Wedding Memories

[bwolford]

Any ideas about transforming this image to color?

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1r8l8WCr35cyBVB5UeRdiWsW8fp3I

I gave it a whirl in this image:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1NBGEtgr2t7Sbk9kijmuFpVJfAgvK1

I've learned flesh tones are the hardest and adding color needs to be subtle. The first try at the blue dress made my wife's grandma look like a clown :o

Should I try to colorize the background as well? I would think it would distract the eye from the main subjects... Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Brice

P.S. Is keeping the colors muted a good idea? I thought since it's an older picture color should be subtle...

[GaryK]

Brice

That looks great. I would not do the background either..If anything maybe a very light sepia sort of all over colour. But I really think it doesn't need it.
The only other thought, may be to change the flesh hues a shade or two for each person, mind you unless you have met them or have a proper colour photo their real skin tone would just be a guess.

Fantastic job
Gary.

[Wendy]

Brice,

Nice job on that !!!

I'm with Gary on the flesh tones ... open any group photo and use the different shades as a template :)

Wendy

[bwolford]

I'll give it a whirl this eventing. I have plenty of options for flesh tones so that should be fairly easy to do. I just selected a color off a dock worker's elbow and applied it as a color layer :D followed by some creative erasing. The sepia tone and the varied flesh tones should be just as easy.

I'll go search for more elbows.

Brice

[Wendy]

Brice,

Check this out ... it will give you lots of skin tones :)

Wendy

[Wendy]

Oh dear ...

... I forgot again :oops:

http://www.retouchpro.com/resources/index.php?cid=5


Wendy

[bwolford]

I added each color as a separate "color" layer. Then I tried to merge them once I had the settings liked. The problem is the resultant image looks like painted the colors over the original black and white image instead of acting as color layers. Is it not possible to merge "color" layers? I did not include the original black and white layer in the merge...

Brice

P.S. Nice source of skin tones and hair colors... off to play.

[Wendy]

Brice ...

Keep them as separate layers then try this:

Create a new blank layer under one of the colour layers and use merge down to combine the colour layer and the blank one ... if that works OK then do that for each of the individual layers until you can finally combine them.

Let me know if it works OK ... I'll try and see if I can find something else when I get back :)

Wendy

[bwolford]

Check this out Wendy. Looks like somebody ripped Bruce off and created these:

http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=7385&back=http%3A%2F%2Fshare%2Estudio%2Eadobe%2Ecom%2Fa xQuickSearchSubmit%2Easp%3Ftxt%3Dcolor%2Bswatches% 26allprods%3D2

Or Bruce ripped someone else off and tried to copyright them... Either way, they are identical and I'll stay out of the argument.

Brice

[Wendy]

Brice,

He does sort of say that someone else created them and he converted them ... lets hope he asked permission first :)


Wendy

[bwolford]

I varied the skin tones as suggested and even messed with hair a tad for those I knew didn't have jet black hair.

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1y7R0ciYwYS9OR2qQR9IpgjXKYAqi9

Then I turned on sepia:

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1y7R0ciYwYS9OR2qQR9IpgjXKYAqi9

Not sure which I like better.

I've learned a few things about layers and selection tools as a result of this exercise. Wendy, you were correct when you wrote that challenges are one of the best ways to hone this craft. Regardless of the quality of this result, I've learned quite a few things and it was worth it.

One example, creating a sepia tone is VERY simple. Enhance -> Adjust Color -> Color Variations -> Select midtones -> increase red -> decrease blue. Use the slider on color variations to set amount of adjustment...

[Wendy]

Brice ..

... you have done really well !!. You must be so pleased with the results :)


Wendy

[bwolford]

Wendy,

It turns out that I needed to convert the merged layers to a color layer. Something about the merge removes the color type. Once I changed it to color, the merged layers functions just as I wanted them too.

I didn't need the blank layer before the merge. I didn't try to merge all the color layers with the background layer. I kept those separate.

Brice

[Wendy]

Brice,

Glad that you managed to sort it out :)


Wendy