Colorizing a Black and White Photo - Homework 4


I used the black-and-white photograph supplied for this lesson in the text. My overall feeling after using the Gradient Map tool (and Hue and Saturation) to colorize a black-and-white photograph rather than the Duotone feature is that the tool I would choose would probably depend on whether I had a specific effect in mind when I started. For example, if I knew I wanted to create a sepia effect, it would probably be easier to use the Duotone feature because I already know I will want to mix yellow and black. After the research I did for this last week, I also know of some other specific color combinations that are commonly used in Duotone images (blue and black, etc.).

On the other hand, if I am simply experimenting with an image, the Gradient Map technique is nice. I think it’s interesting, though, that as enthusiastic as the author is about this approach, he still felt he needed to supply some custom gradient selections to make it more useful. I could see why when I used the default selections applied to the photo of the girl in the hood! The Reverse feature is really nice in the Gradient Map and is the reason that I like this version the best. The Reverse feature gave an illuminating glow inside her hood. As far as I know, there isn’t an easy way to do this using Duotone.