Colourising a Black and White Photo by Corinna Jasmine
The following is a tutorial explaining the process of colourising black and white photos. It can be a fun and worthwhile way of recovering old family photographs or being creative with vintage pictures.

Getting Started:
1. First open your b&w photograph in Photoshop or a similar program. Note: For best results choose a clear, high resolution picture.
2. Start by making sure your project is in RGB mode. You can switch modes by clicking on Image > Mode > RGB colour. Also make sure your layers window is open which is an option located under the Windows menu.
3. Right click on the background layer and select Duplicate Layer.
4. Take a minute to decide on how to separate your photograph into Layers. Each layer can then be coloured separately. For this photograph there will be 8 layers; background, skin, vest, hair, eyes, eye shading, lips and sleeve. Background being on the bottom layer and the sleeve on the top. The order in which you create your layers determines how you cut your picture.
5. There are several methods to cutting your photograph into separate layers. Personally I find a combination of the magnetic lasso tool and quick masking mode the easiest and fastest. So I will be describing this method. If you have difficulty using the magnetic tool the other lasso tools work well too.

Photograph of Ann Harding

6. We will begin by making sure the duplicate background layer is selected. Select the magnetic lasso from the tool bar. Carefully trace around the face. Be as accurate as possible and try not to go over the background, however, you can freely overlap the hair area as our hair layer will eventually be placed on top. The selection is complete once you overlap the beginning point with your end point. Holding down Shift while using the magnetic lasso will add more area and alternatively holding down alt will delete space.

7. Clicking on Quick Mask Mode and zooming in can give you a more accurate visual of what is being selected. Use the paintbrush tool and the eraser tool at 100% opacity to paint and erase your selection. When you are satisfied with your selection click on the Standard Mode Button (this is the button directly next to the Quick Mask button), you should see the dotted, moving line indicating your selection.
8. Right click on selection and choose “Layer via Copy”. Or simply create a new layer and paste in the selection. Label this new layer Skin Colour.

9. Next we get into the fun part, adjusting the individual layer. Go into image menu > adjustments and select colour balance. Adjusting these values will start to give your layer life. Adjust slowly checking the effects of different values. You can always readjust later. Choose a realistic tone for the skin and click on OK. Note: You can also play with brightness and contrast, selective colour or curves at this point to help you get realistic effects. Feel free to experiment but don't forget to save often!

10. The next layer will be the hair. I have made a quick selection but this time instead of going straight into quick mask mode I have clicked Inverse under the Select menu. This inverts the selection so when you go into Quick Mask Mode your selection is dark red. This makes it a bit easier to see the individual hairs. Here I have painted in little fine details of the hair and also the eyebrows. You may want the eyebrows on a separate layer as realistically it will be slightly darker and less contrasting to the face than the hair. When you are done click the Edit in Standard Mode button. Be sure to invert your selection again so you select the right part of the picture!
11. Continue this technique for the eyes, lips, vest, and sleeve.

12. I have selected the area around the eyes to add extra interest. When adjusting the colour choose something as close to the skin tone as possible with maybe a little more warmth and slightly darker. Playing with the contrast and sharpness can give some extra dimension to the eyes.

13. For the background there is no need to cut out any individual part as all other layers will be placed on top. Duplicate the background layer again and adjust the colour as a whole. I have used the despeckle mode twice to get rid of extra graininess you can find this under the Filter menu > Noise>Despekle.

Finishing Touches

14. Once you have finished all your layers and are happy with the overall look. Save your picture under a new name and turn the visibility of your black and white background layers off. Click on Merge Visable Layers under the Layers menu. This will flatten your image and make editing your picture as a whole much easier.

15. This is where we add the final details. You may want to adjust the colours of your picture as a whole, experiment with contrast, brightness, curves or blurring. Use the blur tool to help blend any fly away hairs. Use the cloning tool to make sure all the edges are smooth. I have also used the dodge (lightener) and burn (darkener) tool to add darker and lighter spots in the picture and to add interest. Using the dodge tool is a good way to lighten the white spots of the eye and the burn tool to accentuate eyelashes. Finally I have also added some blush. Use the brush tool, increasing it’s size till it covers a large portion of the cheek. Adjust the opacity so it is very low 10% or so. Choose a nice warm blush colour by selecting the skin tool with the eyedropper and warming and brightening the colour in your colour picker (double click on foreground colour to get here). Lightly brush over cheeks, nose, forehead and chin to get a natural blushing look.

And Voila! We are done!

Final Result

before

After

This was a Tutorial by Corinna Jasmine copyright 2008. Back to Blog.