Colorizing black and white photos is oodles of fun. The technique is pretty simple but it takes some time, patience and imagination to get it right.

Here is one I just finished. Mouse over for the before:

JPEG: Before and after colorization.

If you want to learn the technique, watch this Metacafe video clip by Uber Animator.

More Bounce to the Ounce,
Buikhu

Photo credit: Crystal

“Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer? The idea behind Shutdown Day is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate.”
http://www.shutdownday.org/

Whoever wrote that must think our computers are physically becoming a part of us. That’s an interesting theory and inspired me to design a Shutdown Day poster.

This is what I started with:

I decided to replace the belly button with a belly power button, remove the tattoo and colorize the image.
Here’s the result:

I have one question, though. How would you turn yourself on?

Anyway, I’m so participating! I promise I’ll shutdown my computer on 03 May 2008. You should, too.

Adiós,
Buikhu

Photo credit: Cherie Wren

Submit something.

Do you have a picture that needs retouching or restoring but you lack the skills, time or software to do it yourself? Maybe you want to lose a few pounds, swim in turquoise water, vanquish street bums, say hi to perfect skin or say bye to bad-hair-life. Maybe you just need to repair a damaged photo or colorize a black and white picture. The bad news is that professional photo retouching can be costly. The good news is that it can also be free if you send your picture to me (rhyme not intended).

The catch

The only catch is that you will have to let me post your photo, (the before and the after), on my blog and include it in my portfolio. You get to keep the copyright.

Why it’s free

I need Photoshop skills in my job. I have seven years of digital photo enhancing experience but unfortunately, I don’t currently get to do it often enough. I don’t want to get rusty so I need to practice. This seems like a nice way to do so. Also, I just recently started this blog but after only three posts, I noticed I’m all over the place. I need something consistent. My Flickr feed is shamefully skimpy, too, because I got tired of uploading my own face.

How it works

Email me a picture using the photo submission form. I will send it back to you and post it here once it’s been retouched.

Here’s a quick example of image restoration and colorization.
Please click, don’t squint: