Converting a black and white photo to color (5 lessons). Colorize a black and white photo in Photoshop

Today we will learn how to turn a non-color photo into a color one. I’ll make a reservation right away, for those who are looking for the “make photo in color” button in this article. Alas, such a button has not yet been invented. You can desaturate a photo with one click, but you can’t colorize it with the same click, because a black and white photo has no color information. So we have to work with our hands and fill our black and white image with color information in the most direct sense. Some plugins for Photoshop do a good job of colorizing photos, but now we will not discuss any plugins that we don’t understand where to get. Let's talk about what is available for colorization in Photoshop itself. And there is a lot in it.

The method of coloring a photo is simple and primitive. A five-year-old child can master it in 10 minutes. I will tell you about all the ways to colorize a photo, and also show how this simple operation can be taken to a new, more professional level. So let's get started.

The easiest way to make a photo color (blend color)

To colorize a photo you will need to be able to use the tool brush tool, as well as have an idea about the work of other Photoshop tools. The ability to select areas of a photo and the initial knowledge about layers and masks, which you can learn from my article, will not hurt. In this tutorial, you will see in practice how you can automate work in Photoshop using masks, and have full control over the color settings.

I borrowed a photo from the collection of a photographer friend of mine. Black and white photographs look mysterious and conceptual, but what happens if we lightly colorize it? Create a new layer on top of the photo Layer > New > Layer or click on the little layer icon in the layers palette Windows > Layers

Now select a tool brush tool, a brush with soft edges, make it bigger and move the mouse over a new layer with some red. The natural result is a red daub on a masterfully taken photograph. It doesn't suit us. In order for the red color to be painted, you need to change the settings of the layer itself. These settings are called overlay settings. Color Mode. You can only find them in the layers palette. Layers, above the layers themselves. Click on this drop down menu and you will see a whole list of different blend modes. The point is that by changing the blending mode of a color, we establish new rules by which the color of the layer interacts with the colors of the layers below. The blend mode we need is called color, and its meaning is simple - it colors the image in the color we need, while maintaining the naturalness of the colors. Set Mode color, choose the color you need, and decorate the girl's hair.

That's all. Quite simple isn't it? Save me the trouble of stretching this process out over 10 pages and demonstrating how I will step by step paint the skin, gloves, eyes, and so on. Coloring depends on your imagination, and realism, on the quality of work and the naturalness of the selected colors. Work with the brush, choose the size, adjust the invisibility opasity and fill, which you will find in the brush settings menu Windows > Options

This is what I sketched in a couple of minutes of work. The layer blending mode is Normal. I hope you are convinced that making a color photo in Photoshop is very simple.

And this is what happens if you change the layer blending settings to color.

Coloring a photo through layer styles (layer style)

And now let's start to go deeper and complicate the process. Complication, it is not to make work more difficult, but to make work easier. You know, all these kali mali on one layer are fine, of course, but they are more suitable for creative personalities, for those who like to sit and wind a clay pot on a gurney for hours. Smearing one color and another on this layer is perhaps convenient for artists from the academy who are banned from Google, so they still have not heard about Photoshop. Alas, even cartoons are drawn on a computer, 1000 drawings on paper, which are then quickly flipped over, remained in the 20th century. Personally, as a designer, I would like to have more control over color and settings. I would like to effectively and quickly tweak the colors through the menu, rather than redrawing the layer.

How can we bring more control over the image? To begin with, it would be nice to divide one layer into several layers. Let's create really many layers. And each layer will be responsible for its own area. Create a layer "hair", layer "eyes", "gloves", "nails" other. I started coloring the photo myself, creating thematic layers for this. Now the control process is more manageable, at least the coloring is not on the same layer. Any part of the coloring can be muted, turned off, in other words, do everything with it that can be done with a layer. Other coloring layers will remain untouched.

But it still doesn't make much sense. The color of all layers is still arbitrary. On the layer "Hair" you can paint as before with both blue and red. In other words, as before, Kali Mali, but more manageable Kali Mali, divided into sectors. And I would like to control the color. I want to change the entire color with one click, and not sculpt with a brush, constantly reworking the result with my hands. I'll show you how to do it with layer styles. layer style.

Create a layer and name it "Hair". Decorate your hair with any color, even green. Go to the layers palette and set the fill Fill on the 0% Thus, what you have drawn will become invisible.

Roughly speaking, we create some kind of raster area, turn off the filling fill and apply layer styles to the area. The area itself does not become invisible, as is the case with Opasity. The content of the region becomes invisible, but not the region itself. Therefore, the applied layer styles will be visible. But if we set the Opasity to 0%, the entire layer would become invisible along with the styles. We will give the area a certain style, but since we still need to apply layer blending to colorize, the original color must be removed by setting Fill to 0%, otherwise it will become translucent when blending and we will not get the desired result.

Now let's add a style to the layer. Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay In the blend menu blend mode set the mode color. And in the box with the color, set the color we need.

If you forgot to set the fill to 0%, then this can be done in the same window, in the blending settings tab Blending Options. If you did it in the layers palette Layers, then the fill will already be set as it should.

Now we have full control over the color. Give each layer its own style. Double-clicking on the layer will automatically bring up Layer Styles, where you can change the color of the hair with one click. You don't have to smear everything 100 times, the color changes in one second, while you see the result in on-line mode. Choosing a color just got a whole lot easier.

That's what I call color control. Now let's go even deeper.

Coloring photos through fill layers (fill layers)

You know what I think. These attempts to control the image are certainly cool, but somehow difficult. What if you need to change the color? You have to constantly click on the layer, call the style window, go to the tab color overlay and change something. Not such a fast process if you want to quickly change the colors of the layers. Of course, if we have 2 layers, this is not difficult, but what if we had 102 layers? We need to make this process even easier. This is where the real work with layers comes in. Now I'll show you how to make a photo color using fill layers.

Create a new fill layer Layers > New Fill Layers > Solid Color The fill layer completely covers the photo, filling the entire work surface. We just don't need this. As you can see from the layers palette, the fill layer is created with an empty mask ready. We need to recolor the white mask into a black mask in order to hide the entire fill layer entirely. You can click on the mask icon and select Delete.

Or select the mask icon and do the same from the menu Layer > Layer Mask > Delete. Now create a mask from scratch, but not empty, but hiding. We did this in my article. Select Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All

And you can go the other way. The mask is the same working surface as the layer itself. The mask can be drawn by hand with any drawing tools. For example with a brush brush tool. Only unlike the layer, the mask is created in gradation from black to white, where white is the visible part, and black is the hiding part. Click on the mask icon in the layer palette. The mask must be selected so that you can draw on it. Then select the fill bucket Paint Bucket Toll and black color. Click on the work surface. The empty mask has become a concealing mask.

Now choose a regular brush brush tool and white color. Create a hair mask by painting over the mask the same way you would paint on a layer. You can enjoy all the benefits of brush settings. Make it transparent, resize, soft edges. All this will only affect how visible our mask is. And of course don't forget to set it to blend mode. color to immediately see the result of painting. We could go the other way. For example, leave the mask white, and paint over the entire area around the hair with black. But you must admit, it is somewhat tedious to gloss over 70% working area. And of course don't forget to work on the mask, the mask must be selected. This can be done by simply clicking on its icon in the layers palette.

As a result, you should get a fill layer, with a hair mask. The advantage of this method is that you do not have to dig into the color settings every time, which is not clear where. One simple click on the fill of the layer brings up a window with a choice of color.

Paint other areas of the photo in the same way. In some areas where color does not tolerate soft transitions, you will need to create selection areas. For example, in the case of nails, I created selections with the tool Magic WandTool and Polygonal Lasso Toll. In other cases, I managed to change the size of the brush and switch between soft edges and hard edges.

Once you've created all the photo area layers, you'll be able to create other tint layers that create hair tones, shimmers, and other lighting effects. This is the professional result. And now let's look at alternative options for coloring a photo.

Make the photo color through adjustment layers (adjustments layers)

Here's another way to color your photo. Use color correction settings adjustments. I already imagine how you open familiar to everyone Image > Adjustments, highlight the area and indulge in effects. No, we certainly won't do that. We will get the same kalya mala. Of course, selecting an area, applying color correction, selecting a new area, applying color correction again is an option. Only this option is dull, without any possibility to tweak and change the results.

Therefore, we will use color-correcting layers. Layer > New Adjustment Layer. The color correction layer is the same color correction, only it is not applied to the graphics layer, but is a layer itself. Imagine that the photo is our layer. And on top we put red glass, which changed the color of the photo. The red glass is the color correction layer. You can remove it, make it invisible, apply layers, mask and more.

Which of the color corrections are suitable for coloring? In my opinion, color correction works best. Photo Filter. Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter Or create a color correction layer via the layers palette menu Layers.

Now I want you to do all the things I described for coloring photos through fill layers. Create a mask, fill it with black and with a regular brush apply a filter to the area you need. Here is what you should get:

At the same time, you can reconfigure the filter color, change the color and adjust the mask at any time. Just click on the color correction layer and in the palette adjustments adjust the color. If you don't know where this palette is located, open it via Windows > Adjustments. You will see for yourself that it is as easy to colorize a photo through color correction as it is through fill layers, but I personally like the latter.

I hope that there is no need to demonstrate phased coloring. You already understood that in a similar way you need to colorize all areas of the photo. I will give the final version of the photo coloring and wish you successful experiments in Photoshop. Now you know how to make a photo in color.

Today. Almost everyone has a digital camera in one form or another. And photography, in itself, has become a truly mass hobby. Digital technology is developing so rapidly that now, in order to get high-quality photographs, it is not at all necessary to have an expensive, professional camera. After all, today, even cameras on phones have learned to take good pictures. For example, the same iPhone, now shoots no worse than a full-fledged digital camera. What can we say about semi-professional or professional mirrors.

But until recently, cameras were exclusively film, and photographs were mostly black and white. And the process of developing photographs was a whole mystery. Now we remember all this with a smile, and some, in a nostalgic impulse, even acquire or restore old photographic equipment, trying to repeat the unforgettable experience of obtaining analog photographs.

But it's one thing to apply the effects of an old photo to an already finished picture, and quite another to restore an old photo to the state of a new one, or colorize photo in photoshop.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to completely eliminate all the defects of old photographs, because. it all depends on the general condition of the photo, as well as factors such as:

  • Photo age
  • Color fade in photo
  • Scratches and microcracks on the front surface of the photo
  • Irreversible loss of some snapshot elements

In most cases, an old photograph can be significantly improved, or even completely restored to its original characteristics. And you can do even better than the original source. About one of these operations, namely, how to turn a black and white photo into color, we will talk in today's material.

Color matching

It will be more difficult to make a photo in color in Photoshop than to carry out the reverse operation, where the whole process can be reduced to literally a few mouse clicks. Here, painstaking manual work in a graphical editor is already required. Adobe Photoshop. Therefore, in order to turn a black and white photo into color, it will be necessary hand colorize the image. At the same time, for some parts of the image, it will be possible to show imagination, and arbitrarily color them, choosing individual colors.

For example, the black-and-white photo shows a portrait of a man in a Quid suit. Let's say we don't know the original color of the suit, so we can color it however we like, for example, beige. The color of other elements of the image can be determined by one or another, obvious signs. It goes without saying that we will paint the sky predominantly blue, and the clouds gray-white. Definitely, the grass and foliage on the trees should be dyed green.

But still, in most cases, the original colors of some elements of the image will remain unknown, and they will need to be selected in order to get a photo image that is natural in color.

Therefore, before making a color photo out of a black and white photo, you must first decide on the color design of all elements of the photograph. If you are at a loss with the selection of colors, then you can look at the color analogues of photographs that are similar in structure, or ask for help from people who understand this, for example, from photographers or graphic designers.

Color fill

After the colors are selected, we proceed directly to the process of coloring a black and white photograph. ways colorize photo with photoshop, there are several. We will consider one of them, namely - color fill method for individual adjustment layers. For this we need:

  1. original photo file

  2. Graphic editor Adobe Photoshop

  3. Layout with selected colors for filling (remember, we had to define it in advance)

  4. Time and a little patience, because the operation is quite laborious.

In order to make a black and white photo color, we perform the following steps in stages:

1) Uploading a photo to Adobe Photoshop
2) In order to always return to the original file if our experiments go too far, we create in Photoshop duplicate layer
3) In the layers palette, click on the icon New adjustment layer", and in the proposed options for creating a layer, select - Color or Chroma (solid color)

After that, a color palette will appear, in which you need to select the color closest to the color of the part of the photo image that we intend to fill. For example, if it is grass, then we choose green, if the sky, then blue, if the sun, then yellow, respectively. Again, based on the layout of colors that we made earlier, before starting to turn a black and white photo into color.

Let's say we decide to start coloring our photo from the face. Accordingly, select in the color palette of the new adjustment layer, a dark beige color ( closest to the color structure of the face, in our case).

So, the color for the face is selected, but now it completely fills our entire photo. To exclude this, in the layers palette, select from the drop-down list of options - Color or Chroma. By default, it is set to - Blend Mode and this needs to be changed.

Fine! Now the adjustment layer only affects the color of the bottom layer, and we see our photo with a tint of the color chosen for the face. Now our task is to leave this color only on the part of the photo image for which it is intended. In our case, this is the face. To do this, click on the icon Layer mask, after which an outline will appear on the layer thumbnail.

Now select in the Photoshop tool palette - " Eraser", and erase everything except the face.

Attention! As you can see in our example, the neck and part of the chest have a similar color characteristic to the face. But we will also erase them, and create for them separate adjustment layer. This is explained by the fact that the color shade between the face and neck is still quite different. And, later, these differences will be possible to emphasize only on different layers.

The more adjustment layers we create, the better it will be to color a black and white photo into color later.

Editing the finished layout with adjustment layers

So, we filled it with a color similar in color, our first element is the face. The same is to be done with all other elements of the photographic image. Those. simply repeat the above operation for other elements of the photo, taking into account their color features. Don't worry that the colors will be hyper-exaggerated and unnatural. We will fix this a little later by editing each adjustment layer. Now the main thing is to fill in the main elements of the photo image colors similar in color. Moreover, the more elements will be selected in a separate adjustment layer, the better!

After we have worked out all the elements of the photographic image, it will be much easier for us to cope with the task of making a color photograph from black and white. Of course, now the colors look artificial, but, nevertheless, we have a ready-made layout with different layers that are available for processing separately, which will give us undeniable manufacturing advantages. color photo through photoshop. Actually, we will now proceed to this processing.

Let's go in order, and start with the first layer. We need to correct the color scheme of the face. As you can see in your original version, the skin tone is hyper-exaggerated and certainly doesn't look natural. Let's try to fix this.

4) Double click on the layer thumbnail in the layers palette and experiment with the adjustment layer settings. It is necessary to work with the existing color, so you do not need to touch the tone settings, but operate with the sliders responsible for the brightness and color saturation of the edited area. We need to achieve the most natural color reproduction by controlling the changes in color parameters in live preview mode.

Well, that's a completely different matter. We do the same with the rest of the layers. That is, we just double-click on the thumbnail of each layer, and in the settings we change the color parameters to the most natural colors. This is very convenient, because working with many layers, we are able to convey color shades much more accurately than in the case of manually painting over individual elements of the image, described in most of the methods that teach how to make black and white photos in color.

At the very last stage, we change the corrective color of the background and eyes. For a more harmonious visual effect, you can choose colors for the background to match the color of the eyes, or vice versa, the color of the eyes to match the background color ( unless of course it contradicts the general concept of the picture).

When creating an adjustment layer for small elements of the image, for example, for the same eyes, you need to erase the entire image with an eraser, except for the iris itself. This is a rather painstaking operation, so in case of an error, just switch to the mode - Brush, and repaint the area where you erased the excess. At the same time, it is recommended to set the brush strength to 50% .

Are you curious to see what black and white photographs from your old albums would look like if they were colorized? Think you need to spend a lot of time in Photoshop for this? It turns out that you can make an image in color using a special online program! But let's talk about everything in order.

Colorize a black and white photo online in one click in Algorithmia

In order to make a picture black and white online, dozens of Internet resources have been created, but only one is provided for the reverse function - Algorithmia. The work of this unusual site is built on the practical application of neural networks. In addition to the fact that he can convert an image from black and white to color, he can also:

  • determine the area depicted in the photo;
  • to distinguish the faces of people in the pictures;
  • analyze the positive/negative mood of the given text;
  • and much more.

Algorithmia has an English-language interface, but since the section we need - Colorize Photos - implies only one function, working with it does not cause any difficulties.

So, upload your bw photo, which we are going to colorize - this can be done by selecting a picture on a computer or by entering a link to its location on the Internet.

If you just want to test how to turn a black and white photo into a color one, you can choose one of the pictures offered here for an example.

The coloring process takes about half a minute. Next, we are offered to evaluate the photo before and after.


Move the purple slider to see the effect of the changes

You can save both a fully colored drawing and the comparison itself - a photo partially in color and partially in b/w. I was a little disappointed with the watermark on the finished picture, but it is quite compact and modestly located in the corner. You can get rid of it by simply cropping the image.

Through several experiments, we found out that the service copes best with painting skin, water and trees. The clearer their boundaries, the better the result.


Let's compare - on the left is the original photo, which we discolored and uploaded to the site, and on the right - its colorized version

As you can see, Algorithmia distinguishes people well and automatically colors the skin in beige tones. True, the service does not feel the borders very well, so the cardigan, just in case, was also made flesh-colored.

In the background behind the girl, the editor "didn't recognize" the Christmas tree, so he left it just a dark spot. But he clearly defined the color of the gift and jeans and did almost everything right, except for the beige leg in the foreground and very blurry borders. The service decided to “revive” the bird in the corner of the picture, so it made it yellowish.

In general, of course, there are certain flaws in the result, but all the same, Algorithmia deserves respect, if only because it is the only site that allows you to turn a black and white photo into color.

How to colorize a picture in Photoshop: a simple guide for beginners

We want to say right away that this method will require much more time than the previous one. Also here you will need minimal skills in Photoshop, and the more of them, the more beautiful the result will be.

Load the image into Photoshop and create a new empty layer. Next, use the "Quick Selection" tool and click on the objects that we are going to convert to one color.


Use the Alt key to deselect unwanted area

Select the tool "Brush", select the appropriate color and sketch the selected fragments.


If you want the shades to be not too saturated, you can reduce the opacity and pressure of the brush.
In order to preserve the presence of shadows and color transitions, change the layer blending mode to "Overlay"
It already looks much more natural.

We repeat the same operations with the rest of the objects in the photo. Recall the sequence:

  • create a new layer;
  • select a fragment;
  • apply the desired color;
  • change the layer's blend mode.

For convenience, it is better to name each new layer in accordance with the fragment being painted.

If the edges are not handled too carefully, then this will definitely be noticeable and the picture will look unnatural. We recommend using the "Gaussian Blur" function with a small radius to smooth out all the imperfections a little.


In the "Filter" section, select "Blur", and then - "Gaussian Blur". Then just control the radius until you achieve an organic result.

Let's see what happened in the end. On the left is the original photo, which we then discolored, on the right is its color version.


In general, the new image looks quite natural, although many shades differ from those in the original version.

Summing up, we can say that making a black and white photo color in Photoshop is much more difficult and longer than using an online service. For comparison, let's say that the whole process took us more than an hour, although in Algorithmia everything would be ready in a few seconds. True, the result in Photoshop is more organic and predictable, and you can control all the moments yourself.

So far, these are all ways to colorize a black and white photo. Therefore, decide what is more important for you - efficiency or quality of the result, and rather use all the advice received in practice!

HOW TO MAKE A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO IN COLOR IN PHOTOSHOP

Today we will learn how to turn a non-color photo into a color one. I’ll make a reservation right away, for those who are looking for the “make photo in color” button in this article. Alas, such a button has not yet been invented. You can desaturate a photo with one click, but you can’t colorize it with the same click, because a black and white photo has no color information. So we have to work with our hands and fill our black and white image with color information in the most direct sense. Some plugins for Photoshop do a good job of colorizing photos, but now we will not discuss any plugins that we don’t understand where to get. Let's talk about what is available for colorization in Photoshop itself. And there is a lot in it.

The method of coloring a photo is simple and primitive. A five-year-old child can master it in 10 minutes. I will tell you about all the ways to colorize a photo, as well as show how this simple operation can be taken to a new, more professional level. So let's get started.

THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE A PHOTO COLORED (blend color)

To colorize a photo you will need to be able to use the tool brush tool, as well as have an idea about the work of other Photoshop tools. The ability to select areas of a photo and the initial knowledge about layers and masks, which you can learn from my article Masks in Photoshop, will not hurt. In this tutorial, you will see in practice how you can automate work in Photoshop using masks, and have full control over the color settings.

I borrowed a photo from the collection of a photographer friend of mine. Black and white photographs look mysterious and conceptual, but what happens if we lightly colorize it? Create a new layer on top of the photo Layer > New > Layer or click on the little layer icon in the layers palette Windows > Layers

Now select a tool brush tool, a brush with soft edges, make it bigger and move the mouse over a new layer with some red. The natural result is a red daub on a masterfully taken photograph. It doesn't suit us. In order for the red color to be painted, you need to change the settings of the layer itself. These settings are called overlay settings. Color Mode. You can only find them in the layers palette. Layers, above the layers themselves. Click on this drop down menu and you will see a whole list of different blend modes. The point is that by changing the blending mode of a color, we establish new rules by which the color of the layer interacts with the colors of the layers below. The blend mode we need is called color, and its meaning is simple - it colors the image in the color we need, while maintaining the naturalness of the colors. Install Let's Decide color, choose the color you need, and decorate the girl's hair.

That's all. Quite simple isn't it? Save me the trouble of stretching this process out over 10 pages and demonstrating how I will step by step paint the skin, gloves, eyes, and so on. Coloring depends on your imagination, and realism, on the quality of work and the naturalness of the selected colors. Work with the brush, choose the size, adjust the invisibility opasity and fill, which you will find in the brush settings menu Windows > Options

This is the “mask” my wife sketched for a few minutes of work. Note that the layer blending mode is Normal. I hope you are convinced that making a color photo in Photoshop is very simple.

And this is what happens if you change the layer blending settings to color.

COLORING A PHOTO THROUGH LAYER STYLES (layer style)

And now let's start to go deeper and complicate the process. Complication, it is not to make work more difficult, but to make work easier. You know, all these kali mali on one layer are fine, of course, but they are more suitable for creative personalities, for those who like to sit and wind a clay pot on a gurney for hours. Smearing one color and another on this layer is perhaps convenient for artists from the academy who are banned from Google, so they still have not heard about Photoshop. Alas, even cartoons are drawn on a computer, 1000 drawings on paper, which are then quickly flipped over, remained in the 20th century. Personally, as a designer, I would like to have more control over color and settings. I would like to effectively and quickly tweak the colors through the menu, rather than redrawing the layer.

How can we bring more control over the image? To begin with, it would be nice to divide one layer into several layers. Let's create
really many layers. And each layer will be responsible for its own area. Create a layer "hair", layer "eyes", "gloves", "nails" other. I started coloring the photo myself, creating thematic layers for this. Now the control process is more manageable, at least the coloring is not on the same layer. Any part of the coloring can be muted, turned off, in other words, do everything with it that can be done with a layer. Other coloring layers will remain untouched.

But it still doesn't make much sense. The color of all layers is still arbitrary. On the layer "Hair" you can paint as before with both blue and red. In other words, as before, Kali Mali, but more manageable Kali Mali, divided into sectors. And I would like to control the color. I want to change the entire color with one click, and not sculpt with a brush, constantly reworking the result with my hands. I'll show you how to do it with layer styles. layer style.

Create a layer and name it "Hair". Decorate your hair with any color, even green. Go to the layers palette and set the fill Fill on the 0% Thus, what you have drawn will become invisible.

Roughly speaking, we create some kind of raster area, turn off the filling fill and apply layer styles to the area. The area itself does not become invisible, as is the case with Opasity. The content of the region becomes invisible, but not the region itself. Therefore, the applied layer styles will be visible. But if we set the Opasity to 0%, the entire layer would become invisible along with the styles. We will give the area a certain style, but since we still need to apply layer blending to colorize, the original color must be removed by setting Fill to 0%, otherwise it will become translucent when blending and we will not get the desired result.

Now let's add a style to the layer. Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay In the blend menu blend mode set the mode color. And in the box with the color, set the color we need.

If you forgot to set the fill to 0%, then this can be done in the same window, in the blending settings tab Blending Options. If you did it in the layers palette Layers, then the fill will already be set as it should.

Now we have full control over the color. Give each layer its own style. Double-clicking on the layer will automatically bring up Layer Styles, where you can change the color of the hair with one click. You don't have to smear everything 100 times, the color changes in one second, while you see the result in on-line mode. Choosing a color just got a whole lot easier.

That's what I call color control. Now let's go even deeper.

COLORING PHOTOS THROUGH FILL LAYERS (fill lyers)

You know what I think. These attempts to control the image are certainly cool, but somehow difficult. What if you need to change the color? You have to constantly click on the layer, call the style window, go to the tab color overlay and change something. Not such a fast process if you want to quickly change the colors of the layers. Of course, if we have 2 layers, this is not difficult, but what if we had 102 layers? We need to make this process even easier. This is where the real work with layers comes in. Now I'll show you how to make a photo color using fill layers.

Create a new fill layer Layers > New Fill Layers > Solid Color The fill layer completely covers the photo, filling the entire work surface. We just don't need this. As you can see from the layers palette, the fill layer is created with an empty mask ready. We need to turn the white mask into a black mask in order to hide the entire fill layer entirely. You can click on the mask icon and select Delete.

Or select the mask icon and do the same from the menu Layer > Layer Mask > Delete. Now create a mask from scratch, but not empty, but hiding. We did this in my article "Masks in Photoshop". Select Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All

And you can go the other way. The mask is the same working surface as the layer itself. The mask can be drawn by hand with any drawing tools. For example with a brush brush tool. Only unlike the layer, the mask is created in gradation from black to white, where white is the visible part, and black is the hiding part. Click on the mask icon in the layer palette. The mask must be selected so that you can draw on it. Then select the fill bucket Paint Bucket Toll and black color. Click on the work surface. The empty mask has become a concealing mask.

Now choose a regular brush brush tool and white color. Create a hair mask by painting on top of the mask exactly as you did.
draw on a layer. You can enjoy all the benefits of brush settings. Make it transparent, resize, soft edges. All this will only affect how visible our mask is. And of course don't forget to set it to blend mode. color to immediately see the result of painting. We could go the other way. For example, leave the mask white, and paint over the entire area around the hair with black. But you must admit, it is somewhat tedious to gloss over 70% working area. And of course don't forget to work on the mask, the mask must be selected. This can be done by simply clicking on its icon in the layers palette.

As a result, you should get a fill layer, with a hair mask. The advantage of this method is that you do not have to dig into the color settings every time, which is not clear where. One simple click on the fill of the layer brings up a window with a choice of color.

Paint other areas of the photo in the same way. In some areas where color does not tolerate soft transitions, you will need to create selection areas. For example, in the case of nails, I created selections with the tool Magic WandTool and Polygonal Lasso Toll. In other cases, I managed to change the size of the brush and switch between soft edges and hard edges.

Once you've created all the photo area layers, you'll be able to create other tint layers that create hair tones, shimmers, and other lighting effects. This is the professional result. And now let's look at alternative options for coloring a photo.

MAKE PHOTO COLOR THROUGH CORRECTION LAYERS (adjustments layers)

Here's another way to color your photo. Use color correction settings adjustments. I already imagine how you open familiar to everyone Image > Adjustments, highlight the area and apply the effects. No, we certainly won't do that. We will get the same kalya mala. Of course, selecting an area, applying color correction, selecting a new area, applying color correction again is an option. Only this option is dull, without any possibility to tweak and change the results.

Therefore, we will use color-correcting layers. Layer > New Adjustment Layer. The color correction layer is the same color correction, only it is not applied to the graphics layer, but is a layer itself. Imagine that the photo is our layer. And on top we put red glass, which changed the color of the photo. The red glass is the color correction layer. You can remove it, make it invisible, apply layers, mask and more.

Which of the color corrections are suitable for coloring? In my opinion, color correction works best. Photo Filter. Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter Or create a color correction layer via the layers palette menu Layers.

Now I want you to do all the things I described for coloring photos through fill layers. Create a mask, fill it with black and with a regular brush apply a filter to the area you need. Here is what you should get:

At the same time, you can reconfigure the filter color, change the color and adjust the mask at any time. Just click on the color correction layer and in the palette adjustments adjust the color. If you don't know where this palette is located, open it via Windows > Ajustments. You'll see for yourself that it's as easy to color a photo through color correction as it is through fill layers, but I personally like the latter.

I hope that there is no need to demonstrate phased coloring. You already understood that in a similar way you need to colorize all areas of the photo. I will give the final version of the photo coloring and wish you successful experiments in Photoshop. Now you know how to make a photo in color.

Hello! With you, as usual, I, Dmitry Kostin. And today we will photoshop again. Remember how we did? Be that as it may, this is not surprising, since it is not difficult to discolor an image. But how to make a black and white photo color? Is that possible?

Of course available. Already entire films are coloring. What is there to make some image color? But it's still a very interesting experience. Can you imagine? You can think of the colors you would like to see in this photo. For example, you can set the color of eyes, hair, skin, clothing and much more. This is how I colored old photos. It turned out funny)

Let me not make long introductions. Let's start coloring right now. Open any b/w photo (I chose a photo I found on the Internet).

Just look at what mode the photo is in right away. It's just possible that it is saved in the format "Greyscale", then you just won't be able to work with color.

Change the color mode to RGB. To do this, go to the top menu and select the item "Image" - "Mode". Well, if it's not the RSL, then put it.

Let's look at the first method, namely the familiar one.


Overlay options

Here is another fairly effective trick for coloring photos. The main thing here is to create a separate layer for each element. I took a new photo for these needs.


By the way, this was the very first method that I learned about. When I found out about it, I liked it so much that I colored a lot of photos).

Layer mask

Well, the last way of transformation for today is with the help of a layer mask. Let's get straight to the point.


Well, as a result, a beautiful color photograph is obtained and it already looks completely different. Oops, I just screwed up a little. But you can always fix this.

I never cease to be amazed at the power of Photoshop. Indeed, in many cases the same problem can be solved in several ways, and you yourself can choose the method that suits you best. By the way, which one do you like best? Or do you have your own way of how to make a black and white photo color in Photoshop, which I have not described here? Please write in the comments.

If you want to explore the possibilities of Photoshop in the shortest possible time and learn how to work with it, then I strongly recommend that you look great video course. Everything is told in detail in it, everything is told in human language and laid out on the shelves. The material is easy to digest. So I recommend.

Well, I'm done for today. I hope you enjoyed my article. Be sure to subscribe to my blog updates, then you will always be aware of the most relevant information on the blog. I will not spam. Promise). And I wish you good luck in mastering Photoshop. Bye Bye!

Sincerely, Dmitry Kostin.

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