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04 Jul 2008 12:50 AM, by devvv (Bernhard Stockmann), translated to English by redforce (Richard H.)

Spicing up black/white images

Today we try to spice up a grayscale image by coloring some parts. We use a photo of Rose McGowan (known from the TV series Charmed where she plays Paige Halliwell) as the original, color the whole image and especially point out the lips and eyes.

This article has been written using GIMP 2.4. It's divided into 8 steps and takes about 15 min to complete for an average user. 25435 times read so far. Category: Photos / wallpapers, required skill: 1 of 5

14 comments have been posted so far.

Available in other languages:

Files you need if you try this tutorial:

  1. 1
    Save the image "Rose McGowan" (link is on the right side, below the tutorial details) and open it with GIMP.

    Make sure that Image / Mode / RGB is selected. Otherwise you won't get colors in the next steps.
    Original image (Rose McGowan)
    Click to enlarge
  2. 2
    To bring a minimal touch of color into the image, use Colors / Color Balance with these values:

    Shadows: 5 / 0 / -5
    Midtones: 0 / 0 / 0
    Highlights: 5 / 0 / -5

    The image should now have a very slight red-yellow tint.
    Red-yellow tint
    Click to enlarge
  3. 3
    Enlarge the image to 200%. Now we want to color the lips red:

    Choose the paths tool and start on left corner of the mouth by setting a point. Set further points like shown in the picture. Connect the last point with the first one by pressing CTRL.
    Screenshot of step 3
    Click to enlarge
  4. 4
    In order to get nice curves (we have to fit the lips with our selection), press and hold CTRL and click into the middle top point, hold the mouse button and drag the line to the left. So you can define the bending of the curve. Repeat this with the other points until the lips are selected correctly.

    Hit ENTER to create a selection from the path.
    Screenshot of step 4
    Click to enlarge
  5. 5
    - Create a new layer.
    - Choose Select / Shrink, value: 5px.
    - Fill the selection with color #c60000.
    - Select "Soft light" as the layer mode.
    Screenshot of step 5
    Click to enlarge
  6. 6
    The next step is for the eyes: We will color them blue (although she has brown eyes in reality):

    - Create a new layer again.
    - Select the paintbrush tool, some blue (for instance #0085ec) as foreground color and paint over iris and pupil. Use the eraser tool to erase everything that is too much.
    Screenshot of step 6
    Click to enlarge
  7. 7
    Again, set the layer mode to "Soft light".

    Duplicate the background layer. Apply Colors / color Balance (same values as in step 2) to the duplicate.

    Then apply Filters / Blur / Selective Gaussian Blur: blur radius: 5 / max. delta: 20. Set the layer mode to "Soft light". This steps accents the bright areas some more and generally makes areas smoother without blurring the edges.

    If you want to point out the colors some more, you can simplify duplicate the lips or eyes layer.

    At the end, my layers look like this:
    Screenshot of step 7
    Click to enlarge
  8. 8
    After our little image adaption, Rose McGowan looks like this:
    Screenshot of step 8
    Click to enlarge

This article is licensed under the following license: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Austria

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1 rating(s) with 5.0 of 5 stars in average

  1. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Fri 04 Jul 2008 03:33:06 AM CEST Beaniebaby2468, 04 Jul 2008 03:33 AM

    Wow! Cool effect. Nice tutorial I will definately use this one. :)

  2. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Fri 04 Jul 2008 09:25:36 AM CEST andotyjazz, 04 Jul 2008 09:25 AM

    Amazing effect. Thanks for the tuts.

  3. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Sat 05 Jul 2008 01:04:23 AM CEST robert, 05 Jul 2008 01:04 AM

    it looks great! thanks for sharing

  4. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Tue 29 Jul 2008 07:19:18 AM CEST Robert, 29 Jul 2008 07:19 AM

    Nice tutorial!! Thanks

  5. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Tue 05 Aug 2008 04:23:34 PM CEST Megan, 05 Aug 2008 04:23 PM

    I got lost at the add new layer part. The menu that was supposed to pop up I guess didn't come up. Could you tell me how exactly to add the layer, in detail?

  6. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Thu 13 Nov 2008 08:48:23 AM CET Jon, 13 Nov 2008 08:48 AM

    I had the same problem as Megan. For the eyes I grabbed the color from the new layer that was a solid color, then deleted the layer and brushed the eyes with %25 opacity. Same effect.

  7. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Thu 13 Nov 2008 12:33:13 PM CET devvv, 13 Nov 2008 12:33 PM

    Where exacrly is the problem? The prodcedure for eyes and lips is pretty the same - you just need a layer with the color and set the layers mode to soft light... Which step is the one that is not detailed enough?

  8. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Mon 02 Feb 2009 10:37:48 PM CET Rick, 02 Feb 2009 10:37 PM

    Nice tutorial. I've got some B/W photos that could use a little treatment like this. Thanks for posting.

  9. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Tue 31 Mar 2009 08:53:08 AM CEST Amie, 31 Mar 2009 08:53 AM

    How do you get rid of the outline around the lips? When you click on shrink, and fill it in, it leave an outline of the original lip colour

  10. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Sun 10 May 2009 02:11:47 AM CEST maureen, 10 May 2009 02:11 AM

    I'm pretty much a novice and having a hard time with the basics. I can't find any colors, let alone #c6000. Can someone tell me where to find the colors? Also, I clicked off the right screen toolbox and now I can't figure out how to reopen. Greatly appreciate any help.

  11. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Thu 21 May 2009 12:26:15 AM CEST jessica stout, 21 May 2009 12:26 AM

    how do you "Fill the selection with color #c60000."

  12. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Thu 21 May 2009 02:13:47 AM CEST devvv, 21 May 2009 02:13 AM

    mareen / jessica:

    click the FG-Color and enter c60000 in the hex-field. click OK, then go to edit / fill fg-color. thats it :)

  13. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Tue 24 Nov 2009 01:35:57 PM CET kaos mercury, 24 Nov 2009 01:35 PM

    awesome

  14. http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/spice-up-bw-images.html Fri 05 Feb 2010 03:04:04 PM CET Lina, 05 Feb 2010 03:04 PM

    TNXX <3

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