Colorization

[Jakaleena]

View HERE

Just one of the many ways to hand color a photograph.

As always, feel free to add any additional tips and tricks you might use.

[G Mantero]

NICE TUT!!!!!!!!

Very nicely done--your hand colorings are super nice, so I'm sure we'll all benefit from seeing how you do it

Gina

[CJ Swartz]

And yes, that incredibly cute child in the samples is me as a baby...

Jak -- your tutorial is so well done, that the only question I thought of was "who is that adorable child?!", and then you even answered that in your tut!

Excellent work!

[Jakaleena]

Thanks guys. Your comments are so kind.

I love hand coloring. I've done it for years the old fashioned way, with Marshall's Oils and Prisma Color pencils. I only learned to hand color by computer within the last couple of years. I love the look of hand colored photos...

[TheTexan]

Where might one get ahold of one of those charts from Bruce Beard?

Tex

[CJ Swartz]

Where might one get ahold of one of those charts from Bruce Beard?

Look at the MENU on the left of your screen - Click on Resources -- there you'll see the Bruce Beard Color Charts listed - if you have a PC, do a right click and 'Save Picture As" to download.

[Mike Needham]

Thats you in the photo Jak? Did you know my uncle Thomas Edison?

[docilebob]

The color charts are under Resources on the menu.

What menu ? I can`t seem to find this one.

[Leah]

The main floaty site menu on the right-hand side of the RetouchPro screen... move your mouse over it and it pops out. Click on Resources and you get the Resources page - you are looking for "Bruce Beard's Hair and Skin Color charts"

[docilebob]

Oh, THAT menu. Hehehe

That explainns why I couldn`t find it in photoshop.
Thanks , Leah.

[Ben]

It all looks too easy but I guess as the man said practice makes perfect. Thanks also to Bruce Beard for his hair and skintones palettes.

[val]

Hi, I am running photoshop 6 on a PC. and cant for the life of me see a "resources" button to the left of my screen so that I can access the skin colours etc. Can you help I would be delighted if I could find it.

[jeaniesa]

Val, are you looking for "Resources" within Photoshop or here on RetouchPro? The Resources link is actually here at the RetouchPro site in the menu that pops out from the side.

Hope this helps,
Jeanie

[val]

Jeanie Thank-you, I now realise what it means

[nansaidh]

Great tutorial! I've found the resources to download the skin and hair color samples, but where in Photoshop do I save it specifically?
Thanks!

[CJ Swartz]

Nansaidh, the way I handle the skin and hair color samples is to save them in a working folder where I can "remember" where they are , and then just open them in PShop when I'm working on a photo that I plan to colorize. Just use the eyedropper on the sample I want and then go into the photo I'm working on. As far as I know, there's no way to "plug them into" PShop.

[Doug Nelson]

Once you've selected your color with the eyedropper, you can also save it as a custom swatch using the little arrow in the upper right corner of the swatches pallette.

The pallette files on our skintone page are made for Paintshop Pro. There's a post here somewhere where a user translated them into an importable Photoshop pallette (but honestly, the custom swatch option will probably take less time than searching for it).

[Andrew B.]

Other ideas

1. Layer masks. I don't know why it took me so long to start using these. Now I just fill an entire layers with the color, set the mask to hide it all, then erase the mask where I want it to show. What I like most about this is I can erase and put back the edge of the mask.

2. Spot and blur. This is a technique I learned from a tutorial I posted the link to some place here. I don't remember where. But let's say you want to add some blush to the cheeks. Using the brush on an empty layer, put about three spots of red close together on each cheek where you want the blush. Apply Gaussian Blur. This spreads, lightens, and blends in the red.

3. Burn and dodge. Sometimes I add sight variations to a color layer with burn. I mention dodge too because it will probably work. Optionally blur. The jury is still out on this method. I've only tried it a few times, though, and maybe someone else will perfect this method.

[Doug Nelson]

There are lots of ways to colorize an image, but this is one of the ways I do it [details]