Colourizing Techniques, What are you secrets to colorizing? Options

[pinksharpiex]

I use the pen tool instead of the lasso, because I could go back to fix mistakes without having to complete the entire selection. (Something I learned from vexelling). I also colourize in all layers so I could load layers and delete it from selections. I don't know anyone else who does this. What are your tricks when it comes to colourizing?

[YourSuperior]

I use the pen tool on some colourizations, but not all. I mostly use the polygonal lasso.

[talcumpowder]

I sit there and colour pixel-by-pixel with brushes. =X Yes, I actually do that. Except for backgrounds... &I use Hue-Saturation a lot. Along with the photo filters (for hair usually). Oh! &I sometimes use the Magnetic Lasso when I'm outlining the background... But I don't like that as much.
Oh, and I like linking the layers together for the backgrounds. That helps a lot when you wanna do a gradient on the background. I used that technique for a pair of wings once too... Turned out dammned cool.
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I'm a little eccentric...

[Gigi]

I always, always use the free-hand lasso tool. Easy to use, easy to fix (just use the lasso tool set to the deselect button to fix anything up). Way more user-friendly than the pen tool, and colourizing doesn't require the type of smoothness a vector/vexel demands.

Here are some of my techniques/tips:

- Never use just one colour for one body part/object. Especially for skin. Use different shades, different saturations.

- Don't just use the blending mode "Color". Try out all the other ones. My personal favourites for lips are Soft Light and Color Burn; sometimes I use Soft Light for the lighter bits of the skin also.

- The feathering settings are your best friend. Depending on the size, a 20 px works well for eyeshadow for a larger image.

- I like to take a b/w image, colourize the full image with a skin-colour shade, then duplicate the image two times depending on the contrast. I set one layer to Screen and one layer to Soft Light/Overlay. If it's too orange, red, yellow, blue, whatever, I'll mess around with the Hue/Saturation until I find something I like.

- Color Balance = <3. It's fantastic to fix up some minor colour problems and works wonders.