- Start with your basic greyscale image. I'm going to use this image for the tutorial, because its good quality and easy to colorize: (CLICK)

- Create a new layer and fill with #C6956D. Change the layer setting to color.

- Duplicate (just right click on the layer and press duplicate) the color layer and set to soft light. If necessary, duplicate again. You may want to fiddle wit the opacity of the second soft light layer.

- Merge layers together.

- Your image should now look something like this: (CLICK)

- Depending on the image, you may want to fiddle with the color balance to add more magenta or red, etc. For this image, I went into color balance and added a little magenta. Here are the settings I use (CLICK).

- My image now looks like this: (CLICK)

- Next we are going to do the whites of the eyes. Zoom in around the eyes and using the lasso tool with a feather of 0 or 1, select the whites of the eyes like this: (CLICK) I usually use a feather of 0 because otherwise some tan will show around the white.

- Now select the color white (or press the key "d" on your keypad to switch your selected colors to black and white) and use hue and saturation (ctrl u). Make sure to click colorize and move the saturation bar all the way to the left. You should see something like this: (CLICK) Press ok.

- Now (this may sound confusing) without deselecting, copy the selected eyes. I just press "ctrl c". Then, go back in your actions (by pressing control z) until the white goes away. You should only have to press ctrl z once (the eyes should still be selected but not whitened, like here: (CLICK).

- Now paste (or press ctrl v). The white parts of the eyes will appear as there own layer right where they had been selected. This way, you can fiddle with the opacity so that the eyes don't look weird. I changed the opacity to 40 (its a good number) and then merged the layers together. My image now looks like this: (CLICK)

- I hope that wasn't too confusing, because it will be repeated for other parts of the image.

- Next, I am going to work on the eyes themselves. Select the eyes very carefully using the lasso tool with a feather of 1 like this: (CLICK)

- Now, what I am going to do is a kind of two-toned color eye, for this image I am going to do green and brown, a kind of hazel, but you can fiddle around with the colors however you like. Stay with me, hopefully this won't get too confusing.

- Click a brown toned color on the color swatches and select it. I like to use the darkest brown, #603811. Once that is selected, bring up hue and saturation (ctrl u) and click colorize. Click ok. Your eyes should look like this: (CLICK)

- Now we are going to do what we did before, with the whites of the eyes. Press ctrl c to copy the layer. Press ctrl z to go back (or you can do the same thing by clicking the action you want to go back to in the history panel). Then press ctrl v to paste the brown layer over the eyes. This makes it easier for us to fiddle with the eyes. You should now have two layers, the base and the eye layer.

- The next step is one I use to make the eyes look for shiny and realistic. Select the burn tool. If you don't know where it is, look here: (CLICK) Also, make sure the settings for the tool are set like the selected parts of the cap I gave you.

- Now, depending on the size of the image, you might want to change the brush size of the tool, for this one, 65 is ok. Click on each eye 2 or 3 times. I clicked 3 times. Your eyes should look something like this: (CLICK)

- Now change to the dodge tool (it can be found in the same area as the burn tool). Use these settings - Range: highlights, Exposure: 45. Use the dodge tool 3-5 times on each eye. I used it four times. Your eyes should now look like this: (CLICK).

- Ok, now we are going to duplicate the eye layer (just right click on the layer and press duplicate). You should now have THREE layers: the base and two eye layers. Click the eye next to the TOP layer to hide it for now. Then select the eye layer under that. We are going to change the color of the layer.

- There are a few ways to go about this. You can use color balance and fiddle around till you get the color you want, or you can select a similar color from the color swatches and use hue and saturation. I'm going to use hue and saturation with these settings: (CLICK) That layer now looks like this: (CLICK) [You may also want to fool around with burn and dodge on that layer, in case it looks a little dull. I burned each eye one more time.]

- Now make the top (brown) eye layer visible again. Here is were we go for the two-tone eye. Select the eraser tool with an approriate brush size (for this image I'm using 21, but depending on the size of the eyes, this would change). Use the eraser to erase the MIDDLE of the brown eye layer on both eyes. Now, you have a two toned eye with looks like this: (CLICK) PRETTY!!! Remember you can fiddle with this however you like, different colors, etc... Go with the flow.

- Now we are going to merge all the layers together. (Easy Way - hold down ctrl shift e). The image now looks like this: (CLICK).

- Now I am going to work on the teeth and lips. First, the teeth. This is pretty much exactly like doing to whites of the eyes. Select the teeth using the lasso with a feather of 1, like this: (CLICK). Select the color white and use hue and saturation with the same settings as the eye. (CLICK) Copy the layer (ctrl c), go back one action (ctrl z), and then paste (ctrl v) the white teeth layer on. You should now have two layers again, the base and the teeth. Set the opacity of the teeth to 40 and merge the layers together (ctrl shift e). You image should look something like this: (CLICK)

- Now for the lips. Use the lasso tool with a feather of 1-2 (I'm using 2) to select only the lips like this: (CLICK). Now you CAN use hue and saturation to color the lips, but I like to use color balance to achieve a soft lip color. I usually fiddle around with the magenta color and sometimes the red. But mostly magenta. Here are the settings I used on this image: (CLICK). And here is how my image looks now (after deselecting). (CLICK)

- Next I am going to do the eye makeup. There are plenty of ways to do this, and I'm sure you can find one that suits you, but here is my method. Using the lasso tool with a feather of around 5-8 (I usually use 5 unless the eyes are REALLY big), select around the eyes, like this: (CLICK)

- Next, use the lasso tool with a feather of 0 to get rid of the parts you do NOT want to colorize (the eyes themselves, hair, etc.) Here is what mine looks like now: (CLICK). Now select in the color pallette what color you want the eye makeup to be. I usually go for a brown color like #603811. I usually add more color later (you'll see shortly). Select that color and click "ctrl u" for hue and saturation. Click colorize and click ok. Your eyes should look like this: (CLICK)

- Now, do that thing we did earlier with the eyes and teeth. Copy the layer (ctrl c) than go back one action (ctrl z) than paste the eyes color layer on (ctrl v). Now you should have two layers; the base and the eyes. Change the layer setting of the eye layer to multipy. Now it should look like this: (CLICK). Pretty, right? If you like, you can use color balance to fiddle with the eye make-up color. I'm adding a little green to it with these settings: (CLICK). Merge the layers together.

- Your image should now look something like this: (CLICK).

- Next we are going to do the hair. It doesn't look that bad right now, but I am going to make it more blond. Using the lasso tool with a feather of 1-3 (i'm using 2) select the basic line of the hair. You don't have to be exact because later we will use the eraser tool to fix any mess-ups. When you're done, your selection should look something like this: (CLICK)

- Now we are going to use hue and saturation. Select this color, #C69C6D, and use hue and saturation, with these settings: (CLICK). Fiddle around with the color balance to get the color right. Here are the settings I used: (CLICK).

- Next, that lovely copy paste thing again. Copy the layer (ctrl c), go back TWO action (for multiple actions hold down "alt ctrl z" you need to do that twice ) and paste the layer (ctrl v). Now,lower the opacity of the hair layer a little. Somewhere around 80 is good. Your image should now look like this: (CLICK).

- Now we are going to use the eraser tool to fix the edges of the hair. For this image, try brush size 65, and change the opacity of the brush to around 60 for most of the hair (for some parts you may need to lower the opacity even more so that the underlying color doesn't show through too much). This will make the edges of the hair look better. Erase all the parts that don't belong. You should end up with something like this: (CLICK)

- Now I'm going to do the blush (you don't have to do this now, you could do it earlier if you want). use the lasso tool with the feather set to somewhere between 15 and 20. I'm using 20 for this image. Select the cheekbones like this: (CLICK). Use color balance and fiddle around with the magenta and red to change the blush. Here are the setting I used. (CLICK)

- Ok, so your image should look something like this now: (CLICK).

- Now from here are are just techniques that I like to use on my colorizations. You don't have to if you don't want.

- The image we're using is a little blurry, so I am going to sharpen it a bit. Go to Filter - > Sharpen - > Sharpen. I did this twice. So now my image looks like this: (CLICK)

- Next I'm going to darken the image a bit. This is a technique I learned recently. Create a new layer and fill it with this color: #7DA7D9. Change the layer setting to color burn and the opacity to 40. The image should now look like this: (CLICK).

- Now I just add a backround and text and a border. For textures I like to go to Hybrid Genesis, and use a texture set to Hard Light or Multiply, etc... Sometimes (as in this case) I like to use a pattern instead. For this I took a simple stripe pattern (CLICK), set it to multiply and use the lasso tool (feather 10) to select and erase her face, etc...

- Borders are always good. Sometimes I use a simple one color border (select the entire image, hold ctrl a, click edit - > stroke). But I also like to make the colorization into a shape that serves as a border. Confused? Basically I'm going to show you how I did this: (CLICK).

- Click the rounded rectangle tool (CLICK). Set the radius (top of the screen) to 150. Zoom out on your image so you can see the whole thing with lots of space, like this: (CLICK). Use the rounded rectangle and start in the upper left corner then drag it HUGE so that only the top left corner has a curve. It should look like this: (CLICK). Rasterize the image (right click the layer and select rasterize. Now do the same thing but starting in the bottom right corner. Like this: (CLICK) I'm using different colors so you can see it. Rasterize this layer as well.

- Now we are going to use the marquee tool to delete the top RIGHT part of the TOP layer. It should look like this: (CLICK) and then do the same to the bottom LEFT of the BOTTOM (black) layer. Like this: (CLICK). Now merge those to layers together (select the top layer and press ctrl e). Move that layer to the bottom (under the colorization layer). Your layer pallette should look like this: (CLICK).

- Now we are going to impose the top layer onto the bottom. Click on the top (colorization) layer and press "ctrl g" Look! Now the colorization has taken the shape of the bottom layer. Merge the layers and you should have this: (CLICK).

- And now I just add text and here is my finished product: (CLICK) TADA!!

- Remember, this is just how I choose to do my colorizations. Feel free to change it up, or add in your own styles. And make sure to let me know what you think, or if you have an questions. Also, I'd love to see what you come up with by using this tutorial!