So far we have covered some useful basics and ventured a bit into more advanced concepts.  Now we’re going to look at working with the color of an image.

COLORIZING

Start with a 500 by 150 base image and THIS picture.  Copy and paste the picture of Galadriel onto the base.  Go to Layer>Scale Layer and select a width of 510.  Position it so that Galadriel is where you want her.  You can anchor the layer at this point if you wish—for this effect it doesn’t really matter.

This next step is optional—you don’t have to do if you don’t want.  I went to Filters>Artistic>Softglow and applied it using the default settings. 

Now comes the color part.  Go to Tools>Color Tools>Colorize.  Set the Hue to about 140, the Saturation to 50, and the Lightness to 14.  That’s the colorizing part but let’s look at what we can add to this graphic.

First thing is a border.  Make a new layer by going to Layer>New Layer and hitting okay.  Go to the brush tool and select Circle (19) for the brush and “dff9ca” for the color.  Now go back to your image and make a circle in the bottom left hand corner.  Holding the Shift key and the left mouse key down, move the mouse towards the bottom right hand corner.  When the thin line that appears is straight and you have reached the corner, let go of the mouse key.  Repeat so that you have a rectangle around the outside of the picture.

Now go to the eraser tool and select the Galaxy, Big brush and an opacity of about 20.  Erase as many times as you wish. 

Now we can add text.  Go to the text tool and select Edwardian Script for the font.  You may keep the same color or use another one.  Select a font size of about 45.  Then click somewhere on the picture and type whatever you wish.  I used “Lady of the Wood” since I colorized the image to green (I wanted to highlight that aspect of Galadriel’s character). 

Now go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 2.0. 

You can now erase it a bit if you wish or simply stop here.  This is my finished product:

COLOR BALANCE

Suppose that we don’t want to completely change the whole image to the same color but we do want to make it more yellow or red.  To do this we can use the Color Balance Tool.  This is located under Tools>Color Tools>Color Balance. 

Open THIS PICTURE.  Suppose we want to make it redder.  Copy and paste it onto your base image. Now scale it down so that the width is at 510 pixels.  Reposition it so that Arwen is visible.  You can anchor it now or later—for this effect it doesn’t matter.

Now go to Tools>Color Tools>Color Balance.  Move the Cyan/Red one to about 75, the Magenta/Green to about -10, and the Yellow/Blue to about -30. 

SATURATION

Changing saturation can have two effects depending on whether you add saturation or take it away.  We will look at both.

First, let’s use a 500 by 150 pixel base image and THIS PICTURE.  Copy and paste the image onto your base and scale to a width of 510.  Position it so that the figures are roughly centered and anchor it if you wish.

Now go to Tools>Color Tools>Hue-Saturation.  Set the saturation to about -60. 

This is really all you have to do for the saturation part but let’s look at what else we can do with this image.  First let’s increase the contrast.  Go to Tools>Color Tools>Brightness-Contrast and move the contrast up to about 50. 

Now we can add a border.  Add a new layer.  Go to brush and select Circle (19).  Select “050505” for the color.  Use the same technique as the Galadriel banner.  Go back to eraser and select the Big Galaxy brush. 

I erased the whole thing once and then erased all the border that’s over the couple.  Then I erased the whole thing once more.

Now let’s look at increasing saturation.  Use a 500 by 150 base image and THIS PICTURE.  Copy and paste it and then scale it.  Anchor it if you wish.

Go to Tools>Color Tools>Hue-Saturation.  Increase the saturation to about 75. 

You can continue to work with this graphic.  I used a font called Aquiline and wrote “The Darkness will not endure” in “e3c434”. 

CONTRAST

For this we’ll be stepping away from Lord of the Rings briefly and using an image from the 1995 BBC/A&E Pride and Prejudice.  The screencap is from Longbourn.

Use a 500 by 150 base image and THIS PICTURE.  Copy and paste it and position it so that Lizzy is visible.  You can anchor if you want.

Now go to Tools>Color Tools>Brightness-Contrast.  Change the contrast to about 40 and the Brightness to about -20.

As with the last few images, you can now add more effects or text.  I used a font called Blavicke Capitals and the “364421” color to add a “W.” 

I then added a new layer and, using a font called Mutulu I continued with “aiting.”