How to Colorize a Black and White Photo Using Only Lightroom

If you've got some old family photos lying around that you've scanned and cataloged in Lightroom, you might be interested in colorizing them. Here's how to do that without ever even touching Photoshop. 

Coming to you from Nathaniel Dodson of tutvid, this helpful tutorial shows your how to colorize a black and white photo in Lightroom. I have to admit that I never even considered it something that was possible to do outside Photoshop, but it turns out that with a little help from the Adjustment brush, it's quite easy to do. The beauty of the Adjustment brush is that each separate color you paint on will come with its own handle that will allow you to adjust anything from exposure to contrast, sharpness, or opacity, allowing you to really make aspects of the photo pop should you so choose. You can also change settings retroactively just by grabbing the appropriate handle. In some sense, this makes it a bit more efficient and tidy than managing a bunch of color layers along with their respective adjustment layers in Photoshop, and it's certainly nice to never have to leave the Lightroom catalog to do so. Give it a try!

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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1 Comment

That was pretty good! I feel lightroom is so much more powerful than many of us realize!