Spot colouring your photographs

Hi, Jakey here!

Today I'm going to explain a really easy way to spot colour your photographs

 

Open the photograph you plan to work with in your photo editing program. I use PSE4, so my instructions are for that, however, most programs operate similarly, so with a little tinkering you should be able to work out how to do it if you use another kind.

Having opened your image, the first thing to do is make a duplicate copy. Make sure the two images are the exact same size, dpi etc. To do this, check in the bottom left hand corner of the photo box, where you can see, and alter the document dimensions. Set each photo to a manageable size, say 40%, and make sure the dpi is the same for both.

Make certain you have a back up of the original before you go any further, and then convert one copy to mono. In PSE, I do this by going to Enhance -> Adjust colour -> Remove colour. If your photo looks washed out, have a play around with the levels, contrast and lighting controls until you’re happy with the black and white image, then cascade your windows, so you have two images open at once. One will be your colour photo, and one will be the mono version.

 

Hover over your command buttons until you locate the ‘move’ tool. These will most likely be down the left hand side of your screen and the ‘move’ tool will look like a pointer with a small cross to the right of it. Click on the ‘move’ button and use the mouse to drag and drop the mono image directly over the colour image.

You can now magnify the image by zooming in, and use the ‘eraser’ tool to ‘rub out’ the sections where you want colour to show through. The ‘eraser’ is on the same tool bar as ‘move’ and actually looks like a rubber so shouldn’t be too difficult to find J

Although you do have to take a bit of care to make sure you don’t remove anything you don’t want to, it’s a really easy technique, and it’s great fun watching the colour coming up. Do you remember those old ‘magic’ painting books you used as a kid…? Well, it’s a bit like that but less messy! lol!

 

In order to make your eraser larger or smaller, look above the image you’re working on and you’ll see the ‘eraser’ and close to it,  a box indicating size. Just use this to make it small, tiny or bigger as you need – peasy!

 

You can alter the hue/saturation at this stage if you want to make your picture pop a bit.

You'll also want to merge/flatten the completed image before saving and printing.

And don’t forget to keep a back up of the original - just in case!!

Have fun and as always, if you have a go, please share with us by linking in the comments section.

Jakey xx

 

 

Comments

[soojay]

Thanks..I used to be able to do this but its been so long i forgot...looks great!

[Lyre]

Excuse me. The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on. Help me! It has to find sites on the: Modular offices space. I found only this - wood Modular office furniture. Home products tdm access map tdm ntus fcd em modular access multiplexer. Mocha cherry modular office endless flexibility to create your own work environment scratch and stain resistant laminates and mm edge banding for. Thank you very much :mad:. Lyre from Botswana.