The technique colorize: color image into black and white

The Gimp gives us some excellent tools to allow us to exploit one of the most interesting techniques of editing, that of the colorize. By making some simple procedures we can quickly apply color to a 'black and white image.

Working in a very precise way you can get really interesting results from the graphical point of view. Using the technique of colorize, moreover, we can unleash our imagination highlighting (coloring) of the details of an image desaturated, producing effects very impressive.

We prepare the image

We open our initial image in black and white in a new window. This is the photo that we used in our example.

To begin with, the first step is to move the menu color, choose hue and saturation and then the voice RGB. Open the Layers dialog by pressing Ctrl + L and observe that currently there is only one voice, that on the background layer with the image of our departure.

To color our image we have to act according to several steps similar to each other in the procedures to be performed, each for a specific part of the image. At various times in fact, we're going to color the face, arms and hands, eyes, hair and hat.

Colorariamo face

First then we color the face, reminding us that we should try to do everything with the utmost precision, to get a good result in terms of graphics. We click on the small icon in the lower left of the Layers dialog, which is marked by a red box in the picture below, to create a new layer.

We call the new level corresponding to the face and choose the item type of fill transparency.

Now we click the new entry in the Layers dialog with the right mouse button and choose the Add Layer Mask. Immediately after the new window choose Black (full transparency) and click on the Add button, as shown below.

Here's how you present the window layer in the new configuration.

Now we make changes in the colors of background and foreground, a foreground color by choosing a shade of pink, to make the color of the skin of the face, and white as the background color.

Let's click the small square next to the black and transparent after we click the tool icon "bucket". Soon after we move onto our image and we do a single click with the left mouse button.

Notice that the small box in the Layers dialog was clear that before, is now that we have chosen the color pink.

Now change colors once again, choosing the color white for the foreground and black for the background. We choose the tool "brush" and begin to color the face in our image.
This is the most delicate part of our work. Let's be careful not to go too far beyond the margins of the face, trying to avoid as much as possible to color your hair or other parts of the picture.

However, keep in mind that even if we can rectify any imperfection will be present in subsequent steps. When people face, we can also move the brush over the eyes and mouth, as it will be easier to exclude the parties later.

When we finished the result will look like this.

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