How to

COLORIZE
YOUR OLD
PHOTOS
The step-by-step tutorial that
brings your photos to life
by Robert Hranitzky

COLORIZE HISTORY

Enjoy the time travel

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Table of Contents

01

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Colorize a
PORTRAIT Photo

02

Colorize a
LANDSCAPE Photo

00

Tutorial
INTRODUCTION

03

Colorize a
GROUP Photo

04

About the
ARTIST

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Contents

THE COLORS OF LIFE

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Old photos have a story to tell. By bringing

back the color to the eyes and the glow
to the cheeks, you give your old photos
the chance to speak about the life they
once had. Coloring is sometimes a thorny
issue, but well done, it will awaken them
from their 100-year sleep and make them
much more real.

Should this book help you to discover that

colorizing photos is something you enjoy,
then it would definitely be worth your time
to visit the Wacom site. Our pens and
tablets open up even more possibilities for
speed and precision delivering fantastic
results and offering you all the possibilities
of modern digital technology.

This eBook carefully describes the steps

you need to take to colorize your old
photos. It is not a beginners guide to
Adobe Photoshop CC and image editing,
and assumes that you have a bit of
experience with both.

In fact, all the work shown in this book

was carried out with the innovative
Wacom pen tablet Intuos Pro and using
Adobe Photoshop CC. You can test
Adobe Photoshop CC for 30 days, free of
charge, by going to www.adobe.com.

Use this book as a source of inspiration.

See how a true professional works. Try
out the individual steps, tips and tricks
and see how they work for you. Above
all, take your time and enjoy what you are
doing. It will get easier and better as time
goes by. And the results are worth it!

But first, lets take a look at some old

photos and what you can do with them.
We wish you lots of fun!

Robert Hranitzky
Creative Director
Hranitzky Design

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Contents

FIRST STEPS
It starts as a desire to make those old photos look more natural. It ends with a
wow! Colorizing old photos adds a whole level of emotion and often brings out
details you might have missed. How is it done? Well, every time before you start,
there are a few standard things to think about.

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SCANNING

ANALYZING

RESTORING

You need a digital image with enough

detail to work with. So start by scanning
your photo with a good-quality flatbed
scanner. Ideally, you should scan it at the
highest possible quality and resolution.
The 18 x 10 cm photo in our first example
was scanned at 1,200 dpi. That results
in a digital version that is about 8,500 x
5,000 a good basis to work with.

Before you start to colorize your photo,

check the image for stains, scratches,
dust and other flaws that need to be taken
care of first. To get the best results, work
from small to big, removing the very fine
flaws (little white dots and dust) first and
worrying about the big ones (scratches
and smudges) last.

It would be much too time-consuming

to retouch each speck of dust by hand,
so the best way is to remove them by
using a filter. Since each image is unique,
there are no hard and fast rules for the
filter values you should use. Go to Filter
> Noise > Dust & Scratches and play
around with them. Take a careful look at
the results and choose the one you find
best.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
Contents

01

COLORIZE A

PORTRAIT
PHOTOGRAPH

It is almost like looking at them for the

first time. Taking the time to carefully
study old photos and then colorize them
is more than just fun. The results can
be astounding. Colorizing old photos
gives them new life and often brings out
details you might have missed before.
It also makes your old photos far more
interesting for younger audiences.
Giving the photos a natural color
treatment makes them much more
accessible emotionally both for you and
your audience - and creates a much more
immediate contact to old friends, relatives
and times gone by.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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SCANNING
Start by scanning your photo with a goodquality flatbed scanner. Ideally, you should
scan it at the highest possible quality and
resolution. The photo in our example is
18 x 10 cm and was scanned at 1,200
dpi. That results in a digital version that
is about 8,500 x 5,000 pixels a good
working quality to get started with the
retouching.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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RESTORING
01 Duplicate the background layer and
call it Fixed. This way, you will
always have a backup of your original
photo underneath.

Instead of trying to fix every tiny

flaw, try using filters first to get a
good base to start with.

02 Go to Filter > Noise > Dust &

Scratches.

03 Each image is unique, so there are

no hard and fast rules for the filter
values you should use. Play around
with them and take a careful look
at the results. In our photo, we
ended up using radius 5 pixels and
threshold 10 levels and this gave us a
pretty good result.

04 To compare the difference, use

Preview to toggle between the
original and the filter version.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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Watch how to remove dust and tiny scratches from your scan

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05 Use the Spot Healing Brush tool to

remove remaining larger dots that
were not removed by the filter.
06 If you are working with a pressuresensitive device, select a rather large
brush for the Spot Healing Brush tool.
Since this tool is pressure sensitive,
it can be used very accurately with
little pressure to also remove much
smaller spots, too.

07 For larger scratches, use the patch

tool. Select the damaged area that
you want to heal and then drag it to
an area that is more or less flawless.
Clean up the result by using the
Clone Stamp tool or the Spot Healing
Brush tool.
08 Areas on the photo that have a
visible pattern can be a bit tricky. For
areas such as these, like the area
on the upper body in our example,
use the Spot Healing Brush tool with
content-aware mode enabled.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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Watch how to use the Healing Brush Tool

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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Watch how to use the Patch Tool to fix large areas

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Watch how to use the Patch Tool to remove difficult areas

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09 Try using combinations of the Spot

Healing Brush tool and the Clone
Stamp tool where necessary.

10 Finally, use the Burn tool to even

out lighter areas. Set the range to
Highlights and the exposure to a
very low level like 5% and then brush
over lighter areas, especially those in
the background.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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COLORIZATION
1 Once you have the black and white
photo looking as good as it can, it is
time to start colorizing. The first thing
to do is to convert the file into a color
image. Go to Image > Mode > RGB
Color.

You can even use your smartphone

with an app to create color themes
for later use.

2 Getting skin tones right is difficult

and essential to making your photo
look real. First, choose a color photo
from your collection that has similar
lighting to the photo you are working
on. Then go to color.adobe.com and
click on create from image (small
camera icon on the right). Upload the
color portrait you have chosen from
your collection.

3 Place the color pickers on the

colors/color areas you want to
sample and then save them
with a new title/name.

4 You can get this app for your

Photoshop panel. Simply install
it fromhttp://creative.adobe.com/
addons. Search for kuler.

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5 Load it from Window > Extensions

> Adobe Color Themes.
6 The app will show your previously
created color themes that are
stored in the cloud. You can use the
sampled colors, such as a selection
of skin tones, as a rough reference.

7 In the layers panel, choose a new

adjustment layer and select solid
color. When prompted, choose the
desired skin tone either manually
or from the reference color theme.
In this case we used R255, G220,
B200.

8 Select the layer mask and invert it by

pressing Cmd + I (Ctrl + I) to make
the color overlay disappear. Change
the name to skin.

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Using solid color adjustment layers

allows you to work non-destructively
and change color later on.

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9 Change the layer-blending mode to

color.
Press D to revert to the default
black and white and press X to
swap foreground and background
colors.

10 Choose a brush and select white as

the foreground color and black as a
background color.

11 Start painting in the mask to reveal

the color in the womans face and
hand. Use a large brush and carefully
work on the details and edges by
applying less pressure.

12 Once all the skin areas are filled, turn

the pen around and use the eraser
feature to mask out the eyes and
earrings as well as some other areas
that should not be skin toned. You
can leave the lips colored.

13 Create a new solid color adjustment

layer, name it lips and set the
blending mode to color. Choose a
light red/pink color. In our example
we used R136, G50, B44. Paint with
a soft brush and use pressure to
control the size of the brush.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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Watch how to use the Brush Tool to paint skin tones

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14 Repeat this for the hair and eyes as

well, choosing a dark brown color
(we used R23, G8, B0). Make sure
you leave the white areas in the eyes
white.

15 Proceed with the same technique

to color the remaining areas like the
collar (R200, G255, B255), the shirt
(R0, G24, B0) and the bench (R255,
G228, B202). Alternatively, instead
of painting in the mask, you can
use the Quick Selection tool and the
Magic Wand tool to create selections
that you fill with white to mask those
areas, then further refine the edges
and details with a soft brush.

16 To colorize the background, it is best

to set a selection. To do this, choose
the Quick selection tool and paint
over the background until you have a
full selection. Choose Refine Edge
and activate the Smart Radius with
a 10 px smooth and feathered edge.

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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17 With the selection active, create a

new solid color adjustment layer,
which will automatically have a
mask. Choose a very dark red for the
background (here: R48, G3, B6).

18 To add a bit more punch and contrast

to the image, create a new curves
adjustment layer. Set three new
points on the curve and drag the
second point down a bit, keep the
third point and move the fourth up
until you have a slight s-shaped
curve.

19 Lets add some more life to the skin

tones in her face. Create a new
layer, name it face red, change the
blending mode to soft light and set
the transparency to around 50%.
Now select a soft brush, choose a
light red color (in our example we
used R234, G140, B140) and gently
paint the cheeks and eyelid areas.
Add some color to other areas,
especially darker areas.

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20 Add another new layer. Use the soft

light blending mode and paint with
white on the highlighted areas of the
face to accentuate the light. Reduce
the transparency to around 50%.

21 To add some finishing touches to

the woman, create a new layer (we
named it Details) and fill it with
50% grey (R128, G128, B128). Then
set it to soft light.

22 Now you can enhance a few details

and add more volume and depth.
Darken the cheeks and the eyebrows
by using the Burn tool to darken and
the Dodge tool to lighten areas. Go
over areas multiple times to create
a stronger effect. Use this technique
to model the highlights in the clothes
and give them more depth. Play with
the layer transparency to get the
desired result.

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23 Finally, add a new layer, fill it with

black and create an elliptic mask
that is heavily feathered (200 px)
and mask out the top left area. Now
create another new layer and draw a
radial gradient with a very light yellow
color. Set it to soft light to create
the impression of light coming from
the top left. Duplicate the layer and
play with transparency to reduce or
strengthen the effect.

Use the mask panel to adjust the

mask feathering

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Colorize a Landscape Photo
Contents
Contents

02

COLORIZE A

LANDSCAPE
PHOTOGRAPH

Old photos are rich in detail, but over the

course of time, these details can fade.
Adding color can actually do a lot to
make the details visible again. By setting
objects apart from one another and from
the background, colors can make a truly
amazing difference - especially when you
have pictures of old cars, trains, buildings,
landscapes, etc... In this example, we
will add color to a picture of an old steam
locomotive.

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RESTORING
01 Like most old images, this one has many
white spots, dust and other tiny flaws.
Before you do anything to your image,
it is best to duplicate the background
layer. Save it and call it Fixed so
that you always have a backup of your
original photo.

Now use the Dust & Scratches

filter. Go to Filter > noise > dust &
scratches and play around with the
filter settings to get a result that takes
away a lot of the small flaws without
dulling the image.

02 As you can see, this picture also has

multiple smudges, spots and scratches.
Some are so big that large areas of the
image are no longer visible and some
of the faces, for example, have been
obliterated. These larger flaws will need
some special attention.

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Locate the most difficult flaws first. In

this case, the area around the people on
the right side of the image has multiple
scratches. Some faces are no longer
visible. To fix this, you can either
paint/draw a new face (if your drawing
skills allow this), duplicate existing faces
or use a combination of both.

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Watch how to swap faces

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03 To copy a face, select an area that is

not flawed. Duplicate this section by
pressing Cmd + J (Ctrl + J) to create
a copy of this on a new layer.
04 Move the unflawed face over the
damaged area and create a mask.
Now use a soft, fine brush with black
to paint on the mask layer and mask
out the surrounding area of the face
until it blends in nicely with the rest.

05 Use the smudge tool to gently

smudge the shadows around the
mans mouth and nose. Maybe give
him a bit of a smile.

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Also use the Transform command

(Cmd + T/Ctrl + T) to slightly change
the size of the face so that it doesnt
look like an exact clone of the other
person.

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Watch how to use the Healing Brush Tool

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06 For more difficult areas (such as the

man with the hat or the woman on
the right), use the Spot Healing Brush
tool and the Clone Stamp tool to get
rid of the damage around the head.

07 Now select a fine brush with soft

edges and start reconstructing the
face by drawing the eye, mouth and
nose areas.

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Repeat as necessary for the

remaining heads. You can use the
same technique to remove damages
on the locomotive area, too.

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Watch how to recreate parts of a face

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COLORIZATION
01 Convert your file into a color image.
Go to Image > Mode > RGB Color.
You can choose a reference image
and sample the colors via Adobe
Color Themes (go to color.adobe.com
and choose create from image) or
work manually.

02 Before starting the colorization, it is

a good idea to reduce the brightness
of some areas. The mid and highlight
areas in particular need to be
dimmed.

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In the layers panel, choose a new

curves adjustment layer, set three
control points and pull down the
mids and the highlights, but leave the
darker areas untouched.

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03 Although the locomotive is more or

less black and therefore the black and
white version isnt that wrong, blacks
often do not look that realistic without
a slight color tint.
The bluish color we have chosen is
a nice balance between keeping it
almost black and white while still giving
it a hint of some reflections from the
sky, etc. .
To do this, go to the layers panel,
select a new solid color adjustment
layer and choose a cool grey color,
which will be used to tint the train and
give it a more metallic look (here we
used R137, G147, B149).

04 Select the layer mask and invert it by

pressing Cmd + I (Ctrl + I) to make the
color overlay disappear. Rename it to
Color Fill Train, and set the blending
mode to color.
With a soft brush and white as a
foreground color, start masking the
locomotive. Then toggle to a black
foreground color to prevent details like
the headlights, metal rods on the front
and the bumper from being colorized.
You can also use this color to tint the
walls of the house in the background.

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05 Lets add some color to the sky. Switch

to channels and duplicate any of
the layers and rename it Sky Mask.
Activate Levels and push the black
and mind levels to the right.
Push the white levels a bit to the
left until you have a nice mask that
separates the treetops from the sky.

06 Fill the high white gaps with the Brush

tool or set a selection and fill it.

07 Use this mask to create a new solid

color adjustment layer to tint the sky
blue (R112, G148, B197).

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Watch how to create a mask for the sky by using channels

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08 Now lets add green to the trees and

plants. Using another solid color
adjustment layer, carefully paint on the
mask to bring out a dark green (R29,
G40, B19) on specific areas.

Use a second Solid Color adjustment

layer with a much brighter green
(R160, G184, B147) to add details and
variation. Repeat this technique for the
sand-colored ground.

09 Create a new empty layer, call it

Ground details and choose a dark
chocolate color. Change the blend
mode to soft light and start painting
in details/soft shadows on the ground.

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Adjust the transparency until it looks

good (for example 55%). You can
colorize the tree trunks with the same
adjustment layer, as they can have a
similar color.

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10 Now what about coloring the roofs with

a red/brownish color? First use the
Quick Selection tool to select the roof
area. Make sure you select all relevant
areas (like the smaller roof on the left
side of this image).

11 Instead of using Solid Color` to adjust

the color, we will use a different
method here. Create a new Hue/
saturation adjustment layer with the
selection active. Click on colorize and
play with the colors until the desired
look is achieved (we ended up with hue
23, saturation 14, lightness -18). This
technique offers various advantages
such as being able to change
saturation and lightness much more
easily than when choosing a color.

12 With the selection still active, create a

Curves adjustment layer to darken
the roof, as it looks a bit too bright.

13 Proceed with this technique to colorize

the people and their clothes. Use
different colors to create a variety, but
keep them toned down.

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14 Another way of colorizing is to create

a color balance adjustment layer.
Again, start by masking out the areas
concerned. In this case, we are looking
at the jacket of the lady on the far right.
With color balance, you can adjust
the highlights, the shadows or the
midtones by default (which works best
for most situations).

15 Set the midtones to R25, G1, B-17 to

give the jacket (and the shoes) a nice
red color. Apply this to the remaining
jackets of the people in the background by choosing dark brown.

16 The skin color is changed by using

a solid color adjustment layer. (See
points 7 to 16 in the colorization
section of the portrait chapter.)

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17 To colorize some of the details on the

train, create a new layer and choose
a light, bright yellow to work on the
headlights.

Paint in the headlight area with a soft

brush and then change the blending
mode to overlay. Repeat this with a
second layer for the fine metal rods on
the front of the locomotive as well.

18 You can add red to the bumper by

using a Color Balance adjustment
layer with R94, G6, B13.

19 Finally, a blue gradient is added to fade

to a darker blue towards the top of the
picture and to hide some of the uneven
brighter spots in the sky.

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To finish of, you can add a photo filter

on top of it all to give it an overall look.
In this case, a bit of warmth was added
by using the warming filter with a
density of 25%.

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Watch how to paint in color details using the Brush Tool

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Colorize a Portrait Photo
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COLORIZE HISTORY
Colorize a Group Photo
Contents

03

COLORIZE A

GROUP
PHOTOGRAPH

Taking an old photo and giving new life

to it through color can be truly amazing
especially when you have pictures of a
birthday party, family reunion or a group
of playing kids. In this example we will use
this picture of a kids group to add color
to it.

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RESTORING
01 Just like most other old photos you
will deal with, this image has many
white spots, dust and other tiny
flaws.
Just as we did in the previous
examples, start by duplicating the
layer. once you have a copy, use the
Dust & Scratches filter to eliminate
most of the white spots.

02 Then use a combination of the

various techniques from the other
tutorials to clean up smudges, spots
and scratches on the image.

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03 One problem that we have not

talked about in previous tutorials is
overexposure. Both of the white shirts
in this image are overexposed and
therefore have no visible detail.

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There is no color (or black and white)

information hidden in the photo, as
you might have with a digital RAW
file, for example, so using curves
or any other adjustment will not fix
the problem. Simply adding color
will make these areas look painfully
unnatural. There are a few things,
however, that can be done to solve
this problem.

We will start by selecting the shirt of

the boy on the left using the Quick
Selection tool and then Refine Edge
to improve the selection. Make sure
you have a soft selection edge and
set the output to new layer. Name
this Shirt 1.

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04 Now select the Burn tool and gently

start painting in shadows and wrinkles.
Start by adding darker areas to sections
that would naturally be darker, like
under the arm, etc.. Set the range to
Highlights and the exposure to a low
value (between 5 and 15%). Try to
mimic the natural flow of a shirt. Use the
Dodge tool to put highlights back in.
05 Hold down Cmd (Ctrl) and click on the
shirt layer to reactivate the selection
and either use an adjustment layer with
curves or directly apply curves to the
layer to very slightly darken the overall
look. This will help it to pick up some of
the color information that we will create
later on.
06 People usually have a tendency to make
the painted wrinkles and shadows too
strong. Try pulling back by reducing the
transparency to around 50%.
07 Repeat these steps with the girls shirt
in the middle. Pay attention to where
the light was coming from and paint the
shadows and wrinkles accordingly - in
this case, the light was coming from the
top left, more towards the middle. Keep
that in mind when painting.

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Watch how to add shading to pure white areas

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COLORIZATION
The colorization process on this image is
similar to what we have done in the other
two examples. However, there are several
people in this picture and their skin and
hair color, as well as their clothes, should
all be slightly different. Although the shade
of grey intensity dictates the color intensity,
it is still important to use a few different
colors to differentiate the individuals and
make the photo more realistic.

01 Before starting with colors, create a

curves adjustment layer and give
the picture a bit more contrast.

02 Create two solid color adjustment

layers for the skin color. Make the
two colors slightly different and start
painting to mask out every second
person. For the eyes, use the eraser
by turning the Grip pen around.
Change the opacity to 50% to leave a
slight color tint.

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03 Add a new layer and use red to subtly

paint some details such as lips and
warm shadows.

04 Now, with a new color balance

adjustment layer, you can start
colorizing the background with a
subtle brownish color (R15, G1, B20).
Use the normal blending mode.

05 A few of the dresses in this image are

quite tricky, especially the one on the
right and the one on the left.For these
two areas, create one solid Color
adjustment layer each (blue: R112,
G128, G190 and pink: R208, G68,
B183). Instead of using the Color
blending mode, use soft light
instead. Reduce the opacity until the
color looks realistic.

Dont worry about painting into the leaf areas. You can
even create several brownish tinted areas that will give
it a nice look once we colorize the leaves.

06 To colorize the jacket of the boy on

the far right, create a new
hue/saturation adjustment layer
and make it a nice brown (hue 20,
saturation 16, lightness -20) and
make sure you turn on colorize!

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07 Start to mask out the jacket, leaving out

the buttons.
You can also mask out the shorts of the boy on
the left, as well as the hair of two kids, to give
them brown hair. Dont worry about the colors
looking too similar since they have different
grey values they will look slightly different.

08 Colorize the shorts of the boy on the

right as well as the wooden bench
the kids are sitting on by using color
balance adjustment layers. Create
another color balance adjustment layer
and make it greenish (R19, G36, B7)
and start carefully masking the leaves.
Notice how the background color blends
in nicely to add some variation.

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09 Work on the remaining clothes until

everything is colored. The boy on the
left should have dark blond hair. Create
a new color balance layer and set it
to R17, G0, B27 and set the blending
mode to color. You can use the same
layer to colorize the dog - it will have a
different look, as the dogs grey value is
much darker.
If it is difficult to achieve a certain color or
look it is worth playing with different blend
modes and/or with different techniques
(solid color, color balance or hue/saturation).

10 Lastly, the two girls in the middle should

have dark/black hair. Technically, you
could leave it as black and white, but
realistically, even black hair has some
color to it. To add subtle color, create
another color Balance adjustment layer
and set it to R17, G13, B7 to give it a
slight touch of color.

2015 Wacom

49

COLORIZE HISTORY
Colorize a Group Photo
Contents

2015 Wacom

50

COLORIZE HISTORY
Contents

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Robert Hranitzky is a freelance creative
director and designer based in Munich,
Germany, with a strong focus on motion
graphics design and animation for a wide
range of projects, from showroom trailers
to film projects and opening titles.
He studied graphic design at the University
of Applied Sciences in Mannheim and
graduated in 2006 with his animated short
film Diona Con Carne.
Right after finishing university he moved to
Munich and started working as a freelance
creative. Passion and enthusiasm drive
him to create beautiful imagery and
animation in every project, whether its live
action, 2D or 3D animation and various
combinations thereof. He has worked with
clients such as Wacom, Adobe, Elgato,
Mammut, Audi, BMW, Adobe, Carl Zeiss,
Rohde & Schwarz, Nemetschek, MAXON
and Apple, among others.

2015 Wacom

Although he doesnt consider himself a

professional photographer, Robert finds
himself doing photography, image editing
and retouching for many projects, and
even in his spare time.
Robert shares a design studio with four
fellow freelance designers, and therefore is
able to handle almost any type of creative
project.
Besides working as a creative director, he
also shares his knowledge and experience
as a frequent speaker at many shows and
conferences around the world.
To find out more about his work vist:
www.hranitzky.com
facebook.com/HranitzkyDesign
@hranimation

51

LEARN MORE
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You can find more information at www.wacom.com