Adobe Photoshop CS2

Converting Black and White Photos to Color

Photoshop CS2 allows you to give black and white images and photos new life and vibrancy by adding color to them. This document explains two different ways Photoshop allows you to colorize your black and white images.

Colorizing with the Color Replacement Tool
Colorizing with Image Adjustments

Colorizing with the Color Replacement Tool

Colorizing an image with the Color Replacement Tool allows you to quickly and easily add color to an image or photo. This is the simplest method of adding color, however, the colors produced are often light and unconvincing.

Open your scanned or saved black and white image or photo in Photoshop CS2
NOTE: If you are not able to apply color to your image or photo, you may need to change the Image Mode to RGB Color.
Using the EYE DROP TOOL from the Color palette, select an appropriate color
OR
From the Color Swatch box, click FOREGROUND color
The Color Picker dialog box appears.
1. Select your desired color
2. Click OK
  Your selected color is now the Foreground color in the Color Swatch box.
Click and hold the BRUSH TOOL
This will reveal alternate options for the Brush Tool.
Select the Color Replacement Tool
NOTE: If you use any other paint tool besides the Color Replacement Tool, you will be coloring over the image thereby losing the image's distinct shapes and characteristics.
Using the Color Replacement Tool, apply your selected color to the black and white image or photo
NOTE: To ensure that you only colorize exactly what you want, use a selection tool and highlight the particular area you wish to color. With an area selected, you may only color within that area. If you wish to color outside of the highlighted area again, simply deselect it.

Colorizing with Image Adjustments

You can also colorizing a black and white image or photo using Color Balance, Hue/Saturation, or Variations. All of these options are located in the Image menu under Adjustments. Using these options to colorize your image or photo may take more time and effort, however, the color produced will be much more life like.

NOTE: These instructions assume you have selected an area to colorize. For more information, refer to Selecting an Area.

Color Balance

The Color Balance option allows you to increase or decrease numerically the color values of the Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue channels. By incrementally increasing or decreasing the amount of these color channels in your image or photo, you can create a color to your exact specifications.

Select an area of you image or photo to colorize
From the Image menu, select Adjustments » Color Balance
OR
[Ctrl]+[B]
The Color Balance dialog box appears.
Use the color sliders and the Tone Balance options to create a precise color for your selected area
NOTE: With the Preview box selected, you will be able to observe the changes in color occurring to the area selected as you move the color sliders.
Click OK
The changes you made will be reflected in your image or photo.

Hue/Saturation

The Hue/Saturation option allows you to use color sliders to impact the amount of Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.This option allows you to produce a distinct color, however, you cannot impact the Shadow or Highlight attributes of your selection.

Select a color
Select an area of you image or photo to colorize
From the Image menu, select Adjustments » Hue/Saturation
OR
[Ctrl]+[U]
The Hue/Saturation dialog box appears.
Select Colorize
The color sliders will move to display the color that is currently selected in your Color palette.
Move the color sliders until you create the precise color for your selected area
NOTE: With the Preview box selected, you will be able to observe the changes in color occurring to the area selected as you move the color sliders.
Click OK
The changes you made will be reflected in you image or photo.

Variations

The Variations option allows you to add more of one individual color channel or degree of lightness/darkness to your image. This image adjustment option is the most time consuming; however, it will produce the most customized and realistic color for your image or photo.

Select an area of your image or photo to colorize
From the Image menu, select Adjustments » Variations...
The Variations dialog box appears.
Select what you want to change
EXAMPLE: Shadows
Select the degree of adjustment by moving the Fine/Coarse slider
Add the desired color by clicking a color thumbnail
To adjust brightness, click the LIGHTER or DARKER thumbnail
Changes are reflected in the CURRENT PICK thumbnail.
Repeat steps 3-6 until you have the desired effect
Click OK
The changes you made will be reflected in your image or photo.