With the advent of the digital age, many movie studios decided to capitalize on their back catalogue of black & white movies by using electronic processes to colour the frames, thus giving them a whole new lease of life without the added hassle of refilming.  Whether you agree or not with this process is another matter, but this tutorial details a very simple method for accomplishing the same effect using nothing more than the virtue of patience and a good eye for color detail.

Step 1: Open up a stock image in Photoshop of any size and/or format.  Ensure that you spend a few minutes adjusting your tonal range and clarity via Image > Adjustments > Brightness / Contrast, and then convert the image to RGB color using Image > Mode > RGB Color. NOTE:  If you have chosen an image that is already colored, strip the color out by selecting Image > Mode > Greyscale from the main menu BEFORE proceeding with this step.

Step 2: Go to the layers palette, add a new layer on top of the background, and change its blending mode to Color.     Select the Brush Tool and give it a large smooth-edged tip with 100% opacity.  For the rest of this tutorial you will need to change the size and smoothness of these brushes regularly, so spend some time getting used to the brush dialogs if you haven't done so already.

Step 3: With the new (color) layer active in the layers palette, and with a suitable color selected in the foreground color swatch, paint onto your image.  This stage takes the most eye for detail and is very time consuming - don't rush it, and use the zoom tool to your advantage. NB.  There are plenty of more advanced Photoshop techniques that you can use to your advantage during this step.  The simplest hint I can give you is to use a different layer/set for each body part.   Another is to use clipping masks to prevent colors bleeding out of desired areas.  Manual coloring without fancy techniques also works just fine, provided you have the time and patience required.

Step 4: And here is the result!  If you want to lighten or darken the colors to add depth or detail, add a new layer above your color layer in the layers palette and change the Blending Mode to Overlay.   Use your Brush Tool with a solid black tip to add darker tones, and a white tip to add lighter tones.  You can also raise and lower the layer's opacity as needed.   And its that simple!   This technique also works perfectly for coloring line art and clipart, although more work will be needed to build up detail.   Have fun!

- Tutorial written by Gunyu

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