Using the Colorize Function in Adobe Photoshop

First Technique: Using the Colorize Function in Adobe Photoshop

This technique is by far the easiest but it gives little room to exempt areas or create other neat effects.

This tutorial will show you different ways of colorizing an image, colorizing is a very useful tool as it can make your images look much nicer! We will be going through numerous techniques to do this, choose the one you like best.

This is the image I will be starting with. You are free to download this and use it.

Step 1

Take your image; I will be using the one above. Select the layer you wish to colorize.

Step 2

Now we will be using the colorize function built in with Photoshop, this can be found in the Hue/Saturation function. This can be used with [Ctrl + U] if you are on a Windows Machine, [Cmd + U] if you are on an Apple Computer. You may also find it in the menus. Shown below.

Now you should see a window like this. Normally this is used to edit color Saturation in Images, as well as edit overall Light/Dark balance. We are looking to colorize this image, so click the “Colorize” box, and refer to the picture if you have trouble finding it.

Now, Play around with the bars, Hue will adjust the color you will come out with, Saturation will affect the amount of the color, lightness will affect White/Black balance.

I got something like this below:

I used 220 Hue, 30 Saturation, 0 Lightness. Generally you will find yourself not using Lightness much; it very rarely improves the image.

Second Technique: Using an “Adjustment Layer”

A little harder, this Technique introduces “Adjustment Layers” witch are very useful in many ways. Adjustment masks can be used to modify your image without actually touching the layer that the image is on!

Step 1

Take your image; I will be using the same one I did last technique. Select the layer you wish to colorize.

Step 2 Select the “Adjustment Layer” button at the bottom of your layers window, it kind of looks like a yin’yang. We will want “Hue/Saturation” for this project.

Now you should see a window like this. Normally this is used to edit color Saturation in Images, as well as edit overall Light/Dark balance. We are looking to colorize this image, so click the “Colorize” box, and refer to the picture if you have trouble finding it.

Now, Play around with the bars, Hue will adjust the color you will come out with, Saturation will affect the amount of the color, lightness will affect White/Black balance.

Step 3

You should now see a layer like the one I have highlighted, this has a mask attached to it, masks are very useful, the can be used to modify many things, for this project we will simply be filling our mask with clouds, feel free to play to with it if you want.

Make sure you click on the “White box” to select the mask part.

Mouse up to your “Filter” menu now, go down to “Render”, Select “Clouds.” You should see your image with some “Colorized” areas, and some normal areas! If you do not like the outcome, redo this step, “Clouds” is different every time!

I also suggest going to “Brush Strokes” and selecting “Dark Strokes”, just press accept and the image might look even cooler!

I got something like this:

There are many others! Explore! Play around with Technique 2, perhaps the “Brush Tool” might make something turn out nice….