kept doing that with every color change until I liked what I saw.
Then used curves to tweek it a bit more.


ok, you can laugh now.

I am very sure others have a more simple conventional way of doing this.

[Kraellin]

looks good, kate

uhm, we can laugh if that's what you really want

there are a number of techniques for colorizing. the worth1000 tutorial is the first one i learned. i think that's the one vikki recommends, also. but since then, i've simplified my own technique by simply airbrushing on a blank layer set to 'color' blend (usually-depends on the image and the results, of course).

[learninlady]

Thanks!
Oh no - no laughter needed...
I just found it for me simpler to change the color in the black and white and clone it onto the copy I was doing. Something I just came up with myself.

[Kraellin]

yup, that's fine. whatever works just threw mine in there for extra info, not to say you did anything wrong

[unimatrix001]

I used gradient maps to color everything but the background. I found made different gradients for the skin. This is a very good picture to start with so the coloring was pretty good when applied.

[Kraellin]

that looks great, unimatrix. care to elaborate on the use of gradient maps? some examples maybe, or some step by step, at least in part?

[unimatrix001]

I made my gradients from this chart. I named them as they are listed on the chart. I only have them in cs2 and have to recreate them for cs4.{will get around to that someday} I use quick mask mode to color mask the face. then with the selection showing i use a gradient map from the chart choosing which ever one looks the most natural. I change the blending mode from normal to either softlight, overlay, or color. I will also put a check in the reverse box and check out the different blend modes to see what looks the most natural. I will also use two gradient maps for one area and adjust the opacity and blend mode to get the color right. Here is a link to the original skin chart.
http://www.idigitalemotion.com/tutor...e/skintone.jpg
I will also mix and match the colors for the gradient, you get some interesting gradients.
Here is another picture with my workflow attached.

[Dave.Cox]

There is nothing wrong with using the hue/saturation method for colorization. It's the the method I often prefer. Instead of using it to find your color and then clone it on though, try adding your hue/saturation as an adjustment layer, and add a layer mask to restrict your adjustment to just the area that you want to adjust. by doing it this way, you can also apply more than one adjustment to an area if you want, or remove it if you don't like it later, and use the opacity setting, and blend modes to adjust your adjustments.

[learninlady]

Originally Posted by Dave.Cox

There is nothing wrong with using the hue/saturation method for colorization. It's the the method I often prefer. Instead of using it to find your color and then clone it on though, try adding your hue/saturation as an adjustment layer, and add a layer mask to restrict your adjustment to just the area that you want to adjust. by doing it this way, you can also apply more than one adjustment to an area if you want, or remove it if you don't like it later, and use the opacity setting, and blend modes to adjust your adjustments.

Yes Dave, that's the way I know is used as proper. and when it comes to all the layers for some reason I have this huge block.
I have tried it, seen it done in tutorials. and have no clue of how that all comes about.
I usually find the simplest way for me as its the fastest, and usually not the best quality.
What I need to do is put my big girl pants on and make myself follow step by step and learn this procedure. I know once I do it I'll find it simple and more useful!.. l

[learninlady]

Originally Posted by unimatrix001

I used gradient maps to color everything but the background. I found made different gradients for the skin. This is a very good picture to start with so the coloring was pretty good when applied.

Fantastic job! I wish my program had the skin tones like yours does!

[unimatrix001]

If you use the chart from the like i posted you can make your own gradients.

Tanned Caucasian

1. open the gradient editor
2. click on the left most stop
3. click on the color box to open up the color pallet
4. click click on the dark brown on the left side of color pallet
5. Add a new stop at 50% location
6. click on the middle color from pallet
7. click on the last color stop
8. click on the right color from the chart.
Now you have your gradient you can adjust the gradient from there using the gradient editor. the diamonds between the color stops allow you to change how dark or light and where the gradient blends.

[learninlady]

Originally Posted by unimatrix001

If you use the chart from the like i posted you can make your own gradients.

Tanned Caucasian

1. open the gradient editor
2. click on the left most stop
3. click on the color box to open up the color pallet
4. click click on the dark brown on the left side of color pallet
5. Add a new stop at 50% location
6. click on the middle color from pallet
7. click on the last color stop
8. click on the right color from the chart.
Now you have your gradient you can adjust the gradient from there using the gradient editor. the diamonds between the color stops allow you to change how dark or light and where the gradient blends.

I have been doing my hardest to figure this out. I just cant find the area to do that. and you made such good instructions too! I just cant find the gradients. Heres a shot of my program:

[unimatrix001]

I dont use PSP but i did find a little tutorial on making gradients.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...op.html?cat=59

[learninlady]

Thanks that site explains it all for me. When trying to do what you had outlined above, I had gotten into that exact area but didn't quite know what to do with it, now I do. thanks.

[unimatrix001]

Np always willing to help. would like to see another version of your photo and see if it was any help getting the skin to look realistic. btw that was a very good photo to start with it took the colors well.

[learninlady]

Thanks. I want to learn this technique and need to for some restorations.
I tried again using the color palette. Seems darker more skinlike to me. but maybe my eyes want to see it thats why we need a second pair.

[learninlady]

Wheres yours Craig?

[Nan]

I like your second one Kate and the blue eyes on your's Unimatrix.

Here's my try. I just paint in color legacy blend mode on separate layers for each color. Lowering the opacity on each as needed.
Nan

[learninlady]

Looks great Nan! I forgot the program you use. was it adobe?
Your skin tone looks very real. Mine keeps getting a green tinge. I wonder if because I like to use the glamour and skin smoother. or maybe my screen needs calabration...lol

[Nan]

Thanks Kate. I use PSP X. My colors can look okay to me as I'm working on them but they don't always print out right. I continually have problems in that area.
Your's doesn't really look greenish to me.
Nan

[learninlady]

ok, so thats what I use what color legacy? maybe I use it just dont know the terms. I unfortunately do that. Fix things and have no idea of how I got to that point. I have to back track an try to remember what I did. For me its like cooking, if I have to stop and think about telling someone how I did it I dont do it right...lol
Maybe I do need a calibration. or maybe my eyes are tired. who knows...lol. If you don't see green, then I'm going to trust that
I have printing issues also, I have read just about everything I get my hands on with printing. I try different paper, settings, and what is on my screen does not come out on print. If anyone is reading this feel welcome to elaborate!

[Kraellin]

kate,

i wasnt aware i was supposed to do one, but here it is

this was done mostly using the technique i mentioned... blank layer over the original image and then airbrushing first, THEN turning on the color blend mode to see how things work. if all is well, then i take that airbrush layer and guassian blur it a little, anywhere from a setting of 2 to maybe 32 or so. just depends.

one thing that seems to help on this is getting your colors to match up with the original colors of the image, despite the fact that you dont know the original colors. for instance, on this image, i tried to give the girl a bit of auburn hair. i'm not sure that's her original color and i had more trouble with the hair than i did the skin tones... which is mostly unusual for me.

at any rate, once you do the guassian, then go around with an eraser set on very light opacity (maybe around 5 to 10 or so) and erase the bits that fall outside where they're supposed to because of the gaussian.

as a final treatment, i added a small bit of brightening and contrasting and a mimimum of 'clarify', to a setting of 1.

as for legacy color blend or regular color blend, just use whichever looks best. i've had it where one or the other works best.

ok, time to go. gotta watch american idol

[learninlady]

HA good job Craig. only thing I would change is the tiny background area. didnt like the purple thing... but otherwise I am learning a bunch here! as usual!




**american idol - had to go there myself, still routing for gokey and lambert!**

[unimatrix001]

learninglady nicely done glad you figured out how to use the gradient.
nan nicely done.
craig you did a wonderful job also
You guys are getting to good for me I will need to be asking you questions very shortly. except I use photoshop so a translation over to it would have to be done. I did two more adjustments to this picture i added another gradient map in soft light to the skin and one also in softlight to the hair, I also removed that little corner of the background i put in there. For some reason i couldnt get the file to size down to less than 100.9k so it wont load. here is a link to my flickr sight with the picture there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39473188@N00/3485082892/

[learninlady]

Great! I love the eyes. And you all have the hair down perfect! I cheat and use the smoother to hide any imperfections.
Cant ask me to translate as I dont have the terminology down what so ever, Im a doohicky thingy person, not that Im proud of that just real.

[unimatrix001]

I perfer to use in photoshop the gradient map. it maps the gradient to the tone of the black and white image. where as a gradient just makes a gradient of colors the way you you have the gradient set up. I find it very hard to get the correct shades from a gradient.
In that photo i used gradients maps. Not exactly sure i explained that very well. Its similar to making a black and white photo using the color channels. You adjust the red yellow and blue channels to get the tones you like to make a good black and white image. Where a gradient is similar to just desaturating a color photo. no tone adjustments.

[learninlady]

wonderful job. her eyes look like marbles!

[chillin]

I used Ed's method.