Bungalow 104

Hand Coloring
Still Life

original image

Composited Scans

modified image

Modified Image

 

Individual scans of the tomato and mandarin orange on a dark background were composited.

The composite image was sepia toned, using the Lab Mode Lightness Channel:

  1. Image > Duplicate
  2. Image > Mode > Lab Color
  3. Copy the Lightness Channel into the Layers palette.
  4. Image > Mode > Grayscale
  5. Image > Mode > Duotone: Color 1 = black; Color 2 = TOYO 0544pc (Click on the color swatch to open Custom Colors or the Color Picker.)

The result was copied as a new layer into the RGB image.

duotoned image

With the fruit isolated from the background, the image was then “hand-colored” as follows:

  1. Take a snapshot of the color composite:
    • click on the right arrow in the History Palette
    • select New Snapshot
    • select From Merged Layers in the dropdown box
  2. Create another snapshot, this time of the duotoned state. (With the duotoned layer active, click on the page icon at the bottom of the History palette.)
  3. Set the source state for the History Brush to the full-color snapshot by clicking in the column to the left of that state.
  4. Use the history brush to paint from the source state into the duotoned layer. I used Blending Mode Color, but experiment with different modes and Opacity settings.
  5. To retouch mistakes, set the source state to the duotone snapshot and use a fine (History) brush to paint.
History palette hand-colored image

The resulting image looked rather gray and not very enticing, so I began to experiment with blended exposures (demonstrated in a previous entry). That, combined with a touch-up to the tomato highlight and Film Grain applied to the background gave the luscious result I was looking for. View a larger version.

resulting image and Layers palette

When experimenting this way, I'll merge and copy layers every so often before heading off in a new direction:

  1. CTRL-A to select the entire canvas
  2. Edit > Copy Merged
  3. Edit > Paste (creating a new layer)