"Ink Outlines"

How It Works
STEP 1
Set to Stroke Length 7, Dark Intensity 5, Light Intensity 5, a fine line (always black, irrespective of palette settings) traces color and tone edges. Mottled patterns can be seen in the balance of the image and, in close-up, some vestigial cross-hatching can be seen in the highlight areas.

STEP 2
The Stroke Length control is curiously named. Setting it to maximum (50) has the effect of spreading highlights and displacing the traced line — compare this close-up with the previous example.

STEP 3
A useful compromise setting (15, 5, and 50) gives a more effective result that's lighter and not so emphatically mottled.

STEP 4
The same settings applied to the target image show the line displacement. Note the metallic effect that has appeared over the area of gray gradation.

Using The Ink Outlines Filter
You can use Ink Outlines as a remedy to breathe some life into otherwise flat subjects.

STEPS 1 & 2
Duplicate the original image in the Layers palette and apply the Ink Outlines filter. Keep the Stroke Length low to avoid overpowering the original image. Here, the values that we have used are Stroke Length 2, Dark Intensity 11, and Light Intensity 30.

STEPS 3, 4 & 5
Even at a low setting such as this, the effect is too strong. Use Edit > Fade > Ink Outlines to restrain it.

STEP 6
In close-up, it's easy to see the reviving effect of the filter.

Fixing Color Cast With Ink Outlines
Another rescue mission involves mitigating irreversible color casts.

STEP 1
A heavy cast due to fluorescent lighting, with no corrective filtration at the moment of shooting, can still be sidestepped.

STEP 2
Select the whole of the image (Ctrl/Cmd+A) and copy it (Ctrl/Cmd+C). Open the Channels palette, make a new channel, and paste (Ctrl/Cmd+V) the image into it. The channel window will now show the pasted image in monochrome.

STEP 3
Use the Ink Outlines filter at low values: Stroke Length 2, Dark Intensity 14, and Light Intensity 26.

STEP 4
Hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key and click in the alpha channel thumbnail. Return to the Layers palette where the original image will show the alpha channel selection. Hide the selection (Ctrl/Cmd+H) so that the work area is easier to see.

STEPS 5a & 5b
Use Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast to lighten, and reduce the color strength of, the selected areas.

STEPS 6a & 6b
Though the correction is acceptable, more detailed work can pay dividends. The originally bright yellow warning panels and handrails are now pink. Click the Eyedropper tool in a typical pink area and go to Select > Color Range. Select the central eyedropper icon to add more related colors to the selection by clicking in the main image window. Choose White Matte as the Selection Preview from time to time to check progress. When satisfied, click OK.

STEPS 7a & 7b
Use Image Adjustments > Color Balance (Ctrl/Cmd+B), uncheck Preserve Luminosity and increase the yellow component in Highlight, Midtone and Shadow areas. When you're done, click OK and then Ctrl/Cmd+D to deselect. The handrails and warning panels are now much closer in color to the original.

"Watercolor"

Watercolor has long been a defining Photoshop filter, though the crucial illusion of one color running into its neighbor is only partly achieved. Use the Smudge or Healing Brush tool to help the illusion. If you're looking to imitate gouache painting, however, search no further — the slight darkening around the edge of each patch of color perfectly reproduces the effect of this more opaque pigment.

How It Works
STEP 1
The dialog box offers three sliders. Though Brush Detail can be invoked across the whole scale, the remaining controls usually make a color image impossibly dark once pushed past the halfway mark.

STEP 2
Settings of 14, 14, and 1 will produce a reasonably painterly result.

STEP 3
On a monochrome image a "stippled" appearance results from setting Brush Detail at 14, and both Shadow Intensity and Texture at 3.

Using The Watercolor Filter
Although it's tempting to be gentle with this filter, often what's required is bravura painting.

STEP 1
The ocean scene and distant prospects provide scope for brushwork.

STEP 2
Apply the filter to test the waters. Here, we've used Brush Detail 14, Shadow Intensity 1, Texture 1. As you can see, the initial application is excessively dark.

STEP 3
It's a good moment to retreat and try another approach. Go back to the original, and this time use Blur > Motion Blur with a Distance of 6 pixels to break up the image details.

STEP 4
Continue with the Diffuse filter from the Stylize menu. Choose Lighten Only and apply the filter several times in succession by selecting Filter > Diffuse (or Ctrl/Cmd+F).

STEP 5
Finally, apply the Watercolor filter again but with Brush Detail 14, Shadow Intensity 0, and Texture 3. The result is not a bad approximation of a watercolor painting.

"Hand Tinting"

Before the age of color film, when black-and-white photography was the only option, it was common practice for photographers to tint a black-and-white image with colored dyes to mimic real-life colors. Although we now have all the advantages of stunning color photography, we can still use Photoshop to replicate this technique, and add great charm to black-and-white images.

What we're looking for here is not truly lifelike color, but a decorative and subtle effect. Essentially, we can tint as little or as much of the image as we like, but the effect works best where areas of color are contrasted with the uncolored grayscale image.

STEP 1
Open a suitable image. Go to Image > Mode. If the original image is in color, first convert it to grayscale. Then convert it back to RGB so we can add color back into it. If the original is grayscale, it'll need to be converted to RGB mode.

STEP 2
The color needs to be painted onto a separate layer, so create a new layer (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+N). Set the blending mode for this layer to Color in the Layers palette. This mode will allow any added color to overlay the image. Now choose the Brush tool and select a soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker. In the Options bar, set the brush opacity to 50% and activate the Airbrush icon.

STEP 3
Hit F6 on the keyboard to display the Colors palette. This is where we'll choose all of the painting colors. To choose a color, pass the mouse pointer over the spectrum bar and click to choose the approximate color. The colors can be fine-tuned with the RGB sliders above the bar, and the chosen color can be seen in the foreground swatch.

STEP 4
Begin by choosing a warm yellow/orange. Paint over all of the areas of flesh with this color. Remember, because the brush is in Airbrush mode, if we leave the brush in one position for too long the color will build up on the image, so we need to keep it moving at all times. Vary the skin color slightly by occasionally dragging the RGB sliders. Remember, we only want to tint the image with color.

STEP 5
Now choose a deep brown and paint over the hair of both dancers. Again, modify the color and tone using the sliders to introduce a little variety.

STEP 6
I've chosen a light blue to paint over the male dancer's costume. Essentially, we want less color over the lighter parts of the costume and heavier pigment over the darker parts. To make accurate application of color easier, zoom into the image and adjust the size of the brush with the square bracket keys on the keyboard. Again, modify the color after applying the initial covering of blue and add a few touches of a darker purple shade.

STEP 7
To help keep the colors separate in complicated areas, try selecting a particular area first and then painting within the active selection. Here I've isolated the dancer's bodice by painting a Quick Mask onto the area first. (See the Tip Box for more on using Quick Mask mode.) Exit Quick Mask mode (hit Q) to activate the selection, and paint the color into the selection.

STEP 8
Here I've continued to paint yellows and oranges into the dancer's tutu using the Brush tool on the tinting layer.

STEP 9
To complete the image, I've zoomed into the ballerina's feet and applied a little color to her shoes.

TIP: Making A Selection With Quick Mask
Quick Mask mode is a great way to make accurate selections. Enter Quick Mask by hitting Q on the keyboard. With black as the foreground color, paint an overlay onto the image over any areas of the image you wish to select. The masked areas will appear to be red, even though you are painting with black as the foreground color. When you have painted all of the areas you want to select, hit Q again to quit Quick Mask mode. You will now have an active selection in the shape of the mask you just painted.

FINAL IMAGE

"Powder Pastels"

This recipe replaces the colors of the original image with powdery pastels. Apart from being great on its own, this recipe can be a great shortcut for hand-coloring an image.

STEP 1
In the Layers palette, duplicate the original image layer by dragging the background layer onto the "Create a new" layer icon, or use Ctrl/Cmd-J.

STEP 2
Using the pull-down blending mode menu in the Layers palette or the shortcut Alt/Opt-Shift-U, change the new layer's blending mode to Hue, and rename it "Hue."

STEP 3
Invert the Hue layer using Ctrl/Cmd-I.

STEP 4
Change the Hue layer's opacity to 50%. At this stage the image is almost grayscale.

STEP 5
Duplicate the Hue layer and change the new layer's blending mode to Color Dodge using the shortcut Alt/Opt-Shift-D. Name the new layer "Color Dodge."

STEP 6
Increase the Color Dodge layer's opacity to 100%.

STEP 7
Apply a small amount of blur to the Color Dodge layer with Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Use a small radius – 5 should be enough to emphasize edges within the picture.

STEP 8
Use Ctrl/Cmd-J to duplicate the Color Dodge layer and set the new layer's blending mode to Pin Light using the shortcut Alt/Opt-Shift-Z; name it "Pin Light."

STEP 9
Invert the new Pin Light layer using Ctrl/Cmd-I.

STEP 10
Go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or use Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-U to desaturate the Pin Light layer.

Reversed Color
Where colored areas are very dark, they will become grayscale. A polarizing filter was used for this photo, and the dark sky has separated into pastel and grayscale areas.

Pin Light — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Color Dodge — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Hue — Opacity: 50, Fill: 100

Subtle Color
Shadows and midtones turn grayscale, pure blues become yellows, reds come out cyan, and greens go lilac.

Pin Light — Opacity: 100, Fill: 80 Color Dodge — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Hue — Opacity: 50, Fill: 100

Soft Color
As expected with this recipe, the dark wood behind these ceramics has become grayscale.

Pin Light — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Color Dodge — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Hue — Opacity: 50, Fill: 100

It took a matter of minutes to create this hand-colored effect. One Hue/Saturation layer saturated the colors, and another used the Color Range selection to create a mask, over which I added the sepia tone.

Using the recipe as a starting point, I used Select > Color Range to select the grayscale parts of this image.

Color Midtones
Reduce the Pin Light layer's fill opacity to restore some pastel colors in the midtones.

Pin Light — Opacity: 100, Fill: 70 Color Dodge — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Hue — Opacity: 50, Fill: 100

Modulating The Effect
Again, it was helpful to reduce the Pin Light layer's opacity — until this was done, the only colors were a yellow in the blue sky and some dashes of pale blue in the foreground.

Pin Light — Opacity: 50, Fill: 100 Color Dodge — Opacity: 100, Fill: 100 Hue — Opacity: 50, Fill: 100