Painting color on BW - the easy way

Since I posted my recent layout, I thought it would be fun to share with you an easy method for "coloring" your black and white photos in case anyone might scraplift my scraplift. lol.

You will actually need the color version of the photo for this.

I am using Photoshop CS3.

Okay, here is a wonderfully quick way to do this.

You start with the color photo. Duplicate your image and create a black and white version. There are so many ways to convert to black and white. The quickest and dirtiest way would be to desaturate your photo. This is not what I did here.



Okay, so now you have a color version and a black and white version. Drag your black and white version over your colored version. The color version should be on a layer below your black and white version. Duplicate your color version and put the new layer on top of your black and white layer. You should have three layers now, the bottom a color, the middle the black and white, and another color on the top.



Now, select the top most layer and create a layer mask. This the square with a circle at the bottom on your layers panel. Fill this mask with black. So what you see is a black and white photo. Your colored version is completely hidden by the mask.



Now the fun part!! Select your brush tool. I am using a medium round brush. Select white as your foreground color. Make sure your layer mask is selected. It should have a white rectangle around it.

Now just start painting the color back in! Easy? Oh yeah! Fun? Oh yeah! :)