Add Colour to Smoke Photos
Here is a very simple tutorial for adding colour to smoke photos. This was done in Photoshop but any editor that uses layers will work.
Stage One
Load your Smoke Photo and crop it if needed.
The Cropped Photo
Clean up using LEVELS
This is just to make the black blacker and the white whiter. If your editor doesn't have levels then don't worry.
Just play with the levels a little to get nice black black and white white.
NEW LAYER
Click the button o create a new layer above the one you have been working on.
We now have a blank transparent layer on top of the smoke photo. Now the fun starts. Using the brush tool just choose a colour and paint over a part of the smoke. Don't be fussy. Choose another colour and paint a different part. REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT PAINTING ON THE ORIGINAL PHOTO SO DON'T WORRY.
There you go all painted. What do you mean you cant see the smoke? OK, one more bit.
Make sure you have the painted layer selected and change the layer from 'Normal' to 'COLOR' like in this photo below.
Then Voilà you have your finished photo.
Told you it was easy. If you don't like the end product then just paint over what you did before.
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Thanks Ray, Once I master PSElements I will have a go, I've still not mastered how to use the layers yet!!! I cheat and use picmonkey which is so easy
gallery http://www.myfinepix.com/gallery/62093 ;
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitedove7/
lakes blog: http://www.myfinepix.com/blog/62093/542308
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Good tutorial. I used a different method that I found online using hue and saturation layers and then masks. which I inverted and then brushed the colours back into the smoke. While that method may be a little more precise...this may be easier.
Laurie
http://www.capturethisphotography.com/
http://www.myfinepix.com/user/capture-photography
http://adventureswitharty.blogspot.com/
"Holding a grudge is like drinking poison hoping the other person will die." Unknown
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As you say Laurie there are better ways to do it but I aimed this squarely at the beginner.
As Angie pointed out in the forum you can also use a Gradient Fill or even a colourful photo taken from the 'net. No need to worry about any copyright as all you see are colours not the picture itself.
Flickr - 52 with a 50 Blog
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Hi Ray. I'm a Beginner so I will Favourite your lovely tutorial thanks. Thanks for your message on my 'Burning Desire' incense stick image. It was straight from the camera other than the border. I am new to processing as I only crop, brighten & contrast sometimes so 99% of my images are seen as I take them. But I am up for a challenge and will play in processing sometime. Thanks
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Ray...I would have used your method if it had come up in my google search for how to colour smoke because I am not very patient when it comes to post processing...lol...also I prefer the colours your method rendered over the method I used. I know it is probably something I did not do correctly in the method I used but still the end result is the important thing.
Laurie
http://www.capturethisphotography.com/
http://www.myfinepix.com/user/capture-photography
http://adventureswitharty.blogspot.com/
"Holding a grudge is like drinking poison hoping the other person will die." Unknown
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Laurie this is the easiest method I have found and it is also just as easy to stick a coloured picture in instead of painting. Another thing some might want to do is change the layer type to 'Color' before painting. This will allow you to see what you are painting as you do it.
Flickr - 52 with a 50 Blog
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Brilliant tutorial even I understand it and that's saying something now all I have got to do is try to to get some decent smoke captures.
All the best
Steve
http://www.myfinepix.com/gallery/330281
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevesmout/
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Nice tut Ray.
I see you mentioned that you can mix in another photo for a colour effect - this is a really nice way of getting subtle colours into your smoke pics , use strong colours and reduce blending % to taste.
Here's my first post on this forum as a new X10 user
http://www.myfinepix.com/gallery/895946/501234
Johnty