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If you're not happy with the colors in your pictures and have been wondering how to color an image in Photoshop, this article will help you breathe new life into your photos. Colorizing isn’t a hidden art form and, with a little know-how, you can easily bring a splash of color into your images. Using the built-in editors, AI filters and other tools, you can recolor a whole image, a single or multiple objects, or play with the background, all within the Photoshop app.
Which tool is best depends on what exactly you’re changing, so today we’ll explore the basics for a few projects. If you’re wondering how to bring an old monotone picture into the modern day, all you need to get started is a source image and access to the app.
There are many reasons you might want to edit the colors of an image using Photoshop. One of the most interesting use cases is adding color to old black-and-white photos, giving them a modern twist and a vibrant splash of color. While nothing stops you from learning to edit yourself, it might be worth relying on a professional for truly important images, such as old family photos.
Adding color to old black-and-white or sepia photos really makes them stand out, but there are countless other possible applications:
The possibilities from switching up the colors on objects really are endless. We’ll focus on a few editing projects, like bringing color into old monotone images, and you should be able to translate the skills into your own work.
Modernizing an old family portrait or connecting with history through a more vivid image by colorizing old black-and-white or sepia pictures isn’t as tricky as you might think. Using Adobe’s AI Neural Filters, it’s actually really easy:
First, load up the image you want to recolor and download the Colorize Neural Filter for further editing. Once you’re all set up, simply toggle the filter to ‘On’ and check out the results. If you’re happy, there’s no need to go any further.
If you’d like to refine the image further, you can use the Focal Points tool to assign new colors to various elements. Simply click on the target area and use the Color Picker and the Strength slider to adjust the area you selected. You can assign multiple focal points across the image to bring in some natural variation to the final picture.
If you want to add a few flourishes of your own, you can paint using the Brush tool on the layer created by the Colorize Neural Filter.
This simple brush tool offers you the chance to play with the overall effect, keeping the grainy textures from an old photo or modernizing things completely.
If your image is already in color but you want to change up a couple of areas, you can make use of Photoshop’s Fill layers and masks. This technique is great for experimenting without destroying your original image and layer masks are easy to apply. Should you not like an effect, it's easy to remove and start again. This easy method is a great answer to the question of how to use Photoshop to recolor something, but there are a few different methods out there.
The first step is to ensure that your image is split into layers. This may already be the case if you’ve been creating something, but if not you can do it via selecting the subject whose color you want to edit via either the Lasso, Marque, Magic Wand or Quick Selection tools.
Now, use the menu to select Layer, New Layer Via Copy or New Layer Via Cut. Now you should have the element you want to re-color in a separate layer, ready to experiment with.
Fill layers affect all the layers below them, so they offer a quick and easy way to experiment with color. Click the Fill/Adjustment icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select either solid, gradient or pattern from the menu, then choose your color from the Color Picker. This also works if you’re wondering how to make an image one color in Photoshop too- just find the Layer that makes it look right by dragging and dropping your Color Fill in the Layers panel.
To allow textures from lower layers through, make use of the Blend Mode menu at the top of the layers panel. You can also adjust the Color Fill layer’s opacity.
Because it affects everything under it, you can experiment with different effects by moving the Color Fill Layer around in the Layers panel.
Let’s say that there’s a single object in your image that you want to change. There are a few different ways of doing this, but using the Hue/Saturation Adjustment tool is probably the easiest and most effective, giving you access to a wide color range via an easy-to-use slider tool. If a single object needs a color replacement, this is the tool for you and it offers some great creative effects.
The easiest way of making this change is through the Hue/Saturation adjustment tool. Thanks to masks and adjustment layers being non-destructive, you’re free to experiment to your heart’s content.
To start, you’ll need to select the subject you want to re-color. The Quick Selection tool is generally pretty good for this, but if you want a little more control, feel free to experiment with other selection tools.
Next, select the Adjustments panel and click the Hue/Saturation icon. This will make your selected object a mask on the adjustments layer and allow you to play with it without affecting the rest of the image.
Now that your selected subject is on the Adjustments layer, you can use the Hue and Saturation sliders to replace the color. If the object’s original color tints it, simply toggle the Colorize box and adjust the settings accordingly until you’re happy with the results in the preview window.
Changing the colors of an already-colored image can also be done in Adobe Lightroom. However, Adobe Photoshop offers a more powerful set of tools that allow you to edit and colorize images easily. Whether you want to re-color a whole image or an individual element of your photo, selecting the right method makes it easy to create a wonderful outcome. There's a reason it's the number one photo editor after all.
Perhaps the coolest thing you can do using these techniques is take an old black-and-white or sepia image into the modern world. Not only does this give you a more visually interesting image, it can help you feel more connected to the past, bringing the subjects back to vivid life.
Of course, colorizing old pictures is far from the only use of Photoshop’s range of tools. Whether your project is commercial, artistic or just for fun, being able to play with color opens up a world of options for every image. Learning how to color an image in photoshop has lots of potential uses.
While none of these skills are tricky to learn, they can be challenging to truly master. This is where professional colorization experts come in. These experts are true masters at the art of reviving old black-and-white photos through the application of naturalistic colors, really bringing them to life. If it all seems a little too technical, the professionals are here to help.
