COLORIZING BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS

When your client gives you black and white or faded photos and you need them in rich colours for use on the web site, here's hwo to do it with Photoshop to convert them over.

First, open the scanned image file in Photoshop. Then select Image > Mode > RGB Color.

Now click the Edit In Quick Mask Mode button at the bottom of the Tools bar, or press Q on your keyboard. Make sure that "QuickMask Options" are set to "Selected Areas" by double-clicking on the Quick Mask button.

Next, use the Paintbrush to paint over the first area you wish to colorize (should appear in red as the default colour for Quick Mask).

Then, exit Quick Mask Mode by clicking the button to the left of the Quick Mask button, or by pressing Q on your keyboard again. The mask has now become a Selection ready for colorizing. Save the Selections for future editing.

Next, go to Layers > New Adjustment Layer and select Color Balance. In the resulting options box, select the colour you want and set the opacity to somewhere between 50-70% (depending on how much of the original background detail to show through). A Color Balance box now appears. Move the sliders around to adjust the 6 primary colours until you are satisfied with the resulting tone for your selected area. Click OK. You can always re-adjust the opacity of this layer the Opacity slider on top of the Layers palette.

Now go onto other areas of the image and repeat the whole process until the entire image has been colorized from black and white or faded .... to full colour!