Colorizing a Black and White Image

At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to turn this into this.

I advise you to start with a good quality and resolution image. You will have to change the color mode of the image from RGB or grayscale to CMYK. In the menu, go to Image>mode>CMYK.

Using a selection tool (for example polygonal lasso tool - L key on keyboard), select all the regions that you would like to color with similar tones. In my example, I've selected the skin, taking care to remove from selection the eyes, mouth and bracelets if any.

After having the right selection, hit the Q on your keyboard or just go to quick mask on the right panel.

In order for the color to fill in smoothly, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set a value around 5 pixels (depending on your resolution image, play with it).

The only thing that should not look pink on your monitor is your selection. Switch back to normal view hitting Q again.

In the layers window on the low right panel(if you don't have it, press F7) go to create new adjustment layer>curves.

In the curves dialog box that appears, adjust each color curve individually (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) until you are satisfied with the resulting color.

Than make a new selection for other group you want to colorize. For example, select the boots and play again with another adjustment layer, just like you did before. If the colors are too dark or too bright, you may also play directly with the whole CMYK curve.

Do the same for each color you want added on different adjustment layer. Your final layer window should look like this. Maybe this looks a little complicated, but I assure you that it isn't. It's just a tip for you to turn a B&W photo to a great color photo.