First off, a shout out for ...Cecilia... from Flickr.com for the wonderful base image we will be using through the course of this tutorial.
And secondly, this tutorial is based on Photoshop, but even if you choose to rather use any other software of your choice, still, please do enjoy your read.
For those of you, however, who do use Adobe's products, the source file for this tutorial is available at the end of this post, but with all due, for study purposes only.
Basically, colorization has a great impact on your work, no matter in what field of art you work in. Shortly put, colorizing is a completely separate medium, a medium of mood, if you will.
I won't be covering what type of feelings a certain type of a scheme will invoke, but rather on how to produce them.
The easiest way to work with an image is the dynamic way. Recent Photoshop versions make this especially easy by making adjustments available as a separate layer. I'll be covering most of the ones found in Layer -> New Adjustment Layer and covering them in a random order I chose them from.
1. Brightness and Contrast
Probably the most self explanatory to any newcomer, this adjustment enchants exactly that - the image's brightness and contrast. A little bump in these two fields can ofter help with that little touch.
![[Image: brightnessandcontrast.png]](http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3720/brightnessandcontrast.png)
A bright morning.
2. Exposure
The exposure function acts similar to the settings on your common bridge camera - you can adjust the exposure, offset and gamma correction. Basically exposure changes how responsive the base image is to the color applied (eg. a strongly applied color will have bigger influence). Offset and gamma correction work quite similar to the brightness function, just putting you in control more. If you're a photographer you should feel at home with this one.
![[Image: exposure.png]](http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/9553/exposure.png)
An evening shot.
3. Black and White
Using this adjustment you can create marvelous grayscale images from your original photograph. As a free tip, always take your shots in color mode, your camera still captures in color mode and then just converts it to a black and white image with it's stock settings. Keeping the color gives you more control on the outcome by using Photoshop later on.
Shortly put, you can choose how much of input the decolorization takes from different channels (6 color channels). Also, a tint option is available.
![[Image: blackandwhite.png]](http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6347/blackandwhite.png)
4. Selective Color
This one works similar to the black and white adjustment, only with the difference than rather than using the channel output for decolorization, it uses it as input for the channels itself. Explanation - you can make parts of other channels' alphas available for the editable color channel (6 colors again, plus three shades - whites, neutrals and blacks).
![[Image: selectivecolor.png]](http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2737/selectivecolor.png)
5. Channel Mixer
If you didn't understand anything about the previous one, well this one is a lot like the selective color adjustment, just a lot easier.
You can edit three main color channels and other channel's addition to them. Also a general switch called Constant is available to alter the current channel as whole.
![[Image: channelmixer.png]](http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7576/channelmixer.png)
A nice fuzzy warm climate.
6. Color Balance
And if you're still baffled by the overwhelming amount of options you're confronted with, fear not, for color balance is another niece of the previous two ones, just probably the easiest one to comprehend. And as for why did the hardest comes first and the easiest one last of the three, I have no clue, but I'm not going to rebuild this whole text.
You can alter three main channels and their percentage in the image output.
![[Image: colorbalance.png]](http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4025/colorbalance.png)
Feeling a bit cold, aren't we?
7. Gradient Map
Each pixel has it's color value (eg. it belongs to reds, blues or greenish-grays) and brightness (eg. how light dark the color is), gradient map changes each color according to it's brightness with an according color on the gradient provided. This plays out especially nice when used in Color mode (layer blending mode).
![[Image: gradientmap.png]](http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8441/gradientmap.png)
I used a dark blue to orange gradient on this one, in color mode, of course.
8. Levels
Editing levels allows you to edit either the whole image's colors' range as whole, three main color channels as separate or both, in histogram view.
![[Image: levelsz.png]](http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6110/levelsz.png)
9. Curves
Left for last as my personal favorite.
Curves give you the possibility to edit the images' colors through the three main color channels and the added up RGB channel - in a curve function view. You can either edit and/or add points to make the curve or use the pencil to draw the curve. As a free tip, it's a good idea to use the smooth function if you're using the pencil.
![[Image: curves.png]](http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8121/curves.png)
My personal favorite from this set.
Summary
You can use the adjustment layers as single or combined with others to give a great new feel to your image. You might often even run into solutions you didn't think of before.
And that would be it, for this time. I hope you understood what I tried to explain and if not, feel free to examine the psd file (attatched below). If you have any questions, you're welcome to ask.
Click to download the .PSD file
And secondly, this tutorial is based on Photoshop, but even if you choose to rather use any other software of your choice, still, please do enjoy your read.
For those of you, however, who do use Adobe's products, the source file for this tutorial is available at the end of this post, but with all due, for study purposes only.
Basically, colorization has a great impact on your work, no matter in what field of art you work in. Shortly put, colorizing is a completely separate medium, a medium of mood, if you will.
I won't be covering what type of feelings a certain type of a scheme will invoke, but rather on how to produce them.
The easiest way to work with an image is the dynamic way. Recent Photoshop versions make this especially easy by making adjustments available as a separate layer. I'll be covering most of the ones found in Layer -> New Adjustment Layer and covering them in a random order I chose them from.
1. Brightness and Contrast
Probably the most self explanatory to any newcomer, this adjustment enchants exactly that - the image's brightness and contrast. A little bump in these two fields can ofter help with that little touch.
A bright morning.
2. Exposure
The exposure function acts similar to the settings on your common bridge camera - you can adjust the exposure, offset and gamma correction. Basically exposure changes how responsive the base image is to the color applied (eg. a strongly applied color will have bigger influence). Offset and gamma correction work quite similar to the brightness function, just putting you in control more. If you're a photographer you should feel at home with this one.
An evening shot.
3. Black and White
Using this adjustment you can create marvelous grayscale images from your original photograph. As a free tip, always take your shots in color mode, your camera still captures in color mode and then just converts it to a black and white image with it's stock settings. Keeping the color gives you more control on the outcome by using Photoshop later on.
Shortly put, you can choose how much of input the decolorization takes from different channels (6 color channels). Also, a tint option is available.
4. Selective Color
This one works similar to the black and white adjustment, only with the difference than rather than using the channel output for decolorization, it uses it as input for the channels itself. Explanation - you can make parts of other channels' alphas available for the editable color channel (6 colors again, plus three shades - whites, neutrals and blacks).
5. Channel Mixer
If you didn't understand anything about the previous one, well this one is a lot like the selective color adjustment, just a lot easier.
You can edit three main color channels and other channel's addition to them. Also a general switch called Constant is available to alter the current channel as whole.
A nice fuzzy warm climate.
6. Color Balance
And if you're still baffled by the overwhelming amount of options you're confronted with, fear not, for color balance is another niece of the previous two ones, just probably the easiest one to comprehend. And as for why did the hardest comes first and the easiest one last of the three, I have no clue, but I'm not going to rebuild this whole text.
You can alter three main channels and their percentage in the image output.
Feeling a bit cold, aren't we?
7. Gradient Map
Each pixel has it's color value (eg. it belongs to reds, blues or greenish-grays) and brightness (eg. how light dark the color is), gradient map changes each color according to it's brightness with an according color on the gradient provided. This plays out especially nice when used in Color mode (layer blending mode).
I used a dark blue to orange gradient on this one, in color mode, of course.
8. Levels
Editing levels allows you to edit either the whole image's colors' range as whole, three main color channels as separate or both, in histogram view.
9. Curves
Left for last as my personal favorite.
Curves give you the possibility to edit the images' colors through the three main color channels and the added up RGB channel - in a curve function view. You can either edit and/or add points to make the curve or use the pencil to draw the curve. As a free tip, it's a good idea to use the smooth function if you're using the pencil.
My personal favorite from this set.
Summary
You can use the adjustment layers as single or combined with others to give a great new feel to your image. You might often even run into solutions you didn't think of before.
And that would be it, for this time. I hope you understood what I tried to explain and if not, feel free to examine the psd file (attatched below). If you have any questions, you're welcome to ask.
Click to download the .PSD file
