Photoshop question

[LewMoxinsghost]

Ok, I give up. In Photoshop, what is the fastest way to change an object that is black and white to color without using the magic wand, lasso, or other selection tools?

[escapegoat]

Is the whole image itself black and white? If so, then I can't see of any easy way other than the lasso slection tool to pick out a specific part.

I know that "Select - Color Range" is a good way of selecting a certain color portion of an image, but if the whole image is black and white, then that option is mute because you're gonna be picking up stuff all over the image.

There's also another selection method "Image - Adjustments - Replace Color", but again that doesn't work on altering a black and white image section because a black and white image isn't going to have any hue range to manipulate.

[LewMoxinsghost]

But how do you add a hue range to a black and white image? Seems like eons ago I learned about how to make a black and white image into something called a duotone, where black became a color you selected and white too. I know some work arounds, but this is driving me nuts.

[escapegoat]

Ahhhhh!
Go to "Image - Mode - Duotone". From there it should be pretty striaghtforward.

[LewMoxinsghost]

The original post came mostly out of a deadly cocktail of frustration and laziness and you helped me solve the years-old mystery. Thanks, Goat. :cool:

[LewMoxinsghost]

...

but see, doing it that way forces you to change all the layers in the document. Can't you just change one layer? Again, I know, I'm being lazy. I could always just open two documents and import the edited image in, but is there a way to do it all in the same document?

[escapegoat]

Yeah...mode switches do alter everything within the doc... no way around that. So your best bet is copying the layer over to a new doc, make the mode change in there, and bringing it back to the original doc.

[howyadoin]

Alternately, you could change the mode from grayscale to RGB (or CMYK for that matter), add a Solid Colour layer on top of the main image, and set the layer to Overlay - pure white areas will still stay white, but everything else will be tinted with the solid colour.

If you wanna fine-tune it further, use a layer mask to paint out the colour where you don't want it.

[Pro]

I usually make the black and white layer then add color in a Multiply layer above that. Usually add another layer on top of that for mists, highlights, etc.