How to Colorize Black and White Photos with GIMP

In this GIMP tutorial I show you how to colorize black and white photos with realistic results! Add color to your desaturated photos or make your old photos look modern with this extremely effective technique. There are no plugins used or required for this tutorial - everything to achieve the result is included in GIMP by default!
This is a great photo restoration or photo manipulation tutorial for beginners. I use a combination of layer modes, layer masks, paint tools, and palettes to achieve the result.
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#ColorizeBlackandWhite #PhotoManipulation #GIMP

Пікірлер: 100

  • @mrbcstewart
    @mrbcstewart3 ай бұрын

    I just went from knowing almost nothing in Gimp to knowing enough to be dangerous after watching your video. Wow. And thanks for helping to bring a picture back to life of my Grandmother that I've had for over 30 years. She used to describe the colors, and now I can actually see them!

  • @TH-tl1mk
    @TH-tl1mk2 жыл бұрын

    If you right-click on one of the palettes in the list, there's a submenu that says "Sort Palette..." which would help sort your palette from dark to light (or some other criteria you prefer). Surely this is fast and quick way to re-arrange without you having to manually rearrange them, especially if you have lots of colours in a palette for doing B&W conversions.

  • @ytucharliesierra
    @ytucharliesierra3 жыл бұрын

    Bravo Michael! The topic of colourisation of old photos is currently in my center of interest because I have a few family photos that I want to process. Yours is the second technique under Gimp that I have just learned and that is very satisfying. The first technique comes from a yter who normally does everything with PS and did only one Gimp tutorial (colourisation) as a proof of concept. He wanted to show that it can be done both in PS and Gimp. It is fascinating and exciting how both workflows differ but both hold top position in quality of learning. If interested and not already known search with this spelling "colourisation". Thank You Michael for this great tuto and best greetings from Germany!

  • @angelluismillan
    @angelluismillan3 жыл бұрын

    Very interesting and high level tutorial, especially the use of palettes.

  • @einnerlink
    @einnerlink3 жыл бұрын

    Wow! This channel is becoming more interesting every time! Thanks dude!!!

  • @JulesIvanCGaray
    @JulesIvanCGaray3 жыл бұрын

    I'm starting to fall in love with GIMP..

  • @johannesvandemerwe
    @johannesvandemerwe3 жыл бұрын

    That was great to watch. I really like how you explain and not rush like crazy. Now I am inspired to colorize some of my family photos from the first half of the last century. Thank you.

  • @kensrobertson
    @kensrobertson3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much for verbalizing everything so clearly. It make the process very followable!

  • @Steve040163
    @Steve0401633 жыл бұрын

    Best of the best GIMP tutorials.

  • @TheDavidfallon
    @TheDavidfallon3 ай бұрын

    Excellent tutorial. So many helpful processes explained. The repetition really helps train the muscle memory.

  • @geordiemik72
    @geordiemik723 жыл бұрын

    Now I know why I have never been able to manage this! There is no way I could have worked that out for myself.

  • @amartyab4u21
    @amartyab4u212 жыл бұрын

    So complicated yet you made it so simple! Thankyou so much!

  • @mickwilson99
    @mickwilson993 жыл бұрын

    Please don't apologize for "sounding like a broken record": repetition is key to yransferring skills. Thanks for an excellent walk-through.

  • @yolamontalvan9502
    @yolamontalvan95022 жыл бұрын

    Man, you are a Guru. I thought GIMP was poor software but I see it is so powerful. I'm sold.

  • @cskippy2000
    @cskippy2000 Жыл бұрын

    watched it. Tried it. KILLED IT. Thank you!!

  • @nbakerify
    @nbakerify2 жыл бұрын

    Mike... you're the man! Thanks for so many great tutorials.

  • @jacktruelove5378
    @jacktruelove53783 жыл бұрын

    Simply amazing! This tutorial was great!

  • @flourfree2K
    @flourfree2K Жыл бұрын

    I like the second technique for colorizing WAY BETTER than the "palette way": it's faster and easier. I successfully used it in the past and was looking for something similar. Luckily enough, you covered both ways.

  • @RiXFortuna
    @RiXFortuna3 жыл бұрын

    Now THAT is the way to do it. Thanks a million!!

  • @newtalentnyc
    @newtalentnyc3 жыл бұрын

    Awesome tutorial as always! Thank you!

  • @vis4479
    @vis44793 жыл бұрын

    This blows my mind but yet you make it look relatively simple

  • @lfcamar
    @lfcamar3 жыл бұрын

    Simply amazing, Davies, wish I knew Gimp as well as you do.

  • @cedricsahaghian1605
    @cedricsahaghian160510 ай бұрын

    Thanks for an amazing tutorial!

  • @bluize56
    @bluize563 жыл бұрын

    Was the 'Map to Pallette" option added for 2.10.20? I hadn't noticed it before, but have seen similar tutorials for PSP using this method. Glad to see this added to GIMP, and thanks to Michael for showing us how. Best to you Michael - keep up the great work!

  • @johnhay8710
    @johnhay87103 жыл бұрын

    Excellent tutorial - very detailed - learned a lot today... thank you so much (everyday is a school day) especially during COVID 19 !!!!

  • @farhatulfahim3152
    @farhatulfahim31523 жыл бұрын

    This was a really interesting tutorial..thank you

  • @edgarfranco9902
    @edgarfranco99022 жыл бұрын

    Desde venezuela, gracias por este video. lo mejor de lo mejor

  • @skomek22
    @skomek222 жыл бұрын

    Thank you, thats really helps. You are great teacher

  • @donjames5761
    @donjames57612 жыл бұрын

    i never knew gimp could be this powerful. back when i last used gimp, it barely had any features

  • @maciejgrzyb4514
    @maciejgrzyb45143 жыл бұрын

    Jean Simmons :) Looks great in color :)

  • @sleepyhead7694
    @sleepyhead76943 жыл бұрын

    very nice and easy ! thank you !

  • @AGUNGKAYA
    @AGUNGKAYA2 жыл бұрын

    Wow. Very great Sir. Thank you!

  • @jonathancardozo
    @jonathancardozo9 ай бұрын

    Incredible, thanks a lot.

  • @ajaypbh
    @ajaypbh3 жыл бұрын

    Really great video. Thanks a lot.

  • @marysmith4811
    @marysmith48113 жыл бұрын

    Thank you! Amazing!

  • @drakem002
    @drakem0023 жыл бұрын

    great tutorial, thank you very much!

  • @Jorl
    @Jorl3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks a lot for this tutorial

  • @andrs_a
    @andrs_a3 жыл бұрын

    awesome tutorial, thanks

  • @kerminator7549
    @kerminator75493 жыл бұрын

    not what i was looking for but still got the answer to my question and only a minute in thanks m8! greyscale to rbg noted have a good one.

  • @angshumangupta9523
    @angshumangupta95239 ай бұрын

    Thanks!! very nice

  • @mikewellwood1412
    @mikewellwood14123 жыл бұрын

    Great stuff Michael, thank you. (Thought for a minute you had gone a little mad with the rouge at the end there, but of course that was before doing more of your Gimp magic to make it look realistic. :-))) ).

  • @jimmihenry
    @jimmihenry2 жыл бұрын

    I am impressed :).

  • @billamos5125
    @billamos51253 жыл бұрын

    Jean Simmons -- excellent choice!

  • @robertf3735
    @robertf37352 жыл бұрын

    Great video, how does this method pass Shutterstock approval or Getty images regarding halos or imperfections?

  • @christopherbentley7289
    @christopherbentley72894 ай бұрын

    Thanks a whole load, Michael. The results of my latest colourisation can be found as the Site Logo photo at the new Fan Blog for Valérie Čižmárová, 'Hotlips On The Horse Tram'.

  • @sivadmg
    @sivadmg3 жыл бұрын

    On the face of it this seems like a more "mature" approach to coloring but after having tried it I find using colored filters on a grayscale medium (original pic) works just as well if not more efficiently.

  • @ghostghost6840
    @ghostghost68403 жыл бұрын

    Thank you

  • @ArturJBCosta
    @ArturJBCosta3 жыл бұрын

    Awesome, like and Fav.

  • @seanr2157
    @seanr21573 жыл бұрын

    Very interesting!

  • @marcelouenaka
    @marcelouenaka Жыл бұрын

    Great job

  • @ashutoshtripathi9839
    @ashutoshtripathi98393 жыл бұрын

    nice tutorial video.

  • @Leo-wk8eu
    @Leo-wk8eu3 жыл бұрын

    Excelente. Gracias.

  • @kab9791
    @kab97913 жыл бұрын

    Ths is really cool ...

  • @thomast8284
    @thomast8284 Жыл бұрын

    I have a technique to isolate the skin tones. It goes as follows: - duplicate the image where you fetch the skin tones. - select a region that contains all possible skin tones from dark to light without anything else. - crop the image to this area so you only have skin tones in your image. - change color to indexed and select the number of palette entries you want. - create a new palette and select all skin tones in ascending order. - use that palette for mapping of the b/w image as shown in your tutorial. - final step: use Gaussian blur on the color overlay layer to remove aliasing. This method has the advantage that you don't have to search all skin tones, and that you easily get them in ascending order. No need to search and sort colors!

  • @lalkrishnaps476
    @lalkrishnaps4762 жыл бұрын

    Thanks a lot

  • @indikakumarasinghe4792
    @indikakumarasinghe47922 жыл бұрын

    Systematic Teacher great

  • @doobresick
    @doobresick3 жыл бұрын

    thank you so much..

  • @dongiovanni1993
    @dongiovanni19933 жыл бұрын

    Note that the technique shown here is completely wrong! The main mistake is author’s misunderstanding how Gimp does color mapping (both palette map, and gradient map). At 15:30 author said that Gimp considers luminosity of the source pixels to match it with the luminosity of the palette’s color. It’s not the case. Actually Gimp takes the source pixel luminosity, and converts it to the palette color _index_, not the color. So if you mess color order, it puts them in that exact messed order. Another issue is using palette instead of gradient. It gives harsh color paths instead of their smooth transitions. Btw, you can create a gradient from a palette with single command in palette context menu. In addition, when you map your colors to the skin, it does it wrong because the skin doesn’t fit 0 .. 1,0 range. And color mapping takes absolute values of source pixels, This way you get cut colors in the result. So, you miss the darkest and the lightest colors at all, and the rest are in wrong places. To avoid this you have to normalize source grays of isolated skin to fit in 0 .. 1.0 brightness. So, first isolate just the skin, then normalize it (e.g. Colors / Auto / Equalize). After that you do the gradient mapping and it puts your colors in the correct order with nice transitions. Happy Gimping.

  • @sherifwahba4653

    @sherifwahba4653

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this great advice, Don! but can you tell how to do skin isolation?

  • @dongiovanni1993

    @dongiovanni1993

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@sherifwahba4653 I mean your image (layer) must contain nothing, but the skin. So, you can use any masking tools to isolate just the skin, and paint the rest with pitch black. It gives you after the normalization just non-black pixels affected, and black untouched. Say, if the skin is in range 0.2 - 0.6, after normalization it will be in 0.0 - 1.0 range. Black mask remains black (0.0). it seems that you loose the darkest tone, but it's easy to avoid with the map itself. Or even simpler. Just select the skin, and apply the normalization to this selection only. Gimp uses current selection for its filters. =)

  • @sherifwahba4653

    @sherifwahba4653

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@dongiovanni1993 Thank you very much!

  • @RiXFortuna

    @RiXFortuna

    3 жыл бұрын

    It is NOT. Unless you create a multi color gradient, the gradient way sucks. It is better to use a pallete with several colors and/or blur it.

  • @dongiovanni1993

    @dongiovanni1993

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@RiXFortuna of course the gradient is multi-color, and created from a palette. taken from some reference image. Using gradient just fills the gaps between palette colors, avoiding visible 'threshold' lines in color transition areas.

  • @naveenkumarv4252
    @naveenkumarv42523 жыл бұрын

    This is the Gift :-)

  • @m_r_studio2266
    @m_r_studio22663 жыл бұрын

    Michael please !!! Make a video on how to make DeHaze - like in Photoshop camera raw filter in GIMP. I use haze removal to enhance faded old photos.

  • @Auriflamme
    @Auriflamme2 жыл бұрын

    Who'd have guessed that Patrick Bateman would be so good at GIMP? Bravo!

  • @Reinavera73
    @Reinavera733 жыл бұрын

    Gracias!!!!

  • @alinexus692
    @alinexus6923 жыл бұрын

    Thank you

  • @hyeokkim9332
    @hyeokkim93322 жыл бұрын

    I love it video.

  • @Chris_FMS_Redfield
    @Chris_FMS_Redfield3 жыл бұрын

    How do you deal with smoke and how it diffuses light? This process is making the smokescreen abruptly change the color of the object rather than making it look like smoke is in front of something colored.

  • @abhiramanne9649
    @abhiramanne96493 жыл бұрын

    Thanks

  • @nondefan1232
    @nondefan12323 жыл бұрын

    Followed all your instructions to the letter except for adding rouge because my model didn't need any, but when I got to the "Color to Alpha" step, that option in the Colors menu wasn't available (grayed out). Any suggestions as to what I might do to change this? Using 2.10.14 with Windows 10. Do I need to upgrade my version of GIMP? How do I get notifications of new versions? Thanks for any and all help because, like others who commented before me, this is something I'd really like to master. It would mean a lot for old family photos.

  • @RiXFortuna

    @RiXFortuna

    3 жыл бұрын

    Just a guess here. Before, make sure u clicked on the layer to select it instead of its layer mask in the layers tab. U can see a rectangle around what is selected (layer or layer mask). Alternatively go to Layer-Mask- uncheck “edit layer mask” or so.

  • @Haziesmom2023
    @Haziesmom2023 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks!

  • @DaviesMediaDesign

    @DaviesMediaDesign

    3 ай бұрын

    Thanks for supporting the channel!

  • @rangerhawk
    @rangerhawk7 ай бұрын

    Excuse the noob question, but is there a reason you don't just checkmark add to palette (in the color picker) when you are creating the different palettes? ***edit*** not sure if you still monitor this older video or not.

  • @Pocket-Calculator
    @Pocket-Calculator3 жыл бұрын

    I need some help. Whenever I'm colorizing images, the brightest spots always remain gray. When the image is completely done, it always has these gray spots on the photo. Any help? :(

  • @iitianankit8932
    @iitianankit89322 жыл бұрын

    Yesterday, I gimped my photo in photoshop but now I think, I should photoshop in gimp.

  • @jacksepticraftgaming
    @jacksepticraftgaming Жыл бұрын

    i need some help for some reason my paintbrush doeant work and i have to use the eraser to get the color to show on the picture does anyone know a fix

  • @mapuiasailo8246
    @mapuiasailo82462 жыл бұрын

    will it works on old restored photo, that black and white photo was really a good quality already...hmm

  • @CesareVesdani
    @CesareVesdani3 жыл бұрын

    Is it possible to make the face green?

  • @ENG-CT4982

    @ENG-CT4982

    2 жыл бұрын

    i think yeah

  • @riscc3411
    @riscc34113 жыл бұрын

    Muito bom.

  • @TheErrolJayEntertainmentInc02
    @TheErrolJayEntertainmentInc023 жыл бұрын

    Davies, what was the actress named?

  • @650thunderbird5
    @650thunderbird52 жыл бұрын

    👍🏻👍🏻

  • @johnh52
    @johnh522 жыл бұрын

    OK - the unmask painting at 10:43 is not working for me.. skin tone not being unmasked. All the steps were followed to to that point. What could be wrong?

  • @orestesdd
    @orestesdd Жыл бұрын

    In 2023, I cannot get to the link where you have the pictures of the actresses used in this tutorial as all I get is "Oops, we couldn't find this page.". Is there a way to get such pictures? Thanks. 🤔

  • @wolfsangeleyes

    @wolfsangeleyes

    Жыл бұрын

    @orestesdd You could perhaps try googling the actress and find the same picture that way, her name is Jean Simmons.

  • @swapnilsharma6515
    @swapnilsharma65153 жыл бұрын

    Please make a light saber effect in gimp.

  • @llama859
    @llama8593 жыл бұрын

    My gimp is broken lol its pissing me off i cant use it

  • @episcospanky
    @episcospanky3 жыл бұрын

    Jean Simmons would be amused.

  • @gmoritz71last52
    @gmoritz71last522 жыл бұрын

    Can you do another tutorial on this subject, but use an Asian or African or ( dark ) Hispanic for your black & white subject. I'm confident that the process is are mostly the same steps, but there might be some key differences.

  • @CatsCantSwim
    @CatsCantSwim2 жыл бұрын

    I just started to use gimp a week ago and I'm already finding new tools to use. After watching a couple dozen DMD vid's, I'm convinced he's not really an expert. After trial and error, you can sort the palette colors by right clicking the palette name under the 'Palette' tab, and selecting 'Sort Palette" at the bottom. It didn't make any sense to me that manually sorting created a duplicate, not to mention all the tools available to do this sort of thing. Anyways, I'm catching a bunch of tools available that he is doing manually. Also, his demo's are never as good as the thumbnail example. Careful who you give money to. They might be what you think.

  • @mdzakirraja5241
    @mdzakirraja52412 жыл бұрын

    He's thinking and Bari jam rage the barisal cites Age Kabi Sufia presents creation name gains original image Kogan order good for bolk regebol

  • @go2au
    @go2au2 жыл бұрын

    wow...not very long ago you'd be burnt at the stake. It's truly black magic that we just witnessed!

  • @johnpatrickmatthewsmusic
    @johnpatrickmatthewsmusic2 жыл бұрын

    Dude you go way too fast for us semi noobs. I've had to pause so many times to find what you were talking about, not all of us know all the tools and tricks. But good video so far.

  • @jayjoseph2890
    @jayjoseph28902 жыл бұрын

    I think you should stop saying ‘another’ tutorial’. This means your presentation is incomplete. It is a distraction.

  • @DrunkenUFOPilot
    @DrunkenUFOPilot2 жыл бұрын

    Ah, so there's a use for some of those odd features I've never used thus far and had no idea what they were for!