Recently I’ve been active in a Harry Potter forum, SnitchSeeker and learned quite a few Photoshop tricks along the way so I thought I’d do a tutorial on colouring. This is my first ever tutorial so do forgive me if I am too long-winded.

(I use Photoshop CS4. It is translatable only to other versions of Photoshop and not other photo-editing software.)

We will be transforming

into

Step 1

Duplicate the base layer and set it to Soft Light at 100%.

Step 2

Create a New Fill Layer and fill it with a pale green colour. I used #a8d2a7. Set this layer to Soft Light at 100%.

Step 3

Repeat Step 2 three more times, filling each layer with pale blue, pale red and pale orange (#abace8, #d2a3a3 and #dab493) in that order. Remember to set the fill layers to Soft Light at 100%. You will end up with something like this:

As you can see, this image is too bright. We will now fix it with Selective Coloring. 

Step 4

Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.

Step 5

In the Adjustments window, edit the Selective Color settings as follows.

Reds

Cyan: -100

Magenta: +30

Yellow: +100

Black: +14

Yellows

Cyan: +100

Magenta: -25

Yellow: +100

Black: +100

Cyans

Cyan: +100

Magenta: +100

Yellow: -100

Black: +34

Blues

Cyan: 0

Magenta: +100

Yellow: 0

Black: +100

Neutrals

Cyan: +27

Magenta: +21

Yellow: +24

Black: +8

Step 6

At this stage, you should get:

Now, create another fill layer and fill it with a navy blue colour like #06002c. Set this layer to Exclusion at 100%.

That’s it! You’re done! :)

Do take note that the settings for the fill layers and Selective Color adjustment layer vary from image to image. Play with the sliders to get the colours you want.

Feel free to comment or ask questions!