Quick Colorize

Okay,so you’re faced with the problem. Colorizing a black and white image without making it look like you have a problem staying in the lines. Hours and hours later, you are found face down on the keyboard, from intense boredom. You lose your job, and then your mind.
Relax. It is not that difficult to colorize an image seamlessly. In fact it is so simple you will feel kind of stupid that you have been wasting all those hours on something so darn easy. I did.

First you must have a pretty clean image. It must be black and white to work. Otherwise, you may have to mess around with the Levels(Image-Adjust-Levels) to get it to the black and white.

If you just straight out color an image, you will get results like this. I colored her hair with the airbrush, and selected her wings and shirt with the magic wand. I filled with the color of my choice. The hair looks awful, and it was very difficult to stay in the lines. The wings look okay, but some of the black in her shirt was selected and it looks bad.

Instead, create a separate layer in PhotoShop by clicking on the post-it note like image on the layers palate. Make sure it is always above your black and white image. Next you will switch the mode to Multiply on the pull down menu on the Layers Palate. This will make sure all of the black will still be visible. After you have completed those steps, select your magic wand tool in the tools palate. Select the parts you want to color on the layer with the black and white image. Then while that part is still selected, switch to the new layer that you have created. Fill that layer with the color you have selected in your color palate (Alt + Backspace).

Remember to switch back to the black and white image to select, and then switch layers so not to color on the black and white image. You may want to save a copy of the original in case you make a mistake. (HINT:or you can drag the layer of the black and white image down to the post-it icon on the layer palate to make an extra copy) You can use the pencil tool to fill in extra pixels you may have missed.

Your image should look a lot better after doing these steps. It take less time, and if you have any mess-ups, you can always go in and erase them!

Author: Gina Hutchings
Copyright Lunar Media Inc
Chicago Web Design