Free Colorize Black & White Photo Action for Photoshop CS, CS2, CS3
filed in Free Photoshop Actions on Oct.18, 2008
Today I’m offering you a DeeDoo Action that will turn your color photo black and white, then allow you to bring back color to the areas you choose. This is a simple technique that can be done without an Action, but it’s nice to be able to click a button and have the instructions guide you through the process. Not having a lot to think about is sometimes a very good thing!
You won’t use this technique every day, but it can be very effective when you want to draw attention to a particular element in your photos. It’s nice to have this Action to use when you want to try the technique on a variety of photos to determine which one to use, too. You can do a ‘down and dirty’ pass at revealing the color, click the Action to finish, and go on to your next photo in a blink. Then you can start fresh with the photos you settle on and run the Action on them, spending more time in your actual brushing.
Christmas is right around the corner, and many of us find ourselves creating Christmas cards and gifts using our photos of family and pets. Turning them into black and white photos and bringing back just some of the color looks pretty cool with the right photos and trim. The result is understated and classic.
I hope you have fun using this DeeDoo Action!
If you are new to loading and using Actions in Photoshop, CLICK HERE for instructions on getting the Action loaded into your program.
To download the FREE Colorize Black & White Photo Action, CLICK HERE.
November 23rd, 2008 on 4:45 pm
I love this action, but I have a couple questions about it. For some reason it won’t let me color over a black part of a photo I’ve tried everything and I can’t get it to work. It’s only allowing me to color over white or light gray. Also it’s not allowing me to change colors either say I’m using red and want to switch to purple it won’t allow me to do that. I know I’m probably not doing something right but what I have no clue. Can you help plz and TYVM for this action it’s awesome and a time saver too.
November 23rd, 2008 on 6:12 pm
Thanks, Jackie, I’m glad you are enjoying the Action!
I apologize for any confusion about the intended results of using the Action. It is designed to turn your color photo into a black and white photo, then allow you to paint back into the photo any of the ORIGINAL photo colors, leaving the remainder of the photo black and white. It is not intended to CHANGE any of the original colors.
If you are wanting to CHANGE the colors of clothing, objects, etc., in a photo, there are several ways to do so. One way is to add an empty layer above your ‘still colored’ photo and change the new empty layer’s color blend mode to ‘Color’. Then select the new color from your color palette (or you can use the color picker and click on a color in your photo or some other photo.)Then paint over the area you wish to change with an appropriately sized brush. This method actually is more of a ‘tint’ to the original color. You can play with the opacity of the Color layer to adjust the effect.
You can use this same technique over a black and white photo, and it will yield more vivid colors. Again, you can adjust the effect by changing the opacity of the Color layer. You can even change colors, if you want, to say color a sweater one color and the hat a different color, using the same ‘Color’ layer. However, all of the colors used on the same layer would then be affected by any changes you made to the opacity, etc.
Either way, your results are always going to depend upon the underlying range of black and white in your original photo. Meaning, using either of these methods you wouldn’t change anything black into a light yellow, etc.
There are other ways to get this done, and much more precisely, but that would involve a tutorial!
I hope this helps!
Janet
February 9th, 2009 on 12:46 am
Installed and used this today. Lovely!
February 9th, 2009 on 11:13 am
Great! Thanks for your comment!
April 6th, 2009 on 6:06 am
thank you so much for this action – I can’t wait to go play!