Help with colorizing B/W Photos

[MikeBrungs]

So.. had great success colorizing a B/W photo of a soldier from WW2. In the photo, his jacket was dark and the colorization was great.
However, in my next attempt, the soldier is wearing a light color and when I try to make it dark green.. i get instead.. a real light-ish yellow.

What am I doing wrong with this light/white shirt ?
Help would GREATLY be appreciated.

[migf1]

Hello MIke,

it would help if you could tell us how you are trying to colorize that light color. Maybe you could also share a screenshot so we can have a much better idea of what we are dealing with.

[Jean-Luc]

See here :
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=66523

[MikeBrungs]

First photo shows me adding a new raster layer with blend mode of Color (Legacy).. notice the dark green color I have selected.
The second photo shows the disappointing result. Bottom line.. I want that shirt to be olive drab military green.

[migf1]

UPDATE: I made a mistake, the pic below is from the other topic, referred to by JeanLuc. Well, it is still relevant I think so I am leaving it here too.

Hello Mike,

you are not doing anything wrong. It is simply how Color & Color Legacy blending work. They both replace the Hue & Saturation of the selected color, without affecting the lightness. I do not know what is the difference between Color and Color (L), I just see they give different results, but none of them touches the lightness.

Colors are actually defined by their Hue (the shade) and their Saturation (the vividness), hence the name of the Color blending mode (it only replaces the Hue and the Saturation). But there is also Lightness.

So what happens is that the lightness of the white area you are painting on is way brighter that the lightness of the Olive color, so you end up with the hue and saturation of the Olive color, but with the Lightness of the white area you are painting on. That's why Olive ends up being that yellow-ish tone.

There are ways to improve it a lot, by manipulating the lightness of the end result individually. However the ways I am aware of require knowledge of using Curves (or Levels) adjustments, and more often than not, masks for the specific areas you need to paint.

I gave it a quick go with your original image with the browns, and this is what I came up with:

I am not sure about your experience level with these things, I hope it is not too overwhelming. Here is a video tutorial especially for PSP using the exact same "technique", though in a slightly different context: https://youtu.be/fP1KUi8PIL0 (a very recent one too).

Let us know how it went.

[migf1]

Mike,

here is the same principle applied on your photo.

Notice that Curves is set to Luminance (L) blend mode, so it only affects the lightness nothing else. The color layer above it, is set to Color (L) blend mode (not shown in the screenshot), so it only affects the hue and the saturation.

[MikeBrungs]

It's my no means perfect but.. overall, I am pleased with the result. Thanks for all the help !

[FlutteringBy]

Very impressive....great job!!... ....

[Jean-Luc]

It's my no means perfect but.. overall, I am pleased with the result. Thanks for all the help !

Well done!
And I love the flag in the background.

[migf1]

Great job Mike, kudos!

[MikeBrungs]

Thanks everyone.. bringing some of these heroes back to life in this way is SO rewarding.