Adding, Removing or Changing Color

Example 1

Black and white photographs can have a beauty unique to the medium. Adding color, however, can lend warmth to the image and bring the subject to life. This technique is especially effective if features such as hair and eye color are known.

This black and white studio portrait was taken around 1950. Hair and eye color were known, as were the subject's favored shades of lipstick, and clothing colors. This aids in the realism of the colorized image.

Example 2

This black and white photograph was taken around 1949, on board a ship. Before color was added, a little editing was performed to remove the hand of the person in the background as this would have been visible in the cropped final image. The original looks cold (and it was undoubtedly a cold day!). This is a good example of color adding warmth.

Example 3

This is a good example of color bringing life to an image. In this case, hair color, skin tone and clothing color choices were all known. The horizon was levelled, making the final image more pleasing to the eye.

Example 4

As well as adding color to a black and white photograph, a color photograph may be converted to black and white. The color portrait to the left was to be included in a collage frame in which all the other photographs were black and white. Rather than colorize all the others, it was easier to de-colorize this one! A slight sepia tone was added to make the picture feel warmer.

To see how this picture was used for the collage frame, click here.

Example 5

Another useful technique is re-colorization. The starting photograph is shown near right, with the little girl on a blue background. In order to give it a "Christmas" feel the background was recolored green, her shirt was given a more reddish tint, and her dungarees were whitened.

The starting photograph is not actually the original image. To see the original photograph, and how it was altered to generate this portrait shot, click here.

Example 6

Would you like to change the color of your front door (or your bedroom, sofa or hair), but can't decide what color would look best? You might change it, then hate it, and have to live with it for years...

Try changing it digitally - it saves a lot of time and money, to say nothing of angst.