I will be taking photography next semester and I want to take B &W pictures of my children. I also want to color certain things in the picture like they do on some cards I've seen in the stores. How is this done? What products do I need? Please give in detail the coloring process of it. I would love to have pictures of my kids hung on the wall like that. Thanks.

-- Penny LaRochelle (placedout@aol.com), February 02, 1999

Answers

There are may ways to hand tint photographs. For your purposes as a beginner I recommend that you go to your local pro photo store and ask them for the Marshall's colored pencils. Use them to color in the areas that you want colored. If you notice, most hand tinted photos are sepia toned before coloring. It seems to look best that way. Don't be intimidated by the need to sepia tone. It's dead simple. Other methods of hand tinting photographs include the use of transparent oil paints or the use of photo dyes. Marshall's makes all of these. Some people use artists oil paints for tinting their photos but make sure they are transparent. If you want to get daring, you could use any of a number of things that will impart a color to the print like fruit juices, vegetable dyes, etc. I'm not sure how permanent these unusual pigments would be, but it's worth a try on some throw-away prints for the entertainment value if nothing else. As far as detailed instructions, go to your local Barnes and Noble or Borders and they will have books on hand tinting with detailed instructions and examples. Good luck.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf{DHWTOWERS/TOWERS3/brownf}@dhw.state.id.us), February 02, 1999.

Purchase 'Handcoloring Photographs Step by Step' by Sandra Laird. (available at Amazon.Com for $23.96) Great introduction book to get you started!

-- Regina Hugo (vhugo@earthlink.net), February 16, 1999.

Not to be crass, but here's a way to support B&W World:

Sandra Laird's book is available through the Black & White World bookstore. It's even a few cents less than Amazon. :-)

Go to www.photogs.com/bwworld/bwbooks.html and do a search. I'll try to put a direct link to the book on the page later today.

Thanks, Mason

-- Mason Resnick (bwworld@mindspring.com), February 17, 1999.