First real attempt at colourising

[uk2003]

Hi deadants

This photo is of my Uncle and Aunty taken in 1930. Sadly Doreen died just after this picture was taken.

This being my real first attempt at putting colour into a black and white photo I am seeking your input and advice on it. I was only working on the 2 people and chair and was going to leave background & comic as is, still giving the appearance of an old photo

I think I have a problem with the skin tone on the girls face (she looks like a doll). The chair is in different colours and I could not get a straight line. The colours I feel are wrong as well for that time period "am I wrong or right" ?

Regards
Ken

[kmo]

It looks good to me.
Perhaps the colours are a little to bright?
Maybe a bit less saturation?

[deadants]

Hi Kenhar,
  Well there are some obvious problems with the colours. They are way too bright, giving them a glowing appearance. I put a link on the other day which shows a colorizing tutorial using cmyk mode and adjustment layers. http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161018&page=3

This is the method I used to produce the results below. But you have made a good start. Even with unrealistic colours. Just getting the concept of using adjustment layers is a challenge. Once you start to use curves to adjust colours, you will never look back.

Have another go using the method in this link; I think you will be surprised at how quickly you will get results.

By the way, the comic book they are reading in my version is Prince Valiant from the 1950's.

Go and have a look at what this person has done with some old photo's, she's a true artist.
http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/4017/cat/500

Also check some of these colorization efforts
http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/3799/sort/1/size/medium/cat/500/page/


deadants

[deadants]

Hi kenhar,
          I just realized you are using psp 9, i don't know if psp 9 has cmyk. I do know it has curves and RGB so this method should work much the same.

I really don't know too much about PSP but this is much the same method I used except PSP dosen't seem to have cmyk curves.

deadants

[uk2003]

Hi deadants

I have both PSP 9 & Photoshop CS + as of today a graphics pad & pen.

Many thanks for the comments and your handy work on the photo, I just knew I had got it all wrong but just putting colour in is a major step forward.

Ken