S.S. Reflections Scrapping and StampingTara's Digital Cafe 101  
S.S. Reflections

Select Artwork for Larger View and Item List
"Ctrl P" to Print

Fibers By The Yard

Posh Impressions

Scrapbook Premier

Rubber Stamps On Sale		  

Altering Color Photos

Tara Markley

Editorial Deck Crewmember

When I first thought about trying digital scrapbooking, the one thing I really wanted to learn was how to alter the colors in my photos. I've always liked the look of black and white and sepia tone photos, but hate to give up the color option. With all of the great photo editing software these days, changing the color of your photos is easy


Lets start at the beginning. Open your photo editing program (I will be using Adobe Photoshop Elements) and then open the photo of your choice.









Before we start, make sure that your photo is set to RGB mode. To do this, click on the Image menu, and then select Mode, making sure there is a check mark by the RGB option.









The first thing we will do is to remove the color from the photo. To do this, click on the Enhance menu, then Adjust Color, and Remove Color.









It really is that easy! Now, you can adjust the brightness and contrast to get the best image possible. Photoshop Elements has a menu option under the Enhance menu called Quick Fix.... It can be used to rotate the image, adjust the brightness, contrast, and focus. You can either use the auto fix options, or adjust them by yourself. You can also use the Adjust Brightness/Contrast option under the Enhance menu. For this photo, I chose to do Quick Fixą Auto Contrast.




Here is the enhanced black and white photo.











The next thing we will do is change the photo to sepia tint. In the Enhance menu, go to Adjust Colorą Hue/Saturation then click the Colorize box. By adjusting the Hue to 360 and the Saturation to about 25 I get a great sepia tint on my photo. You may have to play around with the numbers a bit to get the correct color for your photos.







In addition to black and white or sepia tinted photos, you can tint to any color by simply playing the Hue and Saturation values. Just for fun, I added a bit of a blue/green tint to my photo.









As you can see, altering the color of photos is fun and easy. Give it a try!

Tara Markley
taramarkley@ssreflections.com
Digital Scrapping
Editorial Deck Crewmember
S.S. Reflections, Inc.




Ritz Camera


See more ideas, techniques and product reviews at our sister site Scramping Central