How to Recolor Images in Photoshop

By lesliejune February 28, 2012 Tutorials

Here is a quick and simple introduction on how to add color to an image in 5 steps. We’ll start with a black and white image.

You can use this technique to change the color of a dress in a photo, add lipstick to a subject, or to apply a fairy-tale color scheme with low opacity pastel shades painted onto a "color" layer.



 

1. Prepare your layers

Here we have a girl leaning against a tree. I prefer to work with multiple layers. This way, I can easily return to each individual aspect of the image, and tweak each part without losing any work. 

For this image, I’ll be creating a unique layer for each of the following elements:

• background
• clothing
• skin
• eyes
• hair
• makeup


2. Paint

Paint liberal amounts of color for each respective layer. For example, my subject’s skin is an olive base. I’ll be painting on the “skin” layer with a peach+olive shade.
 Since "Skin" is one layer, I can later tweak the color using Hue/Saturation (command+u / ctrl+u).  On "Make-up" I'll recolor her lips with red, add some light blush with a soft pink, and then paint some light gold around the eyelids. For "Eyes" I know that my subject has vibrant hazel eyes, so I'll start with a green base. For hair, I'll paint the highlighted parts (which will help reveal the most color) with a pale auburn... You get the idea.

Ensure that your layers’ colors overlap one another. This prevents your images from having any gray gaps. 

3. Set layer to “Color”


 This is where everything miraculously comes together. Later, in step 5, you may also want to add new layers with color and then set the layer to “soft light” or “overlay” in order to add contrast and clarity to your image. I added a layer for Make-Up Reinforcement to add some depth to the red lipstick. For this simple detail, use the “soft light” filter and reduce the layer's opacity (anything under 50% for a mild contrast).




4. Clean up your lines

 


Take a hard brush with strong flow (50-90%) and paint black onto your layer mask in order to easily clean up your outlines.
Bring back pupils by painting black onto the layer mask for your “Eyes” layer. This can be necessary as paint on the pupils can look like cataracts.


Important: Use layer masks instead of the eraser tool. This way you can remove sloppy work *without* losing any data. This is a good habit. USE LAYER MASKS!



5. Final touches


The image on the left points out the highlights of the hair, which show the most natural color (even on my subject's dark locks). The image on the right shows the subject's natural shadows where you should paint rouge and deeper skin tones to add contrast and depth to the face.

Make any necessary adjustments to your layer, including desaturating heavy lipstick or adding extra color to the eyes. Eyes are difficult to color as they can contain a wide spectrum of organic shades. For my subject’s wild hazel eyes, I added tinges of brown and orange to the iris I originally painted green, using a low-flow (10%) soft brush. I then added slight traces of dark emerald to the borders of the iris. Add a little rouge, desaturate the highlights of the face (where the sun hits your subject most prominently), and maybe do some manipulating to the entire piece.



There you have it! It’s not so hard if you’re patient and make use of layer masks and filtering.

Good luck,

Leslie