Color drawing in black and white online. Convert black and white photos to color online

Many people have at least once thought about restoring old black and white photographs. Most of The photographs from the so-called point-and-shoot cameras were transferred to digital format, but never gained color. The solution to the problem of converting a bleached image to a color one is very difficult, but to some extent accessible.

Converting a black and white photo into color

If you do color photo It’s simple in black and white, but solving the problem in the opposite direction becomes much more difficult. The computer needs to understand exactly how to color this or that fragment consisting of large quantity pixels. Recently, the site presented in our article has been dealing with this issue. This is the only one so far quality option, operating in automatic processing mode.

Colorize Black was developed by Algorithmia, a company that implements hundreds of other interesting algorithms. This is one of the new and successful projects that managed to surprise network users. It is based on artificial intelligence based on a neural network, selecting the necessary colors for the uploaded image. Frankly speaking, the processed photo does not always meet expectations, but today the service shows amazing results. In addition to files from a computer, Coloriz Black can work with pictures from the Internet.

Save the image divided in half by the purple line (1);
Save the fully colored photo (2).

Your picture will be downloaded to your computer via your browser. It looks something like this:

The results of image processing show that artificial intelligence based on a neural network has not yet thoroughly learned to turn black and white photos into color ones. However, it works well with photographs of people and paints their faces more or less well. Although the colors in the example article were chosen incorrectly, the Colorize Black algorithm still selected some shades successfully. For now, this is the only current option for automatically converting a bleached picture into a color one.

You can step over the edges, it’s even better to do it. After you have painted over all areas of the skin without missing a single pixel, press the “Quick Mask” button again. A highlighted area should appear. Make sure all the skin is included:

Go to the top menu “Layers”, select “New Fill Layer”, then “Color”, you can give the layer a name. Select the mode “Soft light”, click “Ok” - a palette appears where you need to select a color:

It’s not easy with skin, you need to look in yellow and pink shades. If you can’t find a natural color, then choose the tone that best suits your skin color, and we’ll try to correct this later. Click OK.
We go to the “Layers” window and see that a new fill layer has appeared there, consisting of two parts. Click on the second part in the form of a black square, a white frame should appear around it.

In the tools, we should still have the “Brush” active with the same settings. The main color on the toolbar should be black - this is important. Now the brush will work like an eraser. We remove everything unnecessary - what we painted over by accident, leaving the color only on the skin. We try to do this carefully:

So, we have painted the skin, to adjust its color, go to the “Layers” window, select the fill layer and duplicate it.

Now in the new layer, double-click on the colored square - a palette appears. Choose another color that will be superimposed on the first layer and mixed with it. You can mix pink and yellow shades, then you get a natural tone:

Now go to the “Background Copy” layer, click “Quick Mask” again and continue coloring, creating new fill layers. Don't forget to return to the main layer every time, otherwise nothing will work.

In the example, we dyed our hair in Brown color, then lips red:

And we paint the iris of the eyes green. Next we made the clothes purple:

Then a blue background, since our model is sitting by the water. And they separately painted green the trees reflected in the water, as well as the boards on which she sits, although they are almost invisible. Details are always important. Result:

It is especially interesting to color retro photos. If you have family archives with rare photographs, now you don’t need to take them to the workshop, but you can digitize them and make them in color yourself.

Having mastered this technique, you can also do color on black and white in Photoshop. It's pretty original solution, you've probably seen photos like this.

For example, below we gave the girl red lips and turquoise eyes, leaving everything else black and white:

In exactly the same way, you can change the tones in color photos, for example, change the color of hair, clothing, background, and so on.

There are many ways to convert a color image to black and white in Photoshop.

Now we will show you the 4 most popular methods.

Open your photo in Photoshop.

Let's start by introducing you to the two easiest ways to convert an image to black and white.

1 - function Grayscale(Grayscale)

2 - function Discolor(Desaturation)

We don't argue, these are the most simple ways, but the quality is not the best. Here the contrast is very low, the image is slightly cloudy.

Let's show with an example:

1. Grayscale

Image - Mode - Grayscale(Image - Mode - Grayscale)

Very simple, right?

2. Discolor

Image - Correction - Desaturate(Image - Adjustments - Desaturate)

Fast and easy - but the image contrast is very low, the image looks dull and flat. This is not at all what we are striving for. What we especially like about quality b&w photographs- this is depth and high contrast. Okay - it's time to introduce you to more serious methods!

3. Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

The method we are going to tell you about is to use several adjustment layers. Hue/Saturation. This means that you can return to its original appearance at any time. Plus, you are NOT changing the original image. Now go to the menu Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Hue/Saturation(Layers - New Adjustment layer - Hue/Saturation).

Leave all layer properties unchanged. Change the layer blending mode to Regular(Normal) on Chroma(Color).

Then add another adjustment layer Hue/Saturation(Hue/Saturation) - but this time in the layer properties, move the slider Saturation(Saturation) to -100.

So, get ready... This is what the image looks like now:

Now the fun begins! Double click on the first adjustment layer you made, or just open the properties. And now the slider Color tone(Hue) move to this position until you are satisfied with the resulting effect. You can also work with Saturation ( Saturation ) .

These are the settings we used to get the image you see below. Now it looks much better, although it still seems like something is missing...

Now change the blending mode of this newly created layer to Chroma(Color) on Overlap(Overlay), and reduce it a little Opacity(Opacity), in our case up to 65%.

This is what happened now. Contrast has increased noticeably. No detail is lost, adding depth to the image.

Please note that each image requires an individual approach. What suits this image may not suit yours. So don't be afraid to experiment with settings, layers and modes yourself :)

4. Channel mixing

The last technique you'll learn about in this tutorial is using an adjustment layer. Mixingchannels(Channel Mixer). With the original image active, go to the menu Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Channel Mixing(Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Channel mixer).

When this window appears, check the box next to the function Monochrome(Monochrome).

Now select the shades of black and white simply by moving the sliders that correspond to the red, green, and blue colors of the image. Important: try to total quantity The values were around 100 to avoid blurry areas in your image. We set the red and green channels to 0 and the blue to 100. This gives the skin intense black and white tones.

Final step: duplicate the adjustment layer. Then change the blending mode from Regular(Normal) on Overlap(Overlay) and reduce Opacity(Opacity), for example, for this image it turned out to be 44% - but often it is necessary to lower it to 20-30%. Look, below is the result of our labors.

It turned out to be a very atmospheric image. We are waiting for your impressions. We hope this article gave you a lot of useful information.

See you in the new lesson!

One of the most familiar themes of sepia-to-color is The Wizard of Oz.

Translator's note: we are talking about the film "The Wizard of Oz", the film begins in sepia, and then colors appear, which was unique for the cinema of that time.

In this tutorial I'll show you how to tint a photo to sepia to create a color image.

Coloring a sepia or black and white photo can seem like a real challenge and can take time and patience, although it can be a lot easier than you think. Today I will show you the process of colorizing a photo in the program. Adobe Photoshop.

Final result:

Source materials

The image I'm going to use in this tutorial is shown in the screenshot below:

Note: photo taken from http://www.loc.gov/

In my opinion, black and white photography is much easier to work with than sepia, so the first thing I did was convert the photo. This is just my personal preference and you don't have to, if you want and you like working in sepia, then work in sepia.

Translator's note: the author converted a sepia-toned photograph into a black and white image using correction Black and white(BlackandWhite).

1. Select the desired mode for the picture

Once you've uploaded the photo, you'll need to make sure the picture mode is set to RGB and not on the regime Grayscale(Grayscale), even if your image is monochrome or black and white. To check the mode, for this we go Image - Mode(Image >Mode), now make sure there is a checkmark next to the RGB mode.

2. We begin to color large fragments of the image

Step 1

Using a tool Quick selection (Quick Select tool), select the sky or any other large fragment of the image that is represented by one color shade.

Using a tool Quick selection(Quick Select tool), select a fragment of the image that is represented by one color shade, for example, the sky.

Step 2

Click the button Refine edge(Refine Edge).

Use the tool Refine edge(Refine Edge) to improve the boundaries of the selected area.

Step 3

In the tool settings window that appears Refine edge(Refine Edge), check the box Smart radius(Smart Radius). I changed the radius value to 5 px, but you can set a different radius value that best suits your image. I also increased the value Smooth(Smoth) up to 3 pixels to soften hard edges. You can also apply other settings of this instrument to improve the boundaries of the selection. When you're ready, click the 'OK' button.

Select the correct value for Smart radius(Smart Radius), as well as for the option Smooth(Smooth).

Step 4

So, we have created an active selection, now click the button Add a New Adjustment Layer(Add New Adjustment Layer) at the bottom of the layers palette and in the window that appears, select the option Color(Solid Color).

Add an adjustment layer Color(Solid Color) via bottom part layers palette.

Step 5

Choose the color shade that you think best matches the sky in your image. For now, it doesn't matter whether you chose a color tone that's too bright or not, we'll fix that in a minute. Once you have chosen a color tone, click the 'OK' button and you will see the selection on the adjustment layer mask.

Choose a suitable color shade.

Step 6

Change the blending mode to Overlap(Overlay) and the selected color will look much better. If you are not satisfied with the selected color, then simply double-click on the blue rectangle next to the mask so that a window appears Color palettes(Color Picker), select the color shade that suits you best.

Change the blending mode to Overlap(Overlay).

Step 7

If you are satisfied with the result, you can restore the missing areas of the image or correct them using a soft black/white brush, which you can apply on the adjustment layer mask.

Correct any defects left after selection.