Just a few months ago, I was working on a layout about a relative of mine - my grandmother’s favorite niece. Her name was Luella, and for some reason, I have quite a collection of lovely photos of her. She was born in 1898, and was shamelessly spoiled by her parents. She grew up in Minnesota, and my collection includes quite a number of professional studio photographs of her. She also had a little sister, who was about ten years younger than herself, and they often posed together in their pretty dresses and polished shoes. One particular photo caught my eye, I was captivated by their obvious sisterly love.
It occurred to me that I should colorize the photo, to see if I could somehow bring Luella and little sister Verna more to life. I had tried digital photo tinting or colorizing one other time. I used a method that’s probably the most common - I created digital masks for each color I wanted to add, but found the results flat and unnatural. I thought perhaps I could develop my own method, one that might look a little better. One of the problems with the traditional method of using masks is the underlying photo is still black and white (or perhaps sepia), and so the underlying shadows are gray. Gray shadows don’t look very natural, even with flesh tones plopped on top of them. Since shadows are generally a darker, grayed version of the color of the surface, it seemed logical to break the photo into basic layers, each one a tint of the predominant color. Such as flesh, brown, green, red, etc. In many old photos, there is no crisp white - the pale hues have faded until they have lost their contrast and definition. So I wanted to make sure my photo restoration included the crisp whites that were probably there originally.
Since this is the condensed version, I will just give you the basic steps. It takes a little time & practice, but is so rewarding!
Here’s the method I devised. First, (using Photoshop CS3) I opened my scanned image, did a bit of retouching and contrast work, then I duplicated my original photo layer about 4 times. Since the flesh tones are often the most difficult and important, I decided to work first on that. I made all of the layers invisible except for my top, or flesh layer. Then I did a basic extraction, extracting the entire figures of Luella and Verna. I just used my polygonal lasso tool to do this. Next, I went to Image> Adjustments> Black and White. At the bottom of the black & white menu, there is a tint option, which I clicked, and then played with the sliders until I was happy with the color.
Next, I wanted to make both of their dresses, and hairbows white, so I selected each of these areas, repeated the tinting step above, this time tinting the dresses a slight purple. I worked with the levels, to make the dresses as white as I could without losing all the detail.
Face details like lip color and blush can be added on a new layer, then blended until it looks natural.
As I worked, I would selectively reveal the layers beneath. Each one I tinted a different color. One was dark, warm brown. The purpose of this layer was for the deep shadows on the flesh colors of the girls. By erasing small areas on the flesh layer, where the shadows were darker (like beneath the chin, between the fingers, above the eyes) the darker layer would show through, giving more depth and realism.
Since there was so much foliage, I made one entire layer a deep, rich green.
I erased the areas where a tree trunk and fence were, revealing a brown layer beneath.
Some additional work blending and adding a touch of blue to the sky, and my photo is complete.
Here is the final 2-page layout. I loved the common theme of ivy running through the photos, so I simply picked some ivy, scanned it, extracted it, and added it to my layout design. I hope this inspires you to try a little photo colorizing of your own!
To find the products mentioned in this article and shown in these layouts, check with your local scrapbook retailer. Browse our Premier Retail Stores for coupons to a store near you.
I’d love it if you stopped by my blog, to see what types of projects I’m working on! http://stefstyleblog.blogspot.com/
