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Angie Felix ByLine

Color Tinting Photos

Years ago, photographers hand-tinted black and white photos with dye to replicate the colors of real life. Today, scrapbookers and photographers mimic the past, turning their color images to black and white tones and using computer technology to tint key portions of a photo. It’s a simple way to get a big impact. Coloring in a flower, a piece of clothing, or the eyes of your child is a huge way to draw attention to a key aspect of an image.

While this technique may look like something only a graphic designer or a professional photographer can do, it’s really something any computer-savvy scrapper can master. Here’s how I hand-tinted this rose image in Photoshop and how I created an image that restored the original color of the rose only.

Color Tinting a Photo



  1. Click here     for larger image.


    Click here     for larger image.
    Open your photo and select “Save As” from the “File” menu. Save you file as a .psd document, creating a working file.
  2. Convert your color image to black and white by selecting “New Adjustment Layer” from the “Layers” menu. Select “Gradient Map” as the adjustment. In the Gradient Map dialog box, choose “none” as the color, then click “OK”. Click “OK” again to apply the gradient map.
  3. Create a layer for tinting: Under the “Layers” menu, select “New”, then “Layer”. Name the layer “Hand Tint” and select 30% as the opacity.
  4. Zoom in on the portion of the photo you wish to tint, filling the workspace with this part of the image. In the toolbar, click on the paintbrush tool. Under the “Window” menu, select “Brushes” to see the brushes menu. Select a brush size. Select “Swatches” from the “Window” menu. Click on a square of color to choose the shade you wish to tint with.

    If you don’t see a color you want to use, double-click on one of the two color boxes in the bottom of the toolbar. The color picker window will appear. Click on the rainbow until you have selected the color you want. Now use the paintbrush to paint on the image on the “Hand Tint” layer.
  5. Use the Zoom Tool to zoom out and see the results. If you’ve gone outside the lines at all, press “x” to switch the foreground color to white and zoom in and erase the color back to gray with a small brush.
  6. Add new layers and additional colors as needed.
  7. Save your photo and print as desired.

Restoring a portion of color in an image



  1. Click here     for larger image.
    Follow steps 1 and 2 from above.
  2. Zoom in on the portion of the photo you wish to restore to it’s original color. In the toolbar, click on the paintbrush tool. Under the “Window” menu, select “Brushes” to see the brushes menu. Select a brush size and set the brush opacity to 100%. Set the foreground color to black by pressing the “d” key, then the “x” key. Now begin painting over the desired portion of the photo—the original color reappears!
  3. Press “control” and “0” to zoom out and see the results. If you’ve gone outside the lines at all, press “x” to switch the foreground color to white and zoom in to erase the color back to gray with a small brush.
  4. Save your photo and print as desired.