Elegant Colorization
Elizabeth LePage
Apply a hand-painted colorization effect to a photo.
1. Open your photo and duplicate the background layer (PC: Control+J,
Mac: Command+J).
2. Go to the Enhance menu, than to Adjust Color and select Adjust Hue/
Saturation (PC: Control+U, Mac: Command+U).
3. Inside the Hue/Saturation dialog box, check the Colorize box. This will
create a tinted monochromatic image. Change the tint by moving around
the Hue slider until you’re happy. You can also slide the Saturation slider
around to make it more or less saturated.
4. Go to the Window menu and select Color Swatches. This will open up
the Color Swatches panel on the right hand side of your screen.
5. Select the Brush tool. In the tool options bar, make sure your opacity is
set to 100%.
6. Create a new, blank layer. Change the blend mode to Color and the
opacity to 15%.
7. In the Color Swatches panel, choose a color to paint back into your
image (Elizabeth chose a pink color to match her subject’s lipstick and
rosy cheeks). Begin painting over your photo in the areas that you’d like to
be the color you just selected.
8. To add another color to your photo, create another blank layer and
automatically change the blend mode to Color and the opacity to 15%.
Select a second color and begin painting over another area.
9. If you accidentally overdid it, you can select your Eraser tool and erase
away areas where there shouldn’t be color.
Helpful Hint: To accentuate color in an image, try hiding the monochromatic
Layer 1. This can be a great way to saturate and even lightly change the colors of
a photo!
