How to Colorize a Photographic Image

Original Image

Image editing programs like GIMP or Photoshop allow you to colorize an image or a specific part of an image. Image editing programs allow you to make corrections to images that were impossible to make in the darkroom. Colorization is one of those things that could be performed in analog photography, but only with multiple masks and only by darkroom experts. With image editing programs it is relatively easy to make dramatic changes to images. It is always good to start with a goal to keep you from hacking the image too much and getting frustrated. I decided my goal with this image would be to make it look more prehistoric by changing the background. In this article I will provide some instruction on how to colorize an image and how to add elements from one photograph to another.

Things You'll Need

• GIMP or Photoshop Image Editing Software
• Copies of images for experimentation

Instructions

1. 

   This is an image of a fake dinosaur near Palm Springs California. I never liked the background of the image. I could just adjust the brightness of contrast in the background, but I still don't think it would look prehistoric enough. The first step to change the background is to select the area I want to change. Using the MAGIC WAND tool or FUZZY SELECT tool click on the area of the photograph you want to select. In Photoshop, keep right-clicking on the area and ADD TO THE SELECTION until you have selected the entire background. It will be defined by a DOTTED LINE in both GIMP and Photoshop.

2. 

   Adjust the sliders until you get the right color of the background. First adjust the HUE sliders until you get the kind of color you want. I thought a green hue was more prehistoric than a blue sky so I adjusted the hue until I got the shade of green I wanted.

3. 

   Next I adjusted the SATURATION and LIGHTNESS to get a paler version of the green hue. I wanted kind of green sky like you see in this image. The problem now was that I did what I thought would work and it is not very effective. Sure, the image looks more alien, but does it really look more prehistoric? I realized a simple colorization wouldn't work for me and I would need to do something more dramatic.

4. 

   Thinking about the image I realized it wasn't the color of the sky that only needed to change, but also the sky needed clouds. Prehistoric times make me think of jungles, and the desert sky just wasn't right. To correct this, I opened another picture with some sky and using the magic wand tool selected portions of the sky to copy. After making a selection, I just clicked COPY.

5. 

   After you have selected the portion of the sky and copied it, return to the original photograph and click PASTE. This will paste the copied image in to a new layer on top of the original image. Use the SCALE LAYER feature to enlarge and paste the layer over the original image. After placing the image DESELECT ALL to accept the changes. The placement works fine except for a couple of patches of desert sky.

6. 

   Using the AIRBRUSH tool and EYEDROPPER tool, select the area to the right of the powder blurt and airbrush the two desert sky areas to match the deeper blue sky of the pasted image. The final image works well with the deeper blue sky and clouds on the horizon; the image is greatly improved and looks more prehistoric which was my goal

Tips & Warnings

• Image selection is crucial in making the colorization effective.

• Try experimenting with your own images to develop your skills.

• Always work with copies of images to protect your image archive.

Resources

• GIMP Image Editor
• Adobe Photoshop