Coloring a black and white photo

TD
Posted By
Tom_Driscoll
Jan 15, 2004
Views
92
Replies
2
Status
Closed
I have a black and white photo of a street tunnelled with elm trees that are now all gone (due to Dutch Elm disease). Is it practical to try to turn it into a color photo?
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Richard_Coencas
Jan 15, 2004
If you are fairly adept with a mouse or have a tablet it is not too difficult. Convert the image to RGB mode.
Add a new empty layer above your background (this way you don’t harm the original, and can edit the painting layer).
Using the blending mode dropdown in the layers palette, change the mode of the new layer to Color. Using the paint brush tool you can paint over the black and white image. Just make sure you have the new painting layer targeted.

Rich
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Wendy_E_Williams
Jan 16, 2004
Tom,

I use the method Richard suggests but I now do each colour on a separate layer as I find it easier to adjust the opacity when I have finished.

Another way I have been playing with is selecting small areas and then using gradients (Layer>Adjustment>Gradient map) to do individual colours … this way you are able to get more shades into the colours. Seems to work well with skin tones … downside is that you have to make all your gradients.

Wendy

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