Partial Desaturation for Hand-Colored Look

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Create the illusion of a hand-colored print in Photoshop

By Jon Sienkiewicz

November 2, 2007

Black-and-white prints that have been hand-colored have an unmistakable appearance. Because there is a complete grayscale image underneath the pigment, these pictures have a sort of "image infrastructure" that exists nowhere else.



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Well, almost nowhere else. You can create the illusion of a hand-colored print very easily in Adobe Photoshop.


Full saturation


70 percent saturation


50 percent saturation
Open a colorful image and follow this sequence:

1. Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. All of the color will disappear, and you’ll be left with a dull grayscale image instead.

2. From the top Menu bar, select Edit. From the drop-down pick-list select Fade Desaturate.

3. Move the slider to the left to incrementally restore the original colors.

If you set the slider to 50 percent the result will closely resemble a black and white print that has been colored with a transparent wash. Move it to 70 percent for a more densely-pigmented image.

Experiment with different settings until you achieve the exact look you’re after. (By the way, you can use this technique to Fade the effect of any Photoshop filter!)

 

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