#selective colourisation

Selective colourisation is a technique where you take a black and white image and add colour to the image or certain parts to create a photorealistic or abstract feel. It is used in the arts and photography industry as artists use their imagination using this technique.  

This picture demonstrates the technique, by making the mural stand out with very vibrant colours that draws the eye. The most compelling feature is that although the colours are very bright and vibrant it makes the image in a way subtle as the composition hasn’t been overwhelmed which makes this piece very effective.  

My main idea was to take this bar image and my major creative decision was to add vibrant colours to the signs to make it photorealistic. I decided not to do the whole picture as I wanted to focus on the signs attracting people just as it would back in the time period bringing people into the bar, which I think is the most compelling feature.The key skills I used on Photoshop was adding multiple layers, to then individually choose the colour and adjust the hue and saturation of the signs, which was a challenge I overcame to create a more realistic feel to the image and bring the bar to life. 

Pros: People liked the selective colouring of the images, and the colours that were used to make it appealing. 

                             The Image directly above it only an example.

Selective colorization does not seem to have much of a history as it is somewhat modern thanks to the improvements in modern technology. During earlier years it was not possible to add color to a black and white (B&W) image as such technology did not, you may have been able to take color out of an image, but it was not very effective.

The effect that I wanted to achieve was to add color realistically to a B&W  image, like in the example. I wanted to bring color back to the image, but at the same time, unlike the example, I did not want it to be selective as it would not have looked realistic or be very effective as it would have diverted the attention of the viewer.

I picked this particular piece as it seemed challenging, it looked like an image that had potential to stand out, the major creative decision was whether or the image was to seem realistic or abstract, the problem was fixed by finishing the product in both styles and chose the most appealing one.

The main techniques used to do this project were very simple as only the paintbrush, eraser and blur tool in Photoshop along with a simple blending technique which was all I needed to make the image come to life.

There weren’t many challenges during production as I have a solid understanding of what the tools did and of Photoshop.