Hand Colouring of Photographs

Hand Colouring Of Photographs

Hand-colouring refers to any method of adding colour to a black-and-white photograph yourself, generally either to make the photograph look more realistic for artistic purposes. Hand-colouring is also known as hand painting or overpainting.

Typically, watercolours, oils, crayons or pastels, and other paints or dyes are applied to the image surface using brushes, fingers, cotton swabs or airbrushes. Hand-coloured photographs were most popular in the mid- to late-19th century before the invention of colour photography and some firms specialized in producing hand-coloured photographs.

Dyes were used in hand colouring of photographs. Dyes are a colour substance, either natural or synthetic, in a water solution. Water colour paint has the virtue of being more permanent than dyes, but is less transparent and more likely to completely cover details. Using colour paint requires the use of a medium to prevent the colurs from drying with a dull lifeless finish.
Oils contains particles of pigment applied using a drying oil, such as linseed oil. To use Oils requires a lot of knowledge of drawing and painting so it is normally used in professional practice.
Crayns and Pastels were used of ground pigments in various levels of saturation is also considered to be a highly skillful action of an artist. Like oils, crayons and pastels generally obscure the original photograph which produces portraits more akin to traditonal paintings.

Our task today was to go out and take an image which we were then going to turn into Black and white, for us to then print out and paint over.

This is my original image.

This is my painted image, I used a range of different colours which don't go together so they each stand out against each other.

Practicing Editing Images

Todays task was that we had to find a photograph from the image which we liked and try and replicate it.
I find an image which was a close up portrait image of a woman. When I had taken my images which I was going to edit to make the replica of the original image, I had to change the image into black and white. I had a bit of trouble with trying to match the overall tone of the image, an also had trouble trying to match the contrast with the images as the image I had taken, the contrast was sharper than the original. Also, I had to try and crop the image so it had the same area in the image, which I found hard as I didn't get the shape of the head as well as I could of, which made it harder to crop to the right size.

This is the original image: 

I really like this image because it focused on just the face and I liked how it wasn't just a plain face, the hair covered parts of the face which expanded the range of tones used in the image.

This is my version of the image:

To make this image better, I would of changed the lighting used as we used a beauty dish light whereas in the original they used just a normal light which reflects in the eye. Also, the tones in the images are different as the image I edited is much lighter whereas the tone in the original is a bit darker meaning the overall image was darker. Compared to my image, the original is different because the angle of the image which it was taken was taken from just slightly below the line of the face as the woman looks as if she is looking up and away from the camera, whereas my image is taken face on. I also tried to add shadows to the edge of the face which would represent the shadows which are on the original. 

If I had to do it again, I would try and read more into the original image as I missed out on quite a few details such as where the hair lies over the left eye, as it covers but also creates a gap so you can see the eye through the hair, also how the image is taken and what angle I would need to take the image at.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with this image as its the first replication of an image I have done and now I know what I've done wrong I know what I need to do for my final replicated image.

Copying a photo

I have chosen to try and replicate this image. I am going to photograph either Sammy or Danie in the studio.

My Favorite Possible Image

This is my favorite image which i have seen which I'm thinking of reproducing. I love the with the black and light tones. I like how the blacks are really black and there is a nice overall color in the picture. I like how it is concentrated on the eyes and I think this is a good chance to show how you can emphasize the eyes in the picture even though that the image is in black and white.
I think I might reproduce this image.

Possible Images To Reproduce

James Nader

Michel Comte -

Alasdair McLellan -

Creating 3D Images

1. Open Image in Photoshop

2. Create a background copy

3. We then click the top layer (background copy) and duplicate the layer.

4. We then select the top layer

5. We then select Image --> Adjustments --> Levels

6. We then select Channel --> Red

7. We then have to put both amounts down to 0

 8. We then have to choose the bottom layer (Background) and do the same as before with both green and blue.

 9. Put both amounts down to 0

10. Both backgrounds should then look like this. (Colour same as the 3D glasses)

11. We then have to change the layer to 'Screen'

12. We then have to use the select tool

13. And move the top layer down and slighty to the right

 14. The image will then look like this.

15. Using 3D glasses the image will look 3D.

3D Images

3D imaging, known as Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. These two dimensional images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth.
Besides the technique of freeviewing, which must be learnt by the viewer, three strategies have been used to mechanically present different images to each eye: have the viewer wear eyeglasses to combine separate images from two offset sources, have the viewer wear glasses to filter offset images from a single source separated to eacheye, or have the lightsource split the images directionally into the viewers eyes.

This is a camera taken from the website www.behance.net. This camera is used to create 3D photographs.

On the same website, it advertises the use of 3D glasses to reach the full potential of viewing 3D images,

Possible Final Image Choices

 I like the shadows which are produced in this photo and i like the black background against the image of the girl as she is bright and highlighted in this image whereas the background is black. This would be quite nice to reproduce with our own twist on it.

I like this image as well as I like the use of wind in it so the hair is blown back so you can concentrate on the expression on the girls face. I like how subtle her makeup is so the image looks quite natural.

 Im looking at quite a lot of different ideas for my final image choice. I really like landscapes but think they could be hard to try and reproduce and manipulate.

 I really like the reflection of the mood in the water, which could be reproduced in a different way, but also would be hard to find a place which would create a good photograph in the dark.

 I quite like the idea of focusing on beauty shots because you can focus on just the face and could reproduce and manipulate images like this quite well. These could be done in a studio by using a student or friend/family and then edit the image in photoshop.

I think i'd prefer to do a shot of just the face rather than other body parts, as you can focus on the eyes, mouth, and hair line. You could change the lip/eye colour and by doing it in the studio you can use different lights to influcuate the skin tone and eye colour.

Overall Summary

Overall, I liked the gaussian blur method because I think the blurring is subtle whereas in other images you can tell that the image has been edited a lot, whereas the gaussian blur blends in with the image. However, I also like how you can edit the lightness of the image which I would use as well because it would make the centre of the image stand out than the edge of the image.

First we uploaded an image into photoshop

We selected the Marquee tool and chose the Epiliptic tool and dragged a circle over the image.

We then chose the Feather tool, by Select --> Modify --> Feather

We then can choose how heavy we want the feathering, the higher the number the less cut and paste the image will look.

 We chose 150 because it will mean the feathering will be stronger.

We then selected the Inverse tool so the image which is on the outside of the circle will be effected.

We then used the blur tool to create a blurred effect around the outside of the image.
Filter --> Blur --> Radial Blur

We then could choose either the Spin or Zoom effect. We experimented with both.

This is the effect the 'Spin' has on the image, where the outside of the photograph looks like its been spinning around.

We then experimented with the Zoom blur tool.

This is the effect the Zoom blur tool has on the image.

Next we experimented with changing the brightness of the image and how that would look using the Marquee tool.

We did the same thing with the others with the Marquee tool selecting an area of the image.

Select --> Inverse

Select --> Modify --> Feather

We then selected Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation

We then changed the intensity of the change in brightness/contrast.

 We then tested the Gaussian Blur. Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur

 We then could change the intensity of the Gaussian Blur.

 This is the final image with the Gaussian blur, with the outside of the image blurring into the centre part of the image.