Skip to main content
Inspiring
January 20, 2023
Answered

How to colorize photos with user selected colors (treatment/grade) as seen in Instagram reels.

  • January 20, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 309 views

There's a technique I've seen on some Instrgram reels that I can't tell if it's real or if it's made up for Instagram. Appears to be for Lightroom, but posting here as I don't know which version of Lightroom or if it could also be Photoshop, or there may be alternate approaches. This is not the Colorize Neural Filter.

 

In the Instagram reels what appears to be happening is that a file is converted to B+W (assume staying as RGB, not greyscale), then a set of colors, looks like 5 color patches that have been pulled from, lets say, a movie still, are then applied to the B+W photo, resulting in a new color treatment (grade). The way the reels are filmed makes this look like it's not done with Photoshop color mapping though it's maybe a similar process, but like it's done with Lightroom and that it's almost a "choose mapping colors, click and apply" process.  Can't tell if Classic or the cloud version. 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

Couild you please provide meaningful screenshots to illustrate the process or links to those videos. 

1 reply

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
January 20, 2023

Couild you please provide meaningful screenshots to illustrate the process or links to those videos. 

El_JeffeAuthor
Inspiring
January 20, 2023

I've been looking on Instagram to try to see again for days (sometimes hard to find things on there), but one just popped up! 

So like so much on Insta, what is shown is not the full truth. They're simply presets, presented in a way that makes it look like color patches have been applied to an image. With the ways things are going, especially with AI, it does seem quite plausible to pick a series of colors and have LR or PS grade the image to those colors with one click. I'm actually surprised they haven't done it yet, though every lowered entry to the field makes it harder for pro's to actually make money..

Appreciate the response!

 

El_JeffeAuthor
Inspiring
January 20, 2023

I do appreciate that a pre-set is, essentially, a one click grade of course