I can't find anything on the Internet that will walk me through the basics of handcoloring black and white photography. Will someone please send me a link!

-- (Krol@webtv.net), September 21, 1997

Answers

RE: Hand Coloring

There's some preliminary info at this link that may help:

http://www.warehousephoto.com/tech.htm

The oils and pencils offered by Marshall Mfg. Co. come with very good instructions. And hand coloring is not very difficult to do. One tip I've found helpful is to use lots of colors together to help different portions of the print to blend. Mix them liberally and have fun. You should also use a copy of the print that you're willing to test and scrap extra before coloring your "keeper".

-- Fred Schmidt (driko@ix.netcom.com), September 22, 1997.

Re: Hand coloring B&W photos.

I found a pretty cool source for hand coloring your B&W prints in "Advanced Black and White Photography." It's a book published by the Kodak Workshop Series (I think thats what its called), and I recommend it. Its under $20 and commonly available. Let me know if you try it out; although the idea has intrigued me, I haven't tried it yet.

-- Ian Roberts (r1223@corecom.net), December 20, 1997.

I found some pretty good "How-to" notes if you're still interested... just go to URL www.artphotos.com/magic.html. She has some good practical advice that I plan to try on my portraits. Good luck!

-- Ellen Mudge (denmudge@telusplanet.ca), December 03, 1998.

I've been doing hand tinting of monochrome prints for some time now with a good deal of success in exhibitions.

The key is to look around your local art stores or libraries for books on the subject. Theres a few here in the u.k. who specialise in it but I not sure where you are.

One warning, don't use any non-permanent colours (food colour will fade quite quickly). You are going to put a lot of effort into your print and its worth taking that little extra care to ensure that it lasts. To get an idea of the value of your print (not sale value) just multiply your hourly salary by the numer of hours taken in getting the final image. When you've do that, is it really worth cutting corneres and using cheaper materials?

If you need any help of advice send me an email lestaylor@proweb.co.uk. If you want to see some of my work try www.proweb.co.uk/~lestaylor.

-- Les Taylor (lestaylor@proweb.co.uk), August 07, 1999.