Coloring in Black and White photos

How do you color in a black and white photo?

Actually you can very easily add color to a B&W picture using the Adjustment Brush with the 'Color' option set to the color you want to paint on the image area. You may also find using the 'Auto Mask' setting helps to confine the brush strokes to the area you are trying to fill. If you accidentally paint outside an area hold down the ALT key, which puts a in the brush allowing you to remove the color.
You can also use this in reverse with a color image by first painting over the entire image using a large Adjustment Brush with Saturation set to -100. Next hold down the ALT key and paint (i.e. remove) in the area you want to reveal the original color. Optionally you can set a new Adjustment brush using the Color picker as detailed above for a B&W image to paint in a different color.
You actually have three different options for painting inside LR and maybe even more if you think outside the box!

Similar Messages

How do I add selective color to black and white photo?

New to Photoshop Elements 12. How do I add selective color to a black and white photo?

The easiest way is to use the Smart Brush tool in Expert tab.
On the tool's option bar, in the drop-down select "Revers Effects", then select the "Reverse" option. Be sure that "Inverse" is ticked.
Paint over the object that is to retain color, the rest will become b/w.

Why did bridge color my black and white photo?

I click on the black and white thumbnail and the preview was changed to color, and if you open the .nef file in PS.CS3 it opens it up in color! I don't remember asking to have my B&W photos colored. I looked in the help documentation but Black, White and Black and White are found! Please help.
Windows Vista & Xp (both machines)
Bridge and PS CS3
Nikon D200.
This is weird.

NEFs are RAW image files. They contain all of the data your camera captured, which means color. When you use the camera controls to set the image to sepia, b/w, etc., that only affects JPEG files and the JPEG thumbnail that initially shows up in Bridge before Bridge builds its own.

Can I change more than one photo from color to black and white at one time?

can I change more than one photo from color to black and white at one time?

Check out iPhoto Batch Enhancer
http://www.feroxsoft.com/ibe/index.php.en
Regards
TD

How to determine actual colors in a black and white photo?

I'm not sure if I'm in the right section, but I'm wondering if it's possible to use an Adobe program to restore actual colors in a black and white photo? I don't want add color by imagining or guessing; I need to determine the real colors. This might not even be possible, but if it is, please tell me what I can use.
Thank you.

That's where the artistry comes into play when they colorize old movies.
A lady wears a nice dress: is it greeen or purple? It looks gray.
A baby comes home from the hospital cute new baby clothes: pink or blue? They look light gray.
That's a nice school tie that guy's wearing: use the wrong colors on the stripes, and he's at a different school. But they're nothing more than varying shades of gray.
If there's one thing missing in a B&W photograph, it's any vestige of color information. All you have is gray scale. You may NEED to determine the real colors, but without a color photograph to use as a reference image, you're out of luck.

PSE 8: Color Tinting from Black and White Photo

Basically, the title says it all. Can someone tell me how to add areas of color in a black and white photo for PSE 8?
I really appreciate it.

Using Hue Saturation won't colorize my whole picture? What if I just want to color a hat? I mean, I know about hue/saturation and I know how to colorize. But, how do you do it for something specific within that picture and leaving the rest black and white?
Select what you want to colorize and then apply the colorization methods. You might want to first feather the selection 1 or 2 px to get a soft edge. As to Barbara's first method (painting on a blank layer with Color blend mode), the color tends to be washed out. If you want a deeper color, duplicate the layer and set its blend mode to Multiply; if the result is too dark then lower the duplicate layer's Opacity.

Black and white photo with color

how do I leave color in a black and white photo ?

There are several ways, here is one:
Open picture file
Duplicate the background layer
On the background copy layer, remove the color (Enhance>convert to black and white)
Apply a mask to the background copy layer
Paint with a black brush where you want to reveal the color. If you go too far, correct with a white brush.

Q: How do I Mask/Layer a color photo with a black and white photo?

This is what I want to do. I've done it before but cannot remember for the life of me how to do it again. I want to put a color photo under (its own) black and white photo and then erase or remove or something (I can't remember the tool to do it) but I want to be able to see some of the color photo in my black and white photo. For example, say I have a pic of the Disneyland Castle. I want to make the pic black and white and then with a layer or mask (whichever one) have the exact colors of the picture underneith it show up after I have used the paint brush to remove the black and white...is anyone understanding me? When I did it before I know I did it in only a few steps, it wasn't super complicated, and I'm probably stupid for not knowing how to do it now. Thanks!
Lindsey Henry

Lindsey,
First, look at the Channels in the B/W. Probably, you can use one of those as a Selection and then as a Layer Mask. If not perfect, then you can likely get close. If you need to, you might want to Blend more than one of those Channels.
If you have an issue "collecting" the Channels, just get your B/W into a separate Image, and then drag individual Channels back to your composite image, and use them, as is necessary.
Hope that some of those ideas are useful,
Hunt
BTW - turn OFF the color for Channels, so that you can see them as B/W, as that will help you see their makeup.

Adding color to a black and white photo

I've searched everywhere on here and on Youtube and can't seem to find how I can add color to a black and white photo using Aperture 3 that was taken in black and white.

Hi, and welcome to the list. Make sure you read the [Help & Terms of Use|http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa] section when you get a chance.
It's not a good idea to insert a new question into someone else's post. First as you are not the originator of the post you can not assign solved or helpful ratings to any answers you get here. And the forum really relies on those to help other users locate meaningful responses.
Secondly your question is less likely to get answered. readers of the post will be looking to either give advice on the original question or else be looking for answers to the question. A new question stuck in between the other replies is less likely to be noticed. It's always best to start a new thread and if something in another post applies you can always link to it.
Now to your question. There was a great solution given to your very problem back a little while ago, see: [Topic : Black, white, and color?|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12805425&#12805425]
(see how I worked that last bit of advice into this post )

Add a touch of color to a black and white photo?

In Aperture how do you add a touch of color to a black and white photo?

Ledted wrote:
easiest way is to spend $1.99 on Color Splash Studio from the App store.
Can you confirm that Color Splash Studio allows one to _add_ a hue to a grayscale image? I asked their support, and got this answer which seems to say that one cannot add hues other than sepia or blue (cyanotype simulation is my guess) to grayscale images:
Regarding your questions: the app can add hue in color photography, but when in grayscale mode, you can adjust brightness, contrast, blur and amount. Also, our monochrome layers include grayscale, sepia and blue tone, so you can choose.

Adding color to an object in a black and white photo

Can someone please help? I just bought Aperture and I was wondering if it is possible to add color to an object in a black and white photo? or keep an object in color and turn the rest of the picture into black and white?
Thanks

Hi
I am 90% sure this cannot be specifically done in Aperture as it can in Photoshop.
I assume you mean adding spot colour to a B&W photograph.
You can choose an external editor such as Photoshop, if you have it, create the effect, and re-import the image back into Aperture.
There are some powerful colour controls for selectively improving colour in a photo within Aperture. Whereby you can make a particular colour stand out more by selectively adjusting the red, blue,cyan,magenta, yellow colour's. These are accessed via the colour controls in the adjustments inspector.
You can create B&W images with two tones (of your choice) by using the Monochrome mixer ( in the adjustments panel )
Or you can create colour monochrome effects by using the colour monochrome effects slider ( in the adjustments panel, where you see a + sign with a downward pointing arrow ) click the arrow and select "colour monochrome" from the menu, it will appear at the bottom of the adjustments panel.
Give some of these a go..... play around with it, you can get some stunning result's..........
Hope this helps some.......
w..............

Is there a way to color one thing in a black and white photo. Example: I have a picture of a tulip field and I want to make it black and white - which I have already done - but I want to make one single tulip red. Help?

Is there a way to color one thing in a black and white photo. Example: I have a picture of a tulip field and I want to make it black and white - which I have already done - but I want to make one single tulip red. Help?

No, you'll need an external editor for the job:
In order of price here are some suggestions:
Seashore (free)
The Gimp (free)
Graphic Coverter ($45 approx)
Acorn ($50 approx)
Pixelmator ($50 approx)
Photoshop Elements ($75 approx)
There are many, many other options. Search on MacUpdate. You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.

Determining colors in a black and white photo

I don't know if Photoshop can do this, but I really need to bring color to a black and white photo. I'm not looking to add color by imagining or guessing; I need to find out the actual colors. Is this possible? If photoshop can't do it but another program can, please let me know.
Thank you.

Just for interest sake, make a screen grab of your swatch panel, and paste it into a new Photoshop document. Add a B&W adjustment layer, and have a think about what colour each shade of grey represents. You can turn the B&W adjustment layer off and on again to help you along.

Colorizing an original black and white photo

Is there a way (kinda simple) to turn a black and white photo (never in color) into a color photo ? The desaturate / history thing won't, of course, work.
Thanks!

Think of using Layers and setting their Blending Mode to Color. You can go a bit bolder in the painting, and then lower Opacity, as is required, but I would go for the tint that you want to start.
You can probably use the existing Channel to create Masks, along with QuickMask, and these can be applied as Layer Masks to each color section.
It seems that I saw an article by Katrin Eismann on "hand tinting." Maybe in Photoshop User magazine? I also think that MyJanee had a tutorial, though it would have been for an earlier version - should work fine in later versions.
Good luck. It's fun to do, but does take a bit of hand-work. Almost any variation on Colorize will probably yield garish results.
Hunt

PSE 8 coloring a black and white image

Okay, so I downloaded a free trial of PSE 8, so my experience with it is limited, which may contribute to my problem. I've watched tutorials on how to add color to a black and white photo using the paintbrush tool, though I haven't watched one for PSE 8.
I'll make a new layer, paint part of the picture, and then add another layer. But when I click a different color to paint with, it changes the color of what I already painted, even though I'm on a different layer.
Also when I tried to just save the image with one part painted, it didn't save it, and the image looked as it did originally.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Hi,
Are you using the right tool to paint on a layer?
For coloring a black and white image, you need to save different areas of your image on a different layer and then use either Paint brush or a Paint bucket tool.
It seems that you are selecting a wrong tool. For selecting Brush, press B.
Then try painting on one part of the image and then go to the the color swatch present at the end of the tools panel on the left as :
Now click on the foreground color swatch(on the top) to change the color with which you want to paint.This will not change the color of other layers on changing the color.
Cheers
Swarnima

Coloring in Black and White photos

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