Converting Sepia style old picture to new colors

Hi All,

I am planning a big party for my Grandparents, who are completing their 50th Marraige Anniversary. I have found tons of their old pictures and have scanned them. All these pictures have a Sepia color look.. Of course since they are 50+ yrs old.

Can I covert these scanned images (sepia colored) to look like modern color pictures. I am just a novice in photoshop or other photo editing apps.. but can surely find my way around if given some directions.

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance,

Merry Christmas to All.

- Gujjubhai.

There are a number of tutorials on this site on colourising!! plus lots of others you may find of interest?
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp
I suggest you click on 'Print view' when you have found one you like.. Harry

"Gujjubhai" wrote in message

Hi All,

I am planning a big party for my Grandparents, who are completing their 50th Marraige Anniversary. I have found tons of their old pictures and have scanned them. All these pictures have a Sepia color look.. Of course since they are 50+ yrs old.

Can I covert these scanned images (sepia colored) to look like modern color pictures. I am just a novice in photoshop or other photo editing apps.. but can surely find my way around if given some directions.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance,

Merry Christmas to All.

- Gujjubhai.

Very Nice website with lots of tutorials..

Thanks a Zillion ..Harry

You didn't say if your old original photos were faded color photos or B/W photos now turned yellow. If they are faded color try adjusting color levels, hue, and saturation to try to bring the original colors back. If they were B/W go to image> adjustments> desaturate and then follow the steps below.

You can apply colors to photos using Photoshop, but it can be quite time consuming to do a whole photo. The process will be much like coloring in a coloring book.

Make a new layer and change it's mode to "color". Then select a color and, using a brush of your choice, paint the area of the photo that you wish to be that color. Make another new layer and do the same for the next color, etc. Keep repeating these steps until you have all of the areas of the photo that you want colored. Each color or shade should be placed on it's own separate layer. You can go back and make adjustments to each color later by first selecting the appropriate layer and then playing with hue, etc. or change the layer's opacity to get the level of color that you want. You will be coloring the gray levels of the photo. Your colors will have less or no effect at the black and white ends of the gray scale. Take the time to label each layer as you create them or it will get very confusing later in your progress.

Many old photos were printed using processes which produced only a few levels of gray. These can be harder to get good results because you will need to add additional layers of gray levels for some areas so that you can achieve the color effects that you want.

If you need additional help you can e-mail me directly.

--
Charley

"Gujjubhai" wrote in message

Hi All,

I am planning a big party for my Grandparents, who are completing their 50th Marraige Anniversary. I have found tons of their old pictures and have scanned them. All these pictures have a Sepia color look.. Of course since they are 50+ yrs old.

Can I covert these scanned images (sepia colored) to look like modern color pictures. I am just a novice in photoshop or other photo editing apps.. but can surely find my way around if given some directions.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance,

Merry Christmas to All.

- Gujjubhai.

Thanks for the info. charley,

The pictures i have scanned are in fairly good shape (not damaged ).... but have that pale light brown shade.. And they are in color (Sepia).

I am trying to make them look , as if they were taken in recent times (true life colors).

So far i have searched the website which harry pointed in earlier post.. but none of them show the way .. for what i want to do. Any more help or suggestion is welcomed..

Thanks again.

Not sure about your images.

If they are in color but have a sepia cast you can use adjustments to fairly easily take out the cast. Try the auto color/contrast/levels. You would have better control with Levels and Curves but that takes some expertise.

Gujjubhai wrote:

Thanks for the info. charley,

The pictures i have scanned are in fairly good shape (not damaged ).... but have that pale light brown shade.. And they are in color (Sepia).
I am trying to make them look , as if they were taken in recent times (true life colors).

So far i have searched the website which harry pointed in earlier post.. but none of them show the way .. for what i want to do. Any more help or suggestion is welcomed..

Thanks again.

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:21:49 GMT, "Charley"
wrote:

You didn't say if your old original photos were faded color photos or B/W photos now turned yellow.

He DID say they were over 50 years old. Although a crude color was available earlier, color snapshots were not common until the 60s. Kodak invented the Instamatic camera in 1963, and began the mass marketing of color film. Until then, virtually all photographs had been in black and white.

If they are faded color try adjusting color
levels, hue, and saturation to try to bring the original colors back. If they were B/W go to image> adjustments> desaturate and then follow the steps below.

You can apply colors to photos using Photoshop, but it can be quite time consuming to do a whole photo. The process will be much like coloring in a coloring book.

Make a new layer and change it's mode to "color". Then select a color and, using a brush of your choice, paint the area of the photo that you wish to be that color. Make another new layer and do the same for the next color, etc. Keep repeating these steps until you have all of the areas of the photo that you want colored. Each color or shade should be placed on it's own separate layer. You can go back and make adjustments to each color later by first selecting the appropriate layer and then playing with hue, etc. or change the layer's opacity to get the level of color that you want. You will be coloring the gray levels of the photo. Your colors will have less or no effect at the black and white ends of the gray scale. Take the time to label each layer as you create them or it will get very confusing later in your progress.

Many old photos were printed using processes which produced only a few levels of gray. These can be harder to get good results because you will need to add additional layers of gray levels for some areas so that you can achieve the color effects that you want.

If you need additional help you can e-mail me directly.

--
Charley

"Gujjubhai" wrote in message

Hi All,

I am planning a big party for my Grandparents, who are completing their 50th Marraige Anniversary. I have found tons of their old pictures and have scanned them. All these pictures have a Sepia color look.. Of course since they are 50+ yrs old.

Can I covert these scanned images (sepia colored) to look like modern color pictures. I am just a novice in photoshop or other photo editing apps.. but can surely find my way around if given some directions.
Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance,

Merry Christmas to All.

- Gujjubhai.

"ZONED!" wrote in message

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:21:49 GMT, "Charley"
wrote:

You didn't say if your old original photos were faded color photos or B/W photos now turned yellow.

He DID say they were over 50 years old. Although a crude color was available earlier, color snapshots were not common until the 60s. Kodak invented the Instamatic camera in 1963, and began the mass marketing of color film. Until then, virtually all photographs had been in black and white.

"ZONED!" wrote in message

He DID say they were over 50 years old. Although a crude color was available earlier, color snapshots were not common until the 60s. Kodak invented the Instamatic camera in 1963, and began the mass marketing of color film. Until then, virtually all photographs had been in black and white.

Now I know I don't ever want to be young and clueless - again. Dear ZONED, you are so wrong. Popular color photography existed before the Instamatic. Now you can sense how your grandchildren will feel when you correct them when they claim that film died when the first disposal digital camera came out.

I never said all pictures were in Sepia... Their actual wedding Pics are in B&W..which i was able to convert to Sepia or Antic style very easily.... but many many more pictures after 1965 are in Sepia or sort of Pale shade & those are the ones i want to convert.. So dont worry ...they are real people & have color pictures... LOL...

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:00:26 -0600, "jjs" <john&#064;xstafford.net> wrote:

"ZONED!" wrote in message

He DID say they were over 50 years old. Although a crude color was available earlier, color snapshots were not common until the 60s. Kodak invented the Instamatic camera in 1963, and began the mass marketing of color film. Until then, virtually all photographs had been in black and white.

Now I know I don't ever want to be young and clueless - again.

Good, I guess I am happy for you and I am sure you have a point to that line.

Dear ZONED,
you are so wrong.
Popular color photography existed before the Instamatic.

Of course color photography existed before the Instamatic, I never said it didn't. In 1906, panchromatic films were first produced. However, to say it was popular insinuates a wide use. Kodachrome came out in the mid 30s (however the post does deals with prints not slides) It is commonly accepted that color print photography became widely used in the early 60s.

Now you can sense how your grandchildren will feel when you correct them when they claim that film died when the first disposal digital camera came out.

No I cannot, because I would never say that to them. In fact between the three of them, I have gleaned more sense from them on occasion than I did from your defensive post.

By the way did you read the follow up post stating my general assumption was correct?

Yep, most of the color pics I've seen earlier than 1960 was from kodachrome slide film, for the most part. It's a no-brainer. Most of the color came out of studios.

"ZONED!" wrote in message

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:00:26 -0600, "jjs" <john&#064;xstafford.net> wrote:

"ZONED!" wrote in message

He DID say they were over 50 years old. Although a crude color was available earlier, color snapshots were not common until the 60s. Kodak invented the Instamatic camera in 1963, and began the mass marketing of color film. Until then, virtually all photographs had been in black and white.

Now I know I don't ever want to be young and clueless - again.

Good, I guess I am happy for you and I am sure you have a point to that line.

Dear ZONED,
you are so wrong.
Popular color photography existed before the Instamatic.

Of course color photography existed before the Instamatic, I never said it didn't. In 1906, panchromatic films were first produced. However, to say it was popular insinuates a wide use. Kodachrome came out in the mid 30s (however the post does deals with prints not slides) It is commonly accepted that color print photography became widely used in the early 60s.

Now you can sense how your grandchildren will feel when you correct them when they claim that film died when the first disposal digital camera

came

out.

No I cannot, because I would never say that to them. In fact between the three of them, I have gleaned more sense from them on occasion than I did from your defensive post.

By the way did you read the follow up post stating my general assumption was correct?