Handcolouring.

I couldn't decide to post this in colour photography, or alt process, but I decided it's not true colour photography, or an alt process and you have to start with black and white.

So, what brand of colouring agent do you all recommend for handcolouring? I'm interested in portraits, and making them realistic as possible. I was looking at the marshals oil's portrait set. It's at B&H, but I don't think it's allowed to post links to other websites here so I figure you all can see it. Or, should I just buy individual colours? I plan on doing this a lot more then a few times, as I am on quite the experimentation kick with my photography. I really don't like things like pencils, I don't know though, if they work different then regular pencils that works for me. I don't really plan on doing plants, just portraits. Any suggestions for brands, where to buy, exact sets, colours, or really anything would be great!

I do a lot of hand coloring, and the Marshall's set is a good place to start. The pencils work well, too (but having a soft eraserstik helps to smooth the tones). What sort of paper are you planning to print on?

Any oil paints will work. Don't thin them out too much, if at all, use Q-tips or small brushes, and use photos w/ a matte finish rather than glossy. Although I have used watercolours and glossy photos before, but you really have to work fast. The oils and matte photo combo is pretty bulletproof because the oils dry so slowly, and you can push them around or even wipe them off if needed. Don't try that w/ glossy, as it tends to get in there and not want to come out too much. There are no rules,so have a ball and get a feel for it w/ some photos that are not important at first.

I plan on using ilford matte multigrade fb. Eddie, and momus, how do your pictures end up coming out, and I mean the look? Like, very realistic(as can be with handcolouring) or carry a very painting like quality? I really want it to look very "Real", and by that I mean the colours not be to strong, but some what soft. I've seen a mixture of both, and don't really know how each results are achieved.

That's my favorite (current) paper for hand-coloring.
Mine can look either realistic or unrealistic, depending on the image. When I do portraits (usually children), I don't color the skin- just the clothing, props, background. I like the effect.

I started with a Marshall's oil kit and then bought other colors as I needed them. I also use Prismacolor colored pencils, though the really old ones I have seem better than the newer ones. I even color on Ilford FB glossy because it still has some tooth and I'm not really happy with how the matte looks. The pencils work better on the matte. All my opinion, of course. And based on their papers more than 2 years ago because I was dragged away from the darkroom and am just getting back to it this fall. The Art300 takes color very easily and I've used pastel pencils with it.

I think that the one guiding principle of hand tinting photos especially portraits is that less is more. Trying to add too much color results in a garish looking result. Some years ago there was a method called Metallochrome. It was used for portraits. A very natural skin color was obtained by use of a dilute gold chloride solution. The entire photo was first toned sepia and then the gold solution applied to skin areas. The other colors were the regulation oil paints. I tried a brief search but could find nothing now. However the OP may have better luck. The results were very natural looking. BTW I have always thought that tinting rather than actual color film produced the best portraits.

Hi Eddie

I have always admired your work, I use this Ilford mat paper for my solarization's as it really tones well with sepia , selenium and blue.

I have a client who uses the Art 300 with acrylics and loves it.. I basically make mural prints for them give a sepia tone and then he hand paints over the paper.


Once we get the new software for this site I can talk about an amazing technique that can take colour images, drop out the tones to allow pigment to come back in on any source of silver, or palladium.
I think you will appreciate the ability to lighten colour's that in the original scene print the same with not much separation and forcing you to paint, colour, over darker tone.

by lightening these areas and making them different density's on a second negative a lot of opportunities become very obvious..


QUOTE=eddie;1953783714]That's my favorite (current) paper for hand-coloring.
Mine can look either realistic or unrealistic, depending on the image. When I do portraits (usually children), I don't color the skin- just the clothing, props, background. I like the effect.[/QUOTE]

I agree with Gerald, I too believe adding colour to BW base print is much more subtle and pleasing than original colour to colour paper.
My work with gold over sepia on paper , showed that the upper highlights would take on the brown sepia look , and you could control this by the amount of bleach, then followed by wash then gold chloride solution where I would leave the print in the solution for as long as it took for the mid to upper highlights to turn a PEACH COLOUR, then I would selenium for the low tones, and if really adventurous I would iron blue tone. This combination on my solarizations would create a quad tone effect that I found extremely desirable.

the problem element has always been staining of the Iron Blue process and also the possibliity of completely washing off the blue. If I could solve this I would be the happiest camper you could meet.
the balance of warm highlights and warm upper mid tones, to the cooler mid tone and shadow areas is a winner winner in my kind of work... I would be open to any suggestions on how to attack the mid to low tones with an chemical process that would actually cool those regions, I could live with any of the cold tones.

Gerald C Koch said:

I think that the one guiding principle of hand tinting photos especially portraits is that less is more. Trying to add too much color results in a garish looking result. Some years ago there was a method called Metallochrome. It was used for portraits. A very natural skin color was obtained by use of a dilute gold chloride solution. The entire photo was first toned sepia and then the gold solution applied to skin areas. The other colors were the regulation oil paints. I tried a brief search but could find nothing now. However the OP may have better luck. The results were very natural looking. BTW I have always thought that tinting rather than actual color film produced the best portraits.

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For portraits, try Ilford Warmtone semi-matte. It makes the handcolored skin tones a bit more realistic (if that's what you're after).

Fall said:

I couldn't decide to post this in colour photography, or alt process, but I decided it's not true colour photography, or an alt process and you have to start with black and white.

So, what brand of colouring agent do you all recommend for handcolouring? I'm interested in portraits, and making them realistic as possible. I was looking at the marshals oil's portrait set. It's at B&H, but I don't think it's allowed to post links to other websites here so I figure you all can see it. Or, should I just buy individual colours? I plan on doing this a lot more then a few times, as I am on quite the experimentation kick with my photography. I really don't like things like pencils, I don't know though, if they work different then regular pencils that works for me. I don't really plan on doing plants, just portraits. Any suggestions for brands, where to buy, exact sets, colours, or really anything would be great!

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hi fall

if you know how to watercolor paint watercolors and crayon might be another option.
i do that sort of thing with bleached cyanotypes and it is pretty easy and fun

john