Adding Colour to black and white landscapes

[Drydareelin]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

My first tutorial

We are changing this:

To this:

1#

Duplicate Layer

On the top layer make it Sepia

Adjustments > Sepia

2#

Select the magic wand tool, select the appropriate tolerance and delete the ground on the Sepia layer

3#

Add a new layer

Set the blend most to overlay

Select the paintbrush and colour in the sky, you don't have to be too careful with this

The colour I used was Hex: #87FDFF

4#

Add a small Gaussian Blur

Effects > Blurs > Gaussian Blur

I used a blur of 35

5#

Flatten Layers

Image > Flatten

6#

Duplicate layer

Add a Zoom Blur

Effects > Blurs > Zoom Blur

And set the Zoom Amount to 100

If you want a more realistic effect, put the offset on to the point of the light source (in this case, the sun)

7#

Set the Blend Mode to Lighten and the Layer opacity to about 153 (experiment)

8#

Flatten again

Image > Flatten

 

I hope this tutorial was helpful.

[MadJik]

shouldn't the sun be the origin for the zoom blur?

[Drydareelin]

shouldn't the sun be the origin for the zoom blur?

I tried that and found for much difference but you could =)

I'll add it into the tutorial ^_^

Edited March 19, 2011 by Drydareelin

[Ego Eram Reputo]

@BoltBait's Landscape plugin does quite a nice job for those who want a quick fix.

[Drydareelin]

@BoltBait's Landscape plugin does quite a nice job for those who want a quick fix.

You could combine the two I guess

That is a very good plug-in but I found it slightly unreliable to black and white photos

Edited March 20, 2011 by Drydareelin