#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE HOW TO#
#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE SKIN#
#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE FULL#
#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE PROFESSIONAL#

NOTE: If you’d rather pay a professional to color your photos (or you’re not interested in learning GIMP) that’s OK too! Head over to to learn more.Zoomed back out to 400% and it looks ready to go You can also erase color from one layer without worrying about messing anything else up at the same time.Īnd as always, don’t forget to experiment!įor example, try coloring just one section of a black and white photo, instead of the whole thing-it’s a great way to come up with a striking image. One color may need to be more transparent than the others, or more opaque. Once you finish your first section, create a layer mask for the next layer and repeat step 3.Īs you’ll notice, by using a separate layer for each color you have the utmost control over your image. Repeat this process for each object in the photoĪt this point, you know everything you need to know to colorize an entire photo. Select the Dodge/Burn tool by pressing Shift+D. You can also fine tune the darkness or lightness of a layer by dodging the highlights and burning the shadows. If you make a mistake, you can always undo your recent actions by pressing Ctrl+Z. To change a layer’s color, make sure you have the layer itself selected (not its layer mask) and use the Paint Bucket to fill in a new color. If you find that the color you’ve chosen is too dark or light, you change the mode to “Screen” or “Overlay” (rather than multiply) or lower the opacity of that layer. (Black acts like an erasor in layer masks.) If you paint outside the lines, switch to black and paint the negative space. If your layer mask isn’t selected, you’ll actually paint the color white on your photo – and you don’t want that! Right click on the layer mask and choose “Edit layer mask” to be sure it’s selected.

#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE SKIN#

Since I’m starting off with fairly small section in my photo (the face) I filled my entire layer mask with black, then began to paint over the face with white, which slowly revealed the skin color. If a layer mask is filled with black, NONE of the layer will be visible. If you fill a layer mask with the color white, the entire layer it’s linked to will be visible. The colors white and black have special meaning to layer masks.

Instead, they appear next to an existing layer in the layers palette and tell GIMP which areas of that layer to show. To do that, go to “Layer” in your menu bar, click on “Mask,” then choose “Add Layer Mask.” Create layer masks to avoid over-coloringĪs you can see, the entire photo is colorized at this point-so you’ll need to make this layer affect only the section that you want. Once you’ve made all the new layers your image requires, change each layer mode to “Multiply.” Pick the layer you’d like to start with and make the rest invisible by clicking on the eyeball next to each layer.īecause your layer mode is set to “Multiply” the photo below should show through. I also named my layers “Hat,” “Jacket,” and “Skin” to keep things organized. I chose yellow for the cowboy hat, blue for the jacket, and tan for the skin. It’s a good idea to choose the colors you’ll be using for each section of your photo as you create your layers. I will need a separate layer for each.Ĭount up the sections of your own photo that you’d like to color, and create new layers for each one. The photo I’m using has 5 distinct areas that I’ll be coloring: the background, the face, the hair, the hat and the jacket. Create new layers of color for every section

#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE FULL#

Try to find an image with a full range of grays. If a photo has too much contrast, it may not be suitable for colorizing. This will save the original image in case you need to start over. Small sections of an image can be hand-tinted too, it just takes more time and care.Īs soon as you open your image in GIMP, save it as a new file (Shift+Ctrl+S) using the. The image I found from the Internet is not copyrighted and is perfect for colorizing since it has large, distinct areas to color. Find a black and white (or grayscale) image

#GIMP COLOR PALETTE FROM IMAGE HOW TO#

Today we’re going to do something similar-follow along to learn how to digitally color a black and white photo in GIMP. In my last GIMP tutorial I showed you how to make a sepia-tone photo from a color photo. By Margot Dinardi in Art Tutorials > GIMP Help

Gimp color palette from image