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This grayscale image was posted at DPReview.com by someone requesting assistance at restoring color to the image. I pointed her here so the RP folks could see this thread as easily as the DPReview folks.
In a nutshell this colorization was accomplished by creating a mask from the original image. The mask was then used in conjunction with two Hue/Saturation adjustment layers set to colorize for the purpose of applying color to the grass and sand. A third layer was used to sketch in a few shadows. Details follow...
With the sand conveniently creating a very consistent and neutral background, a levels adjustment was used to create the basis for a mask. The "mask in progress" was propagated to a new layer where a little fine tuning was done spraying white/black with the Airbrush tool. The result was a fairly crisp white (the sand) and black (everything else) layer.
Did a select all on the cleaned-up B/W layer, switched to channels palette, created a new channel and pasted the B/W image into the newly created channel (aka: alpha channel).
The new alpha channel was loaded (LOAD SELECTION...), then a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer was created, which took into account the loaded selection. Setting the Hue/Sat AL to colorize, I tweaked the sliders until I got a pleasant sand-like color.
The process was duplicated for a second Hue/Sat adjustment layer with the exception of inverting the selection in order to select the grass, not the sand. Hue/Sat AL #2 set to colorize was tweaked for a grassy-like green.
Another new layer was added to the top of the layer stack where "shadows" were applied by painting in some black, applying a little gaussian blur and lowing opacity.
Quite frankly, I rushed the final step because I had to go pick up my kids at school, so not all of the shadows were painted in as well as they could have been, but you get the idea.
Since this was pretty much a "2-color image" + a few shadows, it wasn't nearly as difficult as recoloring, say, an image of a baseball stadium full of people.
~DannyR~
In a nutshell this colorization was accomplished by creating a mask from the original image. The mask was then used in conjunction with two Hue/Saturation adjustment layers set to colorize for the purpose of applying color to the grass and sand. A third layer was used to sketch in a few shadows. Details follow...
With the sand conveniently creating a very consistent and neutral background, a levels adjustment was used to create the basis for a mask. The "mask in progress" was propagated to a new layer where a little fine tuning was done spraying white/black with the Airbrush tool. The result was a fairly crisp white (the sand) and black (everything else) layer.
Did a select all on the cleaned-up B/W layer, switched to channels palette, created a new channel and pasted the B/W image into the newly created channel (aka: alpha channel).
The new alpha channel was loaded (LOAD SELECTION...), then a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer was created, which took into account the loaded selection. Setting the Hue/Sat AL to colorize, I tweaked the sliders until I got a pleasant sand-like color.
The process was duplicated for a second Hue/Sat adjustment layer with the exception of inverting the selection in order to select the grass, not the sand. Hue/Sat AL #2 set to colorize was tweaked for a grassy-like green.
Another new layer was added to the top of the layer stack where "shadows" were applied by painting in some black, applying a little gaussian blur and lowing opacity.
Quite frankly, I rushed the final step because I had to go pick up my kids at school, so not all of the shadows were painted in as well as they could have been, but you get the idea.
Since this was pretty much a "2-color image" + a few shadows, it wasn't nearly as difficult as recoloring, say, an image of a baseball stadium full of people.
~DannyR~
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