The challenge explained:

I thought we could build off last weeks theme of Sepia and Duotone and take the next step into - Hand Coloring - digitally painting color onto a black and white photo, by hand, no push button solutions please. All styles are acceptable - realistic, vintage look, surrealistic, pure art...anything goes, but points are added if you color the whole photo - I've not a huge fan of a B&W with just one element colored. But hey, if that's what you've got, post it, you may surprise me.

Apart from the purely creative aspect, hand coloring is a great way to learn about color balance and color interaction. I've been hand coloring photos since I was a young pup, first with Marshall's Oils back in the anolog days, and now with digital. Digital makes it much easier to do, and allows many more creative opportunities.

For those of you new to the technique, here's a quick primer: Open a B&W photo, create a new layer above it, change the Blend Mode on that new layer to "Color" or "Overlay" or any of the transparent choices. Pick a color for your brush and paint. Adjust opacity to suit. Use a separate layer for each color so you can balance things out in the end. Obviously you can take it much further, but that's the basics. It's very easy and lots of fun.

I look forward to seeing your entries.



Challenge Starts:
NOW

Challenge Ends:
Friday, April 2nd @ 11:59PM Official Server Time

The fine print....
1. Post ONE photo (max 1024x1024).
2. The photo must portray an interpretation of the theme.
3. Post your single picture in this thread, and explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly theme (especially if it's not obvious).
4. The challenge is interactive. Any response is welcome.
5. The judge will pick the WINNERS and choose 1 of them to be the judge for the next week.
6. This challenge runs for 7 days plus a day for the judge to choose the winners.
7. Any Pentax camera will do or a Samsung DSLR.
8. Pictures can be from any time frame, not just within the week of the current theme.

Previous Challenge Subjects:
1-Statues, 2-Wheels, 3-Speed, 4-Peace, 5-Survival, 6-Macro, 7-Mountains, 8-Children, 9-Post Processing, 10- Windows & Doors, 11-Sport, 12-Urban Landscape, 13-Wisdom, 14-Power, 15-Music, 16-Pathways, 17-Lines, 18-Storm, 19-Boats, 20-Water, 21 - Golden Hour, 22 - Natural Lighting, Portraits, 23-Motion Blur, 24-Simplicity, 25-Color, 26-Cars, 27-Repetition, 28-Wildlife, 29-Epiphany, 30-Contrast, 31-Pets, 32-Landscapes, 33-Coastal, 34-Churches, 35-Bridges, 36-Creation, 37-Still Life: Food, 38-At the Zoo, 39-Wide Aperture, 40-Merry Christmas, 41- Sunsets, 42-Action, 43-Fireworks, 44-Manipulated Light Portraits, 45- Advertising/Product Shot, 46- B&W Street Shooting, people/buildings, 47-Vanishing Point, 48-Reflection, 49-Tranquility, 50-Expressions, 51-S Curve, 52-Hands, 53-Shadows, 54-Your Favorite Beverage, 55-Barriers, 56-Perspective, 57-Night Scenes, 58-Zen-like...Water and Stone 59-Modern architecture, 60-Sunrises, 61-Red, 62-Action on water, 63-Bodies in Motion, 64-Ruins, 65-Blue and green, 66-Iridescence, 67-Anthropomorpha, 68–Sound, 69-Backlight, 70-Group Shot, 71-Railway Scenes, 72-Technology, 73-Color on Color, 74-History, 75-Autumn/Harvest 76-working men and women, 77-Silhouettes, 78 Stranger Portrait, 79-Transportation, 80 - Lonely, 81 - Holidays, 82 - Toys 'n Games, 83 - Machines, 84 - Ice, 85 - Cats, 86 - Stories, 87 - Cultures, 88 - Absence, 89 - Weather, 90 - Old roads, 91 - The River, 92 - The Seventies, 93 - Beautiful Bokeh, 94 - Balance, 95 - Crop a miniature landscape, 96 - Opposing gravity, 97- Feet, 98 - Sacred Grounds, 99 - Extraordinarily Ordinary, 100-added textures, 101-still life, 102-bicycles, 103 - Broken, 104- Flowers (B&W), 105 Backlighting, 106-Water. 107-Wind, 108-Parent/Child candids, 109-Passion, 110-Events, 111-Streets, 112-The Aged, 113-Fire and Heat, 114-Nature vs. Culture, 115 - Letters or Numbers, 116 - Self-Portrait, 117 - The Tree, 118 - Minimalism, 119 - Rust, 120 - Before & After, 121 - Negative Space, 122 - Decay & Dereliction, 123 - Cold, 124 - Melancholy, 125 - The Element of Time, 126 - Public Transportation, 127 - Yin Yang, 128 - Sepia or Dual Tone, 129 - Hand Coloring

[Graham V]

First of the mark this time.

I had to hunt around for an image to work with but found this one of a Bentley taking part in a local Carnival with the aim of a period feel.

Converted to mono by contrast grading for lack of contrast so that the colours would show.
Used numerous layers for different colours and had a little difficulty managing the opacity to get the balance right.
The people in the background were a bit of a pain as well.

[slinco]

Bump for Monday morning.

Only one entry will make this way too easy for me to judge. Let's see some more entries. Splash some color on something and see what you come up with...

[Bramela]

This is my entry. I took a table top shot and coloured all the added scenery , clouds. sea, waves etc. It wasn't actually done from a B&W so hope it qualifies.

[slinco]

Sure, that qualifies Bruce. Glad to see another entry. I guess everybody else is hard at work on their masterpieces...

[dave kitson]

This probably doesn't qualify since I changed the sky when I restored this old snap of me, but it will at least bump the thread. It was done a while ago using pretty crude technique and was one of my first forays into Photoshop.

Original:


Restored:


dave

[Tamia]

Great entries! I've never done this before, Steve, so thanks for suggesting it or else I might never have. Here's my entry:



Gimped: transparent colors with airbrush, merged layers, then used oilify under artistic filter. GraphicConverter next, to alter curves and brightness, contrast, and saturation.

[JeffJS]

From



To



Shot with a Rolleiflex on Verichrome Pan film.

[slinco]

Last day to get your entries in.