B/W to Color....how to enhance white ?

[mahjohn]

ok...i'm working on colorizing a B/W photo. I have my various layers for skin, cheeks, eyes etc...all set to Color. These work well using Bruce's Color Charts.

The question I have is the Color White. In the B/W pic, the wedding dress is white. When I select it and create another later set to Color as the other layers i'm stuck....I can't seem to get the white dress to be....white ?. It always seems to stay the dull greyish white from the B/W pic, not a vibrant white as in Color pics ? Any ideas ?

Mark,

[roger_ele]

Sounds like contrast and hue ... the black & white being too grey

I would try a curves adjustment layer masked to the dress for contrast ... then add a hue/saturation adjustment layer grouped with the curves layer. That way you can easily cool the dress down towards the blue without having to switch between the channels in curves.

Hope this helps,
Roger

[Vikki]

I use a color somewhere between light blue and light lavendar. However, I don't use "color" as the blend mode. Most times "soft light" works better (apply with low opacity brush).
Also, I've noticed that white objects often have color cast/shadows from surrounding colors, so it's never really totally white.