converting BW images to color

T
Posted By
thanaraja
Oct 15, 2007
Views
286
Replies
5
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Closed
Would like to know what is the fastest way I can convert a Black & White image to color without lossing its quality. Pls advise I’m new to photoshop

Thank you

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C
chrisjbirchall
Oct 15, 2007
A black and white image is just that: black, white and many shades of grey in between. There is no way to add colour information to the image where none existed in the first place.

If it was scanned from a B&W original, the only way to "colour" the image would be by hand tinting – a task which requires years of experience and skill to do convincingly.

If the image was shot on a digital camera, it is likely it was shot in colour and converted to B&W afterwards. Have you still got the original file?
T
thanaraja
Oct 15, 2007
No. It’s an old images shot way back in the 60’s. Got it scanned and did some touch-ups and tried to colorize it but not so good…
C
chrisjbirchall
Oct 15, 2007
Google for tutorials on "hand tinting" – and be prepared for a very long learning curve!
J
Joel
Oct 15, 2007
wrote:

Would like to know what is the fastest way I can convert a Black & White image to color without lossing its quality. Pls advise I’m new to photoshop

This may not make it to your web forum, but if you read from Usenet then you should be able to read to read this message.

– There is no fatest way but depending on how well you know your Photoshop. There are many different ways and combinations, so you will have to pick your choice

– First, you will need to change to COLOR mode (RGB for example)

– You can use Lasso to mark the area you want to change to color (example SKIN area, hair, cloth etc..) then you can use Hue/Sat or Color Balance etc.. to chance to whatever color you wish.

– It’s better you work with LAYERS and MASK for fine-tuning around the edges (selection). You can use with combination of Paint, Erase, Mask etc..

If you have lot of Photoshop skill then it may take 5-15 minutes to be able to have good 4×6" print, and if you want a large print (8×10" for example) then it may take 30-60+ minutes depening on your skill and difficulty.

Thank you
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Andrei_Doubrovski
Oct 15, 2007
thanaraja,
To put it short, you have to paint over B&W image without changing its luminosity. To achieve this you either choose "Color" mode for your Brush Tool or change "Color" mode for the layer you paint on

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