How to make a b&w photo color in Photoshop. Convert black and white photos to color online

Are you interested in seeing what they would look like? black and white photographs from your old albums if you color them? Do you think this requires spending a lot of time in Photoshop? It turns out that you can make an image color using a special online program! But let's talk about everything in order.

Colorize a black and white photo online in one click in Algorithmia

In order to make a picture black and white online, dozens of Internet resources have been created, but for the reverse function there is only one - Algorithmia. The work of this unusual site is built on practical application neural networks. In addition to the fact that it can convert an image from black and white to color, it can also:

• identify the area shown in the photo;
• distinguish people's faces in photographs;
• analyze the positive/negative mood of a given text;
• and much more.

Algorithmia has an English-language interface, but since the section we need - Colorize Photos - implies only one function, working with it does not cause any difficulties.

So, we upload our black and white photo that we are going to color - this can be done by selecting the photo on the computer or entering a link to its location on the Internet.

If you just want to test how to black and white photography make it in color, you can choose one of the pictures offered here as an example

The coloring process takes approximately half a minute. Then we are asked to evaluate the photo before and after.

Move the purple slider to see the effect of the changes

You can save either a fully colored drawing or the comparison itself - a photograph partially in color and partially in black and white. The watermark on the finished image was a little disappointing, but it is quite compact and discreetly located in the corner. You can get rid of it by simply cropping the image.

Through several experiments, we found that the service works best with coloring skin, water and trees. The clearer their boundaries, the better the result.

As you can see, Algorithmia distinguishes people quite well and automatically colors the skin in beige tones. True, the service does not feel the boundaries very well, so just in case, the cardigan was also made in flesh color.

In the background behind the girl, the editor “didn’t recognize” the Christmas tree, so he left it just as a dark spot. But he clearly defined the color of the gift and the jeans and did almost everything correctly, except for the beige trouser leg in the foreground and the very vague borders. The service decided to “revive” the bird in the corner of the picture, so it turned yellowish.

In general, there are, of course, certain flaws as a result, but Algorithmia still deserves respect, if only because it is the only site that allows you to turn a black and white photo into a color one.

How to color a picture in Photoshop: a simple guide for beginners

We want to say right away that this method will take much more time than the previous one. You will also need minimal skills in Photoshop, and the more skills you have, the more beautiful the result will be.

Load the photo into Photoshop and create a new empty layer. Next, use the Quick Selection tool and click on the objects that we are going to convert to one color.

Use the Alt key to deselect the unwanted area

Select the “Brush” tool, select a suitable color and paint the selected fragments.

If you want the shades to not be too saturated, you can reduce the opacity and brush pressure
To maintain the presence of shadows and color transitions, change the layer blending method to “Overlay”
It looks much more natural this way

We repeat the same operations with the remaining objects in the photo. Let us recall the sequence:

• create a new layer;
• select a fragment;
• apply the desired color;
• change the layer blending mode.

If you do not process the edges too carefully, this will definitely be noticeable and the drawing will begin to look unnatural. We recommend using the Gaussian Blur function with a small radius to smooth out any imperfections a little.

Let's see what happened in the end. On the left is the original photo, which we then desaturated, on the right is its color version.

To summarize, we can say that turning a black and white photo into color in Photoshop is much more difficult and time-consuming than using an online service. For comparison, let's say that the whole process took us more than an hour, although in Algorithmia everything would have been ready in a few seconds. True, the result in Photoshop is more organic and predictable, and you can control all the moments yourself.

So far, these are all the ways to colorize a black and white photo. Therefore, decide what is more important for you - efficiency or quality of the result, and quickly put into practice all the advice you receive!

There are many ways to convert a color image to black and white in Photoshop.

Now we will show you the 4 most popular methods.

Open your photo in Photoshop.

Let's start by introducing you to the two easiest ways to convert an image to black and white.

1 - function Grayscale(Grayscale)

2 - function Discolor(Desaturation)

We don't argue, these are the most simple ways, but the quality is not the best. Here the contrast is very low, the image is slightly cloudy.

Let's show with an example:

1. Grayscale

Image - Mode - Grayscale(Image - Mode - Grayscale)

Very simple, right?

2. Discolor

Image - Correction - Desaturate(Image - Adjustments - Desaturate)

Fast and easy - but the image contrast is very low, the image looks dull and flat. This is not at all what we are striving for. What we especially like about quality b&w photographs- this is depth and high contrast. Okay - it's time to introduce you to more serious methods!

3. Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

The method we are going to tell you about is to use several adjustment layers. Hue/Saturation. This means that you can return to its original appearance at any time. Plus, you are NOT changing the original image. Now go to the menu Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Hue/Saturation(Layers - New Adjustment layer - Hue/Saturation).

Leave all layer properties unchanged. Change the layer blending mode to Regular(Normal) on Chroma(Color).

Then add another adjustment layer Hue/Saturation(Hue/Saturation) - but this time in the layer properties, move the slider Saturation(Saturation) to -100.

So, get ready... This is what the image looks like now:

Now the fun begins! Double click on the first adjustment layer you made, or just open the properties. And now the slider Color tone(Hue) move to this position until you are satisfied with the resulting effect. You can also work with Saturation ( Saturation ) .

These are the settings we used to get the image you see below. Now it looks much better, although it still seems like something is missing...

Now change the blending mode of this newly created layer to Chroma(Color) on Overlap(Overlay), and reduce it a little Opacity(Opacity), in our case up to 65%.

This is what happened now. Contrast has increased noticeably. No detail is lost, adding depth to the image.

Please note that each image requires an individual approach. What suits this image may not suit yours. So don't be afraid to experiment with settings, layers and modes yourself :)

4. Channel mixing

The last technique you'll learn about in this tutorial is using an adjustment layer. mixingchannels(Channel Mixer). With the original image active, go to the menu Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Channel Mixing(Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Channel mixer).

When this window appears, check the box next to the function Monochrome(Monochrome).

Now select the shades of black and white simply by moving the sliders that correspond to the red, green, and blue colors of the image. Important: Try to keep the total number of values ​​around 100 to avoid blurry areas in your image. We set the red and green channels to 0 and the blue to 100. This gives the skin intense black and white tones.

Final step: duplicate the adjustment layer. Then change the blending mode from Regular(Normal) on Overlap(Overlay) and reduce Opacity(Opacity), for example, for this image it turned out to be 44% - but often it is necessary to lower it to 20-30%. Look, below is the result of our labors.

It turned out to be a very atmospheric image. We are waiting for your impressions. We hope this article gave you a lot of useful information.

See you in the new lesson!

Hi all! We continue to conquer the basics of working in Photoshop. Today I have prepared a lesson for readers on the topic How to turn a color photo into black and white.

Sooner or later, when processing photographs and images in Photoshop, we are faced with the need to turn a color photograph into black and white. Therefore, I decided to prepare this short lesson for my readers to show how this is done clearly.

There are many ways to perform this operation. In this mini lesson, we will not consider the methods used professional photographers, we will consider the simplest and quick ways How to turn a color photo into black and white. In future lessons, we will definitely return to this topic and look at other methods, more complex and professional, used by advanced Photoshop users.

Let's get acquainted with 3 ways converting color photographs into black and white, I’ll say right away that these methods are not professional, the quality after processing is not the best, but these methods are quite suitable for learning by novice users.

So, I propose to move from words to deeds. First, let's open the image we want to make black and white.

Now let's start processing. I present to your attention the first method.

Method #1:

We transform color photograph in black and white using the "G" function gray radiation".

To do this we need to go to the top menu: Image/Mode/Grayscale. A window will appear with the question “Delete color information”, click delete and our photo will become black and white.

Go to the menu Picture/Modes/Grayscale

Very quick and easy, right? Let's move on.

Attention! Remember that you can always revert an action using the CTRL+Z hotkeys. Let's move on to the second method.

Method #2:

We turn a color photo into black and white using the “ Discolor".

We go up to the top menu of the program and go to:( Shift + CTRL+U ) . See below the result of the operation performed.

Go to the top menu Image/Adjustments/Desaturate or press hotkeys Shift+Ctrl+U

Method #3:

Making a black and white image using an adjustment layer " Black and white"

This method is also extremely simple and fast, its advantage is that when using adjustment layers, the Photoshop program makes changes and corrections to a special adjustment layer, and not to the original image, which we decided to make black and white. We also have such features as: reversing the entire editing process, controlling the opacity of the layer, turning the visibility of the layer on and off. This method allows you to get a more beautiful black and white image, unlike the previous ones.

Step 1:

So, we already have the photo open. Now let's go to the panel "Correction", if it is closed for you, then open it through the top menu Window/Correction. We find in the panel “ Correction» adjustment layer « Black and white" and click on it.

To open the adjustment layers panel, go to the top menu Window/Correction

Step 2:

After you click on the adjustment layer " Black and white“, our image was converted to black and white and a window with sliders appeared. In this window, using many simple parameters, You can customize the black and white effect to suit you as you like. Move the sliders until you achieve a contrasting black and white image. Moving the sliders to the right turns the areas that were previously color-matched to the slider into a lighter shade of gray, while moving the sliders to the left turns the areas into a darker shade of gray.

At the top of this window, you can select ready-made sets or create your own set and then save it through the “triangle with stripes” menu, which is located in the upper right corner of the window. If you click on the button " Auto“, Photoshop will automatically select the parameters of how it thinks the black and white image should look. This is what happened to me.

This is what happened to me

That's all for today, try to practice everyone 3 ways and write about your results below in the comments. See you in the next lessons!

You can step over the edges, it’s even better to do it. After you have painted over all areas of the skin without missing a single pixel, press the “Quick Mask” button again. A highlighted area should appear. Make sure all the skin is included:

• Go to the top menu “Layers”, select “New Fill Layer”, then “Color”, you can give the layer a name. Select the mode “Soft light”, click “Ok” - a palette appears where you need to select a color:

• It’s not easy with skin, you need to look for yellow and pink shades. If you can’t find a natural color, then choose the tone that best suits your skin color, and we’ll try to correct this later. Click OK.
• We go to the “Layers” window and see that a new fill layer has appeared there, consisting of two parts. Click on the second part in the form of a black square, a white frame should appear around it.

• In the tools, we should still have the “Brush” active with the same settings. The main color on the toolbar should be black - this is important. Now the brush will work like an eraser. We remove everything unnecessary - what we painted over by accident, leaving the color only on the skin. We try to do this carefully:

So, we have painted the skin, to adjust its color, go to the “Layers” window, select the fill layer and duplicate it.

Now in the new layer, double-click on the colored square - a palette appears. Choose another color that will be superimposed on the first layer and mixed with it. You can mix pink and yellow shades, then you get a natural tone:

Now go to the “Background Copy” layer, click “Quick Mask” again and continue coloring, creating new fill layers. Don't forget to return to the main layer every time, otherwise nothing will work.

In the example, we dyed our hair in Brown color, then lips red:

And we paint the iris of the eyes green. Next we made the clothes purple:

Then a blue background, since our model is sitting by the water. And they separately painted green the trees reflected in the water, as well as the boards on which she sits, although they are almost invisible. Details are always important. Result:

It is especially interesting to color retro photos. If you have family archives with rare photographs, now you don’t need to take them to the workshop, but you can digitize them and make them in color yourself.

Having mastered this technique, you can also do color on black and white in Photoshop. It's pretty original solution, you've probably seen photos like this.

For example, below we gave the girl red lips and turquoise eyes, leaving everything else black and white:

In exactly the same way, you can change the tones in color photos, for example, change the color of hair, clothing, background, and so on.

Today. digital camera Almost every person has one in one form or another. And photography, in itself, has become a truly massive hobby. Digital technology is developing so quickly that now, in order to take high-quality photographs, it is not at all necessary to have an expensive, professional camera. After all, today, even cameras on phones have learned to take good photographs. For example, the same iPhone now shoots no worse than a full-fledged digital camera. What can we say about semi-professional or professional mirrors.

But just recently, cameras were exclusively film, and photographs were mostly black and white. And the process of developing photographs itself was a whole mystery. Now we remember all this with a smile, and some, in a fit of nostalgia, even purchase or restore old photographic equipment, trying to repeat the unforgettable experience of taking analog photographs.

But it’s one thing to apply the effects of an old photograph to a ready-made photograph, and quite another to restore an old photograph to the state of a new one, or make a photo color in photoshop.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to completely eliminate all defects in old photographs, because... it all depends on general condition photographs, as well as factors such as:

• Age of photo
• Burnout of colors in the photo
• Scratches and microcracks on the front surface of the photograph
• Irreversible loss of some image elements

In most cases, an old photograph can be significantly improved, or even completely restored to its original characteristics. And you can do it even better than the original source. About one of these operations, namely, how to turn a black and white photograph into a color one, we’ll talk about it in today’s material.

Color selection

Making a photo in color in Photoshop will be more difficult than performing the reverse operation, where the whole process can be reduced to just a few mouse clicks. This will require painstaking manual work in a graphics editor. Adobe Photoshop . Therefore, in order to turn a black and white photo into a color one, it will be necessary hand color the image. At the same time, for some areas of the image, you can show your imagination and color them arbitrarily, choosing individual colors.

For example, a black and white photograph shows a portrait of a man in a quilt suit. Let's say we don't know the original color of the suit, so we can color it at our discretion, for example, beige. The color of other elements of the picture can be determined by one or another obvious signs. It goes without saying that we will paint the sky mainly blue, and the clouds gray-white. Definitely, grass and foliage on trees should be colored green.

But still, in most cases, the original colors of some elements of the photo will remain unknown, and they will need to be selected in order to obtain a photo image that is natural in color

Therefore, before turning a black and white photograph into a color one, you must first decide on the color design of all elements of the photograph. If you find it difficult to select colors, you can look at color analogues of photographs that are similar in structure, or ask for help from people who understand this, for example, photographers or graphic designers.

Fill color

After the colors have been selected, we proceed directly to the process of coloring the black and white photograph. Ways make a photo in color using photoshop, there are several. We will look at one of them, namely - method of color filling of individual adjustment layers. For this we need:

1. Original photo file

2. Graphic editor Adobe Photoshop

3. Layout with selected colors for filling (let me remind you, we should have determined it in advance)

4. Time and a little patience, because... The operation is quite painstaking

In order to turn a black and white photograph into color, we perform the following steps step by step:

1) Uploading a photo to Adobe Photoshop
2) In order to always be able to return to the original file if our experiments go too far, we create in Photoshop duplicate layer
3) In the layers palette, click on the icon " New adjustment layer", and in the proposed options for creating a layer, select - Color or Chroma (Solid Color)

After this, a color palette will appear in which you need to select the color closest to the color of the area of ​​​​the photo image that we intend to fill. For example, if it is grass, then select green color, if the sky, then blue, if the sun, then yellow. Again, we rely on the color layout that we drew up earlier before we started turning a black and white photograph into a color one.

Let's say we decide to start coloring our photo from the face. Accordingly, select a dark beige color from the color palette of the new adjustment layer ( closest to the color structure of the face, in our case).

So, the color for the face is chosen, but now it completely fills our entire photo. To exclude this, in the layers palette, select from the drop-down list of options - Color or Chroma. By default, it is on the option - Blend Mode, and that needs to change.

Great! Now the adjustment layer only affects the color of the bottom layer, and we see our photo with a tint of the color we chose for the face. Now our task is to leave this color only in that area of ​​the photo image for which it is intended. In our case, this is the face. To do this, click on the icon Layer mask, after which an outline will appear on the layer thumbnail.

Now select in the Photoshop tools palette - " Eraser", and erase everything except the face.

Attention! As you can see in our example, the neck and part of the chest have a color characteristic similar to the face. But we will also erase them, and create for them separate adjustment layer. This is explained by the fact that the color shade between the face and neck is still quite different. And, subsequently, these differences will be possible to emphasize only on different layers.

The more adjustment layers we create, the better quality we will eventually be able to color a black and white photo into color.

Editing a finished layout with adjustment layers

So, we filled it with a color similar in color, our first element is the face. The same must be done with all other elements of the photographic image. Those. simply repeat the above operation for other elements of the photograph, taking into account their color characteristics. Don't worry that the colors will be hyper-exposed and unnatural. We'll fix this a little later by editing each adjustment layer. Now the main thing is to fill in the main elements of the photo image flowers similar in color. Moreover, the more elements are selected into a separate adjustment layer, the better!

After we have worked out all the elements of the photographic image, it will be much easier for us to cope with the task of making a color photograph from a black and white one. Of course, now the colors look artificial, but, nevertheless, we have a ready-made layout with different layers that are available for processing separately, which will give us undeniable manufacturing advantages color photo via Photoshop. Actually, we will now begin this processing.

Let's go in order and start with the first layer. We need to adjust the color scheme of the face. As you can see in your original version, the skin color is hyper-colored, and of course, does not look natural. Let's try to fix this.

4) Double-click on the layer thumbnail in the Layers palette and experiment with the adjustment layer settings. It is necessary to work with the existing color, so you do not need to touch the tone settings, but operate with the sliders responsible for the brightness and color saturation of the edited area. We need to achieve the most natural color rendition by controlling changes in color parameters in live preview mode.

Well, that's a completely different matter. We do the same with the other layers. That is, we simply double-click on the thumbnail of each layer, and in the settings we change the color parameters to the most natural colors. This is very convenient, because working with many layers, we are able to convey color shades much more accurately than in the case of manually painting individual elements of a photo, described in most methods that teach how to make black and white photos color.

Actually last stage change the corrective color of the background and eyes. For a more harmonious visual effect, you can choose colors for the background to match the color of the eyes, or vice versa, the color of the eyes to match the background color ( unless of course this contradicts the general concept of the photo).

When creating an adjustment layer for small elements of a photo, for example, for the same eyes, you need to erase the entire image with an eraser, except for the iris itself. This is a rather painstaking operation, so in case of an error, just switch to the mode - Brush, and re-paint the area where you erased the excess. In this case, it is recommended to set the brush strength to 50% .