One of our members asked for a quick tutorial on how to "colorize" an image. (In digital photography we typically "colorize" an image by converting a color image to black and white, and then adding back color to selected portions of the image.)
Here is the image Sissy sent me:
The first step is to pull the image into Photoshop and convert to Black and White. We'll do this with an "adjustment layer," like this:
The "Black and White" conversion dialog provides several alternatives for conversion that are roughly equivalent to the old darkroom methods of Black and White processing. I've picked the preset that gives the most pleasing "out of the box" rendition of tones and contrast, without too much tweaking:
Note that using an "adjustment layer" will add a pseudo "adjustment" layer on top of the base layer, as you can see in the
Layers palette to the right of the image. In addition, a "reveal all" mask will automatically be added to the adjustment layer. (The white rectangle just to the right of the adjustment thumbnail is the "reveal all" mask.) We can modify this mask to "hide" portions of this B&W adjustment layer and let the original color layer show through. We'll "hide" portions of the layer by selecting black as the brush color and painting on the mask with a brush. (When using layer masks, a white area on the mask allows those areas of the corresponding layer to show in the final image, whereas a black area on the mask "hides" the corresponding areas on the layer and allows the layers lower in the stack to show in the final image.)
Use the drop down
Brush menu in the top left of your Photoshop window to adjust the size and "hardness" of the brush. In this case, set the "hardness" to 0%, which gives a soft-edge brush and allows you to "blend" in the changes you are about to make. Before you actually paint on the image, it's a good idea to verify that the "layer mask" is selected, and not the actual image layer. You can determine whether the layer mask is selected by confirming that it has a double border around the mask. ("Selected" items in the Layers pallete are indicated with a double border.) Paint over the areas of the image where you want to modify the mask to allow the original color to show through. In the screen shot below, you can see the small mask thumbnail is black in the areas corresponding to where I've painted with the black brush on the image.
This is the final result:
As an editorial note, this image would have been more successful without the "blown highlights" in the top part of the image. Using negative exposure compensation and adjusting the flash output to properly illuminate the subject would have been one way of correcting for these blown highlights.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Keith