ADDING COLOR TO A BLACK + WHITE IMAGE
STEP 01 OPEN image in Photoshop. Make sure you are in RGB MODE.
Pull down menu: IMAGE/MODE/RGB
STEP 02 DOUBLECLICK on background layer to convert to ordinary layer
STEP 03 CHOOSE a color from the COLOR PICKER at the bottom of the TOOL BOX
STEP 04 CREATE New Layer
STEP 05 FILL new layer with FOREGROUND COLOR
Pull down menu: IMAGE/FILL/Toggle to FOREGROUND COLOR
[NOTE: You will see the color cover the entire stage; image is on a layer underneath ]
STEP 06 TOGGLE to OVERLAY - this toggle is at the top left of the LAYER PALETTE
STEP 07 If the color fill overlay is too harsh, reduce OPACITY
Opacity is found in the top right of the LAYER PALETTE
STEP 08 To produce a more dreamlike quality:
DUPLICATE the image layer by dragging the layer with the image down to the notebook icon;
this will copy the image layer
STEP 09 BLUR this image on the copy layer by using the GAUSSIAN BLUR FILTER
Pull down menu: FILTER/BLUR/GAUSSIAN BLUR
STEP 10 You can now BRING out more focused areas of the image by ERASING areas on the blurred image layer:
CLICK on the ERASER tool
Set your OPTIONS up top by selecting a brush/eraser size (blurry edged) and bring down the opacity
Now you can erase specific areas in the blur layer to reveal the focused portions below
in the original layer
STEP 11 You can also add another color:
SELECT another color from the COLOR PICKER
(we selected a yellow for our second color, after the red)
See Steps 04-07
STEP 12 Take a critical look at your final image:
you should probably tone down the opacity in the color fill layers,
even the blurred image layer to TONE DOWN the overall effect
NOTE: You can use any COLOR image with this process.
First, convert the image mode to GREYSCALE.
Pull down menu: IMAGE/MODE/GREYSCALE
Photoshop will ask you if you want to DELETE the color information. YES.
Then, convert the new Greyscale image to RGB, as you would expect.
Pull down menu: IMAGE/MODE/RGB