How to Recolor With GIMP

With recoloring, you can change the color of a flower's petals.

Recoloring is the changing of colors in an entire image or a portion. Change the petals of a flower from blue to purple, as an example. For a more artistic look, you can even color portions of a black and white image so that the subject is in color while the background remains black and white. GIMP tools enable you to recolor images very precisely. Once you learn the basic process, modify the colors in your images to your liking.

Instructions

1. Click "File" in the toolbar at the top of the screen and choose "Open." Navigate to the location of your image file and double-click it to open it.

2. Right-click the image's layer in the Layers palette and choose "Duplicate" to create a duplicate layer. Click the "eye" icon next to the original layer to hide it and click the duplicate layer to select it.

3. Click the "Fuzzy Select" tool and click the background or areas of the image you don't wish to recolor to select them. The Fuzzy Select tool icon looks like a magic wand. Click "Edit" at the top of the screen and choose "Cut" to remove these areas from the current layer. The removed areas will still show through from the original layer in later steps.

4. Click "Dialogs" in the toolbar at the top of the screen and choose "Layers" and "New Layer." Click the new layer in the Layers palette to select it.

5. Click the box next to "Mode" in the Layers palette and change the mode to "Hue." The colors you painted will now be overlayed onto the original image and look more natural.

6. Click the "Brush" tool in the tools palette and choose a color and begin painting over the image. Adjust the brush size and choose different colors for different portions of the image if necessary.

7. Click the "Erase" tool and erase any colored areas that overlapped outside of their intended target.

8. Click the "Eye" icon on your original layer to show it once again and restore the background.

Tips & Warnings

• Hold "Ctrl" and press "Z" to undo the last action if you made a mistake. This is useful when you accidentally painted in the wrong area or erased the wrong portion of the image.

References

• YouTube: How to Re-Color in Gimp
• GIMP: Layer Modes