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Posted by Guest Contributor in Tutorials

Black and white photography is an art in itself, but what if you want to add some color and bring your photos to life. In this tutorial we will walk you through the steps on how you can start with a black and white photo, then end up with the piece below that looks like the real thing.

Original image source.

For a start, make sure that your image is set to the RGB Color Mode:

(because some Black&White images are set to Grayscale)

Let’s start colorizing!

Create a New Layer (Layer>New>Layer…). You can name your layers so it’s easier for you to remember which is which. Name it ‘Skin’.

Take a brush and start coloring the skin in this layer. Use #ffcc99 as a starting color. Until the end it won’t really look the same, so this is your raw color. (Don’t worry about ‘coloring outside the lines’, because the background is white and after your next step you won’t see anything)

This is how it should look like. So you should set this Layer to Soft Light.

Create a new layer and name it ‘Lips’. Color them with the brush, #e45959, looks pretty well for a start and set the layer to Soft Light after you’re ready.

Your next step is doing the hair. Name your New Layer ‘Hair’ and start coloring. Use #593e2e (you can’t use light colors, because her original hair color is really dark), set your Layer to Soft Light.

The eye brows look a little too light, so this is what you have to do, in a new layer (named Eye Brows) you should color them with the same color as the hair.

Now, they look way too light, so go to your ‘Skin’ and erase the skin color from your eye brows. Use a lower Opacity on your Eraser. I used 20%.

Now, the eyes. You know the new layer drill (‘Eyes’) and color it with a color. I’ll do them greenish (#2e4a19) and set it to Soft Light.

Now, you might want the white around the eyes not to look so grayish, so create a new layer, and color that in white. And now, set it to Soft Light, next I changed the Opacity to 50%.

Your next step is eye shadow. Of course, the initial photo had make up and you can see it around the eyes.

I picked #ec759f and set it to Soft Light.

Now, let’s manipulate colors. Go to the Skin layer and then, go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance:

Midtones: +100, -9, +4
Shadows: +47, 0, -11
Highlights: +30, +7, +10

Once again, go to Color Balance:

Midtones: -30, 0, -7
Shadows: +4, 0, +15
Highlights: +100, 0, +11

I love how the color of the lips looks with the skin, so I won’t change that.

There also is no use in changing the color of the hair. Change the opacity of the eye-brows. I used 79%.

And your next step is to make the eye-shadow blend more with the skin color. So go to Color Balance and follow these settings:

Midtones: -41, +32, -22

And you’re done.

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