Yet Another Colorization Tutorial By Elysium
Variety is the spice of life, and with that in mind, I offer you yet another colorization tutorial. This one uses a different method than either of the previous tutorials (CMYK curves adjustment layers), one that I feel is slightly easier than either of the other two methods while still acheiving good results. This tutorial is for PS7, as I have no working knowledge of PSP (sorry). I also use PC, but it is nearly the same on a Mac.
In the BeginningAfter this tutorial, you will be able to turn this:
Into this:
As Cyn mentioned in her primary colorizing tutorial, the key to a good result is in a good clean source image. The cleaner and better resolution the original source, the easier it will be to work with and the better it will end up. Take particular care to avoid images with large blown out white sections, as these will never look right in the final image. The original I used above was around 2000 x 2000 pixels.
The nice thing about this method is the nature of adjustment layers themselves, you can always go back and change them, messing around with the colors as much as you want until it finally looks right. It also incorporates the layer mask right into the adjustment layer, so you can clean up your selection edges as you go along. It also doesn't require any pre-selection of colors as in Steveo's tutorial, or blending of colors into one another as in Cyn's (though both are excellent methods).
Don't forget to save early and often. Colorizing is time consuming, so it really hurts when you lose alot of work...
Now let's get cracking...