Colourizing B & W photos?

[roygoh]

Hi,

This is my first attempt at colourizing a B&W photo using PS.

Please comment and share your experience.

Thanks!

Roy

Before: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . After:


By the way the photo is 35 years old, and nobody remembered the actual colours of the baby's clothes, so I picked the colours myself.

[StreetShooter]

Pretty well done, I must say. Multiple masked layers of colourisation, yes?

You looked EXACTLY like Keven!

If you want a more nostaligic look, can try desaturating the colours a bit, for that "hand coloured" look.

The colour of the wood should be a bit darker. Rosewood, you know...

[roygoh]

Originally Posted by StreetShooter Pretty well done, I must say. Multiple masked layers of colourisation, yes? You looked EXACTLY like Keven! If you want a more nostaligic look, can try desaturating the colours a bit, for that "hand coloured" look. The colour of the wood should be a bit darker. Rosewood, you know...

Thanks, SS.

I simple used the lasso to select different portions of the picture and then use Image>Adjust>Hue/Saturation with the "Colourize" option checked to adjust the colour, saturation and lightness.

Looking back I should have placed each adjustment in a separate layer so that I can easily tweak the colours later.

One of the key to using the lasso is to feather each selection (5 pixels) before changing the colours. That way the boundaries between each region remain natural.

I think I will try to do the whole thing over when I have the time.

By the way the baby in the picture is not me. It is my wife when she was 100 days old.

This picture below, I feel, best demonstrates how much they resemble each other:



Every feature on the face is identical, even the slight difference in the size between the left and right eyes are the same!!!

[SniperD]

wonderful!! I love the colors you put in

if you want, do add a little dosage of dirt on it to make it highly believable...

kinda reminded me of the ACM's recent exhibiton @ the EPSON photosite @ wheelock where they did some PS to their old Nonya/ Paranakan protraits and reproduced on EPSON large format printers

[roygoh]

Originally Posted by SniperD wonderful!! I love the colors you put in if you want, do add a little dosage of dirt on it to make it highly believable... kinda reminded me of the ACM's recent exhibiton @ the EPSON photosite @ wheelock where they did some PS to their old Nonya/ Paranakan protraits and reproduced on EPSON large format printers

Thanks!

Now I am very tempted to bring out more old B&W photos that my dad took to try adding colours.

[rty]

Originally Posted by roygoh One of the key to using the lasso is to feather each selection (5 pixels) before changing the colours. That way the boundaries between each region remain natural.

Very well Done, Roy! Was the 5 pixel feather selection applied on this current photo size (350x424)?

Thanks for sharing...

[roygoh]

Originally Posted by rty Very well Done, Roy! Was the 5 pixel feather selection applied on this current photo size (350x424)? Thanks for sharing...

Thanks!

The 5-pixel feather selection was applied on the original resolution of 1600 X 2000.

The picture was scanned from a 1.3 X 1.6 inch B&W print at 1200 ppi.

I basicaly played kiasu and scanned at max resolution the scanner can provide.

[jlpk007]

Fantastic...i love ur pics....very nicely done...can teach me..