Help? Coloring

areuwhatudream · Aug 13, 2004

I wanted to post this picture to see what people thought. I was thinking I wanted to color in the little girl's outfit, to bring the focal point towards her among the business around her.

I'm new to Photoshop and dont have access to a darkroom right now to ACTUALLY handcolor this picture, but I don't know what the best way to do it in photoshop would be... or how to do it. Help greatly appreciated! :wink:

voodoocat · Aug 13, 2004

That is an awesome photo! I wouldn't change a thing! except maybe crop out the arm and leg on the right hand side of the frame.

Sorry, cant help with the handcoloring... If I was to guess, I would say add a layer and set the blending mode to color. Then pick the color you want and paint away.

vonnagy · Aug 13, 2004

wonderful image, personal I wouldn't colour this at - but thats only because I am not a fan of the technique.

I believe the girl stands out beautifully in this picture:

1. The lines on the background wall nearly align with her, its enough to draw interest to here without the distraction of perfect symetry
2. the lady walking out of the picture has angles that lead to the little, the arm angles to the top the girls head, the reflection of the leg lead up to her again.
3. The angle of the black girl bending her back also leads into the little.

The image is powerful and dreamlike, the ambience only adds the the surreal state. For me colour would take all the wonderful ambience away - currently I like the way my eyes roam around the pic- i prefer the subtleness of the picture the way it is!!! sorry that was a bit much, its only because I really LOVE this photo

oh welcome on forum

Alison · Aug 13, 2004

I really like this photo. I think it's strong as is but if you want to give the coloring a try here's what I do.

Use the lasso tool to select the areas that you want to remain in color. You can use the Ctl and Alt keys to add/subtract from your selection. Once you have the areas that you want, choose Select >> Inverse
then to go Image >> Adjustments >> Desaturate and viola, your selected area is in color and the rest is black and white. However, the desaturate command usually leaves it a little on the blah side you you'll need to adjust the contrast and maybe some curves to get it to look right. There's tons of ways to do this, including masking off the area but I'm not very good at those because this is the way I learned.

mistakendavis · Aug 13, 2004

if you want to really hand color it you dont need a darkroom, just get it printed on matte paper and use colored pincels to color.

Walt · Aug 13, 2004

I agree with Vood, just crop the right side. The picture is very strong in B&W and the girl stands out great as it is.

areuwhatudream · Aug 13, 2004

Thank you all for your awesome feedback!! I really appreciate all your comments.
I have definately rethunk coloring in her outfit.... Do you think if I cropped out the woman's arm and foot on the right side, that the picture would be too off-centered?

voodoocat · Aug 13, 2004

areuwhatudream said:
Thank you all for your awesome feedback!! I really appreciate all your comments.
I have definately rethunk coloring in her outfit.... Do you think if I cropped out the woman's arm and foot on the right side, that the picture would be too off-centered?

It generally is more apealing to the eye when it's not centered. Keeps the viewers eye in the photo.

vonnagy · Aug 13, 2004

voodoocat said:
areuwhatudream said:

Thank you all for your awesome feedback!! I really appreciate all your comments.
I have definately rethunk coloring in her outfit.... Do you think if I cropped out the woman's arm and foot on the right side, that the picture would be too off-centered?

Click to expand...

It generally is more apealing to the eye when it's not centered. Keeps the viewers eye in the photo.

you are going to run into different opinions on this, the centering doesn't bother me at all, if you take a good photo you can bend the rules a bit

In this photo as mentioned before the womens leg adds to ambience of the photo - particularly because i find the angles of her body leading into the girl - but then again i am the only person seeing this

I totally reminds me of the late bresson's work - the decisive momentesque quality to it. If you cropped the leg - yes you would have a more balanced photo - but you lose the mystery. Its really your choice of an artist what you want to convey.

oh do tell us your equipment and settings, post processing and all that good stuff if you remember

areuwhatudream · Aug 13, 2004

I think I'm going to have to take a fresh look at this picture tomorrow or something...

I was using my good old Nikon N65 camera with Ilford HP5 black and white film...as for the exposure, I can't remember the details... I sent the film out to be processed since I dont have access to chemicals right now, and they put it on a CD for me. Since the CD doesn't quite capture the contrast right, I quickly used autocontrast in photoshop... and thats it!
I am so flattered by the comparison to bresson's photography! thanks so much

Northernshadow · Aug 13, 2004

What a great shot!
I think if you did color it I would keep it really subtle, so it enhances and not overpowers?

Sherry

terri · Aug 13, 2004

mistakendavis said:
if you want to really hand color it you dont need a darkroom, just get it printed on matte paper and use colored pincels to color.

Here's a guy after my own heart. :wink:

My only problem with the PS handcoloring is that people tend to get a little garish with their coloring, and I would agree with the previous poster that this one should be subtle. You don't need too much color here to draw the eye. Centered works here, it's all right because there is enough action around your main subject to keep the eye moving. Like Vonn stated, it's okay to bend the rules with a strong enough image.

Should you print this out on a matte surface paper, you may find chalk pencils (pastels) will give you much better results (quickly, too) than with PS, unless you have experience with that kind of coloring. Blend them with a Q-tip and use a cheap kneaded eraser to get rid of unwanted color outside the lines. It's easy!

Great job, regardless of coloring.

JonMikal · Aug 13, 2004

:salute:

danalec99 · Aug 13, 2004

This is a great piece of work. The girl of course is the center of focus.
I too am not a big fan of partial coloring in a BW photograph.
I'm with vonnagy re. the cropping. The lady on the right, her leg reflection, the folks on the left, their reflection, it all adds up to the mystery and story. A real life picture! :thumbsup:

SilentRaven · Aug 13, 2004

seeing as how the question was How to Color a B&W photo in Photoshop...here's the answer, regardless of my opinion.

in the Layers Palette, make a new layer on top of the photo. Change the Layer Style to Overlay.

then just start coloring it. if you are familiar with the Pen Tool, use it. If not, just use the [ and ] keys to make your brush sizes smaller and larger as you accurately fill in the areas you want. i hope that helps.