Matching black and white image to its color counterpart?


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A staff member where I work accidentally saved a black and white version of her original image instead of leaving it as the color version it originally was. She has a lower-quality version of the image that's in color, but not the original high-res image in color. Does anyone know if there's an easy way to match the black and white version back to its original state based on the lower-res image's levels or anything along those lines? It's not a big deal, just trying to help her out if I can.

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Photoshop and lightroom both have "auto color" and "auto tone" + plenty of easy tutorials

Those won't do anything for color on a black and white image.

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Those won't do anything for color on a black and white image.

Ay true, wasn't thinking much at the moment, but the tutorial shozilla posted is spot on and easy, after which, you can apply for autocolor :P 

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There's no way you can restore the "full" image per se, since there's information which has been lost. You can get pretty close though, depending on how "low res" the low res version is.

 

 - Open the b&w image in Photoshop

 - Open the low-res version as a new layer above the b&w image

 - Resize the low-res version to match the b&w one (it will look dreadful, but bear with me)

 - Set the blending mode of the layer containing the stretched image to "Colour"

 

This should give you an image which is as close as you're likely to get to the original.

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There's no way you can restore the "full" image per se, since there's information which has been lost. You can get pretty close though, depending on how "low res" the low res version is.

 

 - Open the b&w image in Photoshop

 - Open the low-res version as a new layer above the b&w image

 - Resize the low-res version to match the b&w one (it will look dreadful, but bear with me)

 - Set the blending mode of the layer containing the stretched image to "Colour"

 

This should give you an image which is as close as you're likely to get to the original.

 

It should work but not perfect though..

 

This suggestion is quicker than the suggestion that I posted.

 

If you are not in mood to color the photo... so you can do this suggestion as Brian suggested as long as it is close enough that you don't mind.

 

Unless depends on what it is in the picture, you can ask them to take a picture again if they are up to it. 

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There's no way you can restore the "full" image per se, since there's information which has been lost. You can get pretty close though, depending on how "low res" the low res version is.

 

 - Open the b&w image in Photoshop

 - Open the low-res version as a new layer above the b&w image

 - Resize the low-res version to match the b&w one (it will look dreadful, but bear with me)

 - Set the blending mode of the layer containing the stretched image to "Colour"

 

This should give you an image which is as close as you're likely to get to the original.

Thanks! Tried that then did a somewhat transparent pin light layer at to get the vibrant colors back.

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Can she do a file recovery of the original ?

 

http://www.filehippo.com/download_recuva/

 

http://www.wondershare.net/ad/data-recovery/?gclid=CN7U-OSt0sACFSdk7AodbWAAXQ

 

Or was it saved with the same name ?

 

Is this Windows, with System Restore, a possibility ?

 

Maybe onto something there. Right click on the photo and see if there's anything under the Previous Versions tab. 

 

I'm surprised this was even allowed. normally photo editing software keeps an original copy somewhere. 

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