This is another photograph I found online and colorized as an exercise. The first thumbnail shows the black and white original image. The second image shows the first stage, where I have a color fill for each area of the photograph. The third thumbnail shows the stage after I began to layer colors, making a richer skin tone, the color and texture of the bugle, and deepening certain values.

Another study using a rather famous black and white photograph. The challenge is always in finding the right amount of saturation. One of the things that I always consider when doing this type of work is the ‘depth map’ – that is: which areas of the image are closer in space, and which areas are farther.

I was looking for interesting black and white photographs to colorize when I happened upon this. I did this as an exercise, but it will give you an idea of how I can adjust a black and white image to give it a natural sense of color.

This is another image I found online and worked with as an exercise. It was as bad as any photograph I’ve ever seen, with missing corners, tears in the surface from creases and folds, stains, scratches, and dust spots. Some of the faces were completely obscured, and took some doing to recreate. To further complicate matters, the exposure it self was less than ideal, and the scan included glare from an area where the photo was rolled. This would definitely be a test.