Add color to a black and white photo using photo editing software.
Turning a colored photo into a black and white one is easier than putting color into a black-and-white photo. In both cases, you need to use an image editing program. Familiarity with the available program on your computer is the key to making your edited photo visually appealing. If you're an amateur user, using simple steps can create better and faster results. However, the more complicated steps used by professionals can provide even more impressive results.
Instructions
1. Open your black-and-white photo in your chosen image editing program. Adobe Photoshop is one of the popular programs used by both professionals and amateurs for editing photos.
2. Duplicate your original photo's layer by clicking the "Layers" menu and selecting "Duplicate Layer..." This creates an identical layer for your original photo. It allows you to go back to your original, unedited photo at any time by selecting the original layer. Your new layer should be on top.
3. Select the area of the photo you want to add color to, then click the "lasso" tool or "pen" tool to select the desired portion of the image you want to color. If you are not yet very familiar with these tools and you have a complicated shape to separate for coloring, be careful with the selection to avoid coloring beyond your desired area. If a "magnetic lasso" tool is available in your editing program, this may help so that the program can automatically guide the cursor towards highlighting the contours of your desired portion for coloring.
4. Save your finalized selection, then create another layer from it by choosing the "Layer via Copy" option under the "Layer" menu. This can also be accessed by right-clicking on your finalized selection.
5. Use the "brush" tool to start coloring your selection in the new layer. Choose the color you want, then use the brush to apply it to your selection. Alternatively, you can also use the "paint bucket" tool so you can simply click to fill up the entire space in your selection with color. If you want to retain the texture of your black-and-white photo for better realism, choose a slightly deeper or darker shade for your selected color because you need to lower its opacity later. This allows the newly-colored layer to look translucent, which makes the identical black-and-white layer right below it to be shown as well. This works like a semi-transparent glass where the visuals right below it can be seen based on how translucent this glass is.
6. Adjust the color's opacity from the "Layer" tab by turning the slider to the left or right or by typing any number between 1 to 100 in the space near the slider. Full or 100 percent opacity means the top layer completely covers your specific photo selection. The less opacity, the more translucent the layer becomes -- which allows you to also see the layer right below it. Full opacity is a solid color that would typically look fake or strange on your photo because the original photo's texture and possible highlights, shadows and other realistic imperfections won't be seen anymore. For instance, if you have a shot of a person holding an apple and you keep everything black and white except for the apple that you colored red, a full opacity on your colored layer results to a fake-looking apple without the right shading and lighting, unless you recreate them using additional editing tools. If you lower the opacity, you allow the colored layer's translucent nature to also show the lighting and shades from the original black-and-white photo's layer right below it. This makes the photo look more realistic.
7. Repeat the process if you have other parts to color on your black-and-white photo. If not, finalize your edit by saving your file in your preferred image file format. The formats most commonly used include JPG, TIFF and GIF.
