Dave's Holga Page

Coloring b&w photos

All the color photos on my site are either hand-colored with Marshall Photo Oils or with Adobe Photoshop.

Marshall Photo Oils and pencils

Marshall Photo Oils are a transparent oil paint that are designed to be applied to a photograph. Since the paint is transparent, the image underneath can still be seen and takes on the hue of the color applied. Coloring kits can be purchased at most photo stores as well as craft stores such as Michael's.

Materials - what you'll need:
» Marshall Photo Oils kit (with a bottle of Marlene and a tube of extender)
» Cotton balls (100% cotton - no synthetics)
» Toothpicks (wrapped in cotton at one for small areas of the print)
» Styrofoam or plastic plate (to use as a palette)

Procedure
First, start with a b&w photograph printed on a matte surface. Most all paper manufacturers have a matte finish for various papers (fiber paper I find works best, not resin-coated).

Squeeze small amounts of the various colors you'll be using onto your palette. Take a cotton ball and dab it on the color you wish to start with and begin to rub it gently on the selected are of the print. Don't worry about getting color on any adjacent areas, they can be cleaned later.

The intensity of the color can be subdued by mixing the color with the extender (as with the colors, it comes in a tube in your set). Extender can also clean those areas of the print where the color has been applied but not desired. A toothpick wrapped with cotton at one end is a good tool for those small areas that need cleaning or need very small amounts of color. Marshall photo pencils also work well in small areas that he larger cotton balls

The newly colored print takes a couple of days to dry and in the process will pick up some dust and other particulate matter. All of this can be gently rubbed off once the print has dryed completely.

After experimenting with photo oils, you'll find out that lighter areas of the print take the color better than darker areas. The color will be richer and more saturated in those lighter areas.

MORE HOLGA INFO:
» Photo 101
» Other modifications
» Adding color
» FAQs

Online resources
» SpartanPhotoCenter.com
» How-to from Michael's

Books
» Hand Coloring Black & White Photography, by Laurie Jean Klein
» Handcolouring and Alternative Darkroom Processes, by Andrew Sanderson
» Hand-coloring Photographs, by James A. McKinnis

Coloring with Adobe Photoshop

Equipment needed:
Computer (of course)
Flat-bed scanner

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Coloring a b&w photo or altering the color of an existing color photo can be done easily in Photoshop or many other photo paint programs including Paintshop Pro, Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop Elements. I'll stick to Photoshop basics because thaty's what I use.

Basic knowledge of Photoshop brushes and layers is required to accomplish coloring a b&w photo.

Procedure
Open the scanned photo in Photoshop. At the bottom of the tools palette, pick a color that you want to use on your photo (click on the image to the right and you will see the color picker at the bottom of the tools palette).

Next, select a brush size for the area of the image to be colored. from the drop down menu for the brush palette, select 'Color' (see the image to the upper right).

Setting the brush to color will allow you to paint transparently on any area you choose in the photo. The color of the paint is determined by the color you have chosen in the color picker.

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I always try to work with a few layers, adding color to one and then erasing areas to allow colors from the lower layer through. I always have one layer that is the original b&w in case I want to go back and work from scratch. An example of this is the image to the left. You can see three layers; one b&w, one for flesh tones and one for the blue background tone.

Click here for a before and after photo.

MORE HOLGA INFO:
» Photo 101
» Other modifications
» Adding color
» FAQs