Digital Photography » Photo Retouch

Change a Black & White Depression Era Photo To Color

This tutorial will teach you how to change a Depression Era photo from black and white to color for dramatic effects.

Young Mother From Oklahoma Out In California (1937)

1. After opening your photo, change the image to color mode by clicking on Image > Mode > RGB Color which is very important -- you want to make sure this is checked.

2. Select the "Lasso Tool"  and set the Feather to 0px and the "Anti-aliased" to yes.

3. Now click on the edge of any object like the canvas tent and move your mouse around it to highlight it like the image below.

4. Press Ctrl+J to do "Layer via Copy"

5. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and select Colorize.

6. Now adjust the "Hue/Saturation and Lightness" until your object looks realistic.

7. Next, you want to click on the "Background Layer" like the image below and then do the same action as in step 2 above. You will select a new section of the photo you want to change the colors in with the "Magnetic Lasso" tool. If you don't click on the background layer first when your done, it won't work. You must do this or you won't be able to use the lasso tool to create a layer 2.

8. Next, click on Layer > Flatten Image to flatten it.

9. Now, click on Adjustments > Auto Levels and your done. Your finished image is below.

Last update: 2007-04-29 10:15
Author: Gary Logsdon
Revision: 1.0

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