Ever wanted to add color to your old, vintage, or historical photographs? Load up some old pictures and see how color can be added quickly to any black and white photograph in this simple Photoshop how to.
While many purists simply don’t like the look of colorized black and white photographs, the ability to add color to black and white images is as indispensible as it is simple. Read on to see just how easy it can be.
Starting with Grayscale Images
Simply because an image is in black and white doesn’t mean that it is a Grayscale image. Once your photograph is open, our first task is checking our Color Mode.
Navigate to Image > Mode > RGB color to set your image to RGB. If it is in Grayscale or some other color mode, Photoshop will convert it for you. Once this is done, you’ll be ready to add color to your image.
Using Blending Modes to Add Color
One of the simplest ways to add color to a black and white image is using Blending Modes. But rather than create a dozen layers with individual blending modes, we will create a single layer group with a group blending mode. Here’s how to do it:
- Press
to create a New Layer.
- With that New Layer selected, press
to group your new layer.
- Select your new layer group as shown above, and set your Blending Mode to “Color.”
You’ll find Blending Modes in the pulldown tab directly under the top of the “Layers” panel. Click to pull it down to set the blending mode of your Group to “Color” as shown above.
Once your group is set to blending mode “Color” reselect your layer and let’s check out some ways to add color to our image.
Some Ways to Add Colors to Your Image without Painting
You can now add color into any layer you make inside your new group. The question is, how? Any way you can add color to layers is a way that will work. Let’s start with a simple and quicker, but rougher method using the Lasso Tool or even the Pen Tool, if you feel like you’ve mastered it.
The Lasso and the Pen Tool both do roughly the same thing in this situation. You’ll be drawing and outlining shapes, and then filling them with the Bucket Fill or by going to Edit > Fill and using your foreground color. While this method does not give the most refined of results, it can be the fastest. If you wish to take a more hands-on, controlled approach, you’ll want to keep reading to see the “painting” method using the Photoshop Brush tool.
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