Colorization Techniques

I am interested in how folks are colorizing B+W vintage images as this is a technique that I have not really explored up until now. There are some really great examples in this forum right now, and we obviously have some really talented folks that are set on one technique or another.

I have watched several tutorials using PS, which seem pretty straight forward, although I find it interesting that there are multiple methods, some of which seem quite different:



Then I found a pretty cool tutorial using Lightroom 5, believe it or not!!! That really surprised me since I thought I was pretty proficient in LR, and it never dawned on me to try using LR for this application:


I have also downloaded Color Magic, although I have not really had a chance to play with it yet. I see that version 2.0 has just been released, although I downloaded version 1.6 a while ago, and never played with it, and now my trial period has expired. I found a couple of tutorials for that as well:



OK, so after all of that... I thought before I dive in too deep, I would ask the collective wisdom around here what methods are being used, and why you chose them. I understand that everyone is going to have a different answer since "everyone loves the smell of their own brand!" (a tacky reference to the Austin Powers move "Goldmember"), but I am very interested to hear everyone's justification and the pros and cons of one technique vs. another.

Thanks in advance!

--
James

Thanks for the tutorial referrals!

PT

Here is a link to the technique I use: http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/161018/161018-yet-another-colorization-tutorial

Here are some of my examples:

http://fav.me/d6zkav6

http://fav.me/d6z540l

http://fav.me/d6x0mv3

Hi James.

Here is Cyn's primary colorizing tutorial as referenced to in Sam's link 'Yet Another Colorization Tutorial'. I have linked to it via 'The way back machine' as the last image is missing from today's view. https://web.archive.org/web/20120712155634/http://www.worth1000.com/tutorials/161015/tutorial

Also here is some good advice from Vikki Hansen with regards to this method. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/9494202

Vikki was a Goddess in the world of colorization. Eleven years ago in 2004 she walked away from it, her website is down and a lot of her images no longer exist.

Her adopted technique is a good one to learn, but at the end of the day you are going to need vision... (everyone has eyes, but very few people use them) and skill. This takes many hours of practice.

Regards, Greg.

Sam... I wish I were in Kansas.

Sam B said:

Here is a link to the technique I use: http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/161018/161018-yet-another-colorization-tutorial

Here are some of my examples:

http://fav.me/d6zkav6

http://fav.me/d6z540l

http://fav.me/d6x0mv3

Click to expand...

I gotta say, those are amazing!!! Unbelievable actually! Great job! I will go through your tutorial link and see what I can glean from it.

Thanks for the links...

Greg. said:

Hi James.

Here is Cyn's primary colorizing tutorial as referenced to in Sam's link 'Yet Another Colorization Tutorial'. I have linked to it via 'The way back machine' as the last image is missing from today's view. https://web.archive.org/web/20120712155634/http://www.worth1000.com/tutorials/161015/tutorial

Click to expand...

Excellent! Thank you for that.

Greg. said:

Also here is some good advice from Vikki Hansen with regards to this method. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/9494202

Vikki was a Goddess in the world of colorization. Eleven years ago in 2004 she walked away from it, her website is down and a lot of her images no longer exist.

Click to expand...

Nice. Did you happen to save any of her images?

Greg. said:

Her adopted technique is a good one to learn, but at the end of the day you are going to need vision... (everyone has eyes, but very few people use them) and skill. This takes many hours of practice.

Click to expand...

Good point. I have been working on one the images posted here for play, and it has taken me a long time, and the results are less than satisfactory imho. First attempt and all... When I have it "completed" I will post the link in this thread.

This program came about 2 years ago and I find it very useful for a non-painter like myself. See the trial download and tutorials on their site:-

www.codijy.com

or just google Color magic.

tony brown said:

This program came about 2 years ago and I find it very useful for a non-painter like myself. See the trial download and tutorials on their site

Click to expand...

Thanks Tony. I actually donwloaded ColorMagic several months ago (v. 1.6), but never used it. The demo has now expired. So I either need to just buy it to try it, or see if they will reset my demo.

Thanks.

Hi Sam,

great technique and you results are just amazing.

I have a question thoug. What is the advantage in woriking in CYMK instead of RGB ? It seams to me that this technique would work just a well in RGB ? Just a matter of finding the right amount in the curves ?

Have a good day!

Doublehelix said:

tony brown said:

This program came about 2 years ago and I find it very useful for a non-painter like myself. See the trial download and tutorials on their site

Click to expand...

Thanks Tony. I actually donwloaded ColorMagic several months ago (v. 1.6), but never used it. The demo has now expired. So I either need to just buy it to try it, or see if they will reset my demo.

Click to expand...

O.K.. the latest version is 2.0.0 and it MAY run as a trial again. It is worth trying.

I based on the way colors would have been added to a b/w image in the old days.

A re-toucher/colorist would have a set of transparent inks or oils, and carefully brush them into particular parts of the print.

What I did instead was apply the color in a separate layer, then hide it with a black mask and then paint white where I wanted the color to show through.

drh681 said:

I based on the way colors would have been added to a b/w image in the old days.

A re-toucher/colorist would have a set of transparent inks or oils, and carefully brush them into particular parts of the print.

What I did instead was apply the color in a separate layer, then hide it with a black mask and then paint white where I wanted the color to show through.

Click to expand...

Thanks. That looks great!

OK, first attempt at a colorization (so be gentle!!!). I used the technique that Greg posted about using the CMYK levels. I see a few areas of stray hairs that need fixing, and tons of other small things, but this was really just my first attempt, so it was more about learning a new technique rather than making it perfect.

This is a lot harder than it looks!


Before




After





--
James

I'm using Color Magic. It gets the job done. But I'm thinking about Akvis Coloriage. It will work as a plugin in photo shop and Paint Shop Pro, anything that takes PS Plugins.

I've done these for posters in this forum





After





And brfore





Two after one was too saturated











before



After





All done in Color Magic. It's a very good program. Nuff said.


Vaya Con Dios
Errol


Dear Karma
I have a list of people you missed!

Here is a quick one but using curves layers for color.







Butch

Wow! Amazing!

Did you use curves in CMYK like in the tutorial?

Sam B said:

Here is a link to the technique I use: http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/161018/161018-yet-another-colorization-tutorial

Here are some of my examples:

http://fav.me/d6zkav6

http://fav.me/d6z540l

http://fav.me/d6x0mv3

Click to expand...

Hi Sam B,

as usual impressive work!

But there is another technique:


With this software you can also colorize B&W images!

tony brown said:

Doublehelix said:

tony brown said:

This program came about 2 years ago and I find it very useful for a non-painter like myself. See the trial download and tutorials on their site

Click to expand...

Thanks Tony. I actually donwloaded ColorMagic several months ago (v. 1.6), but never used it. The demo has now expired. So I either need to just buy it to try it, or see if they will reset my demo.

Click to expand...

O.K.. the latest version is 2.0.0 and it MAY run as a trial again. It is worth trying.

--
Cheers, Tony.

Click to expand...

I also have color magic 2.0 and it is conciderably better then 1.6.

You can sample colours from a colour image/photo to use as color in color magic to get natural looking colours.

In this instructional video they show you how to sample colours from an image.

Errol Gibbs said:

I'm using Color Magic. It gets the job done. But I'm thinking about Akvis Coloriage. It will work as a plugin in photo shop and Paint Shop Pro, anything that takes PS Plugins.

I've done these for posters in this forum



After



And brfore



Two after one was too saturated





before



After



All done in Color Magic. It's a very good program. Nuff said.

Vaya Con Dios
Errol

Dear Karma
I have a list of people you missed!

Click to expand...

I also own color magic and indeed is a very good program. It is getting better and better after every upgrade/update. The update from 1.6 to 2.0 was free to exciting users.

Here is a re-edit of my first attempt. All using the CMYK adjustment layers.







--
James