Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop photo effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to colorize a photo using multiple colors. It's an effect I've seen used quite a bit in ads for photo printers and for color calibration software. The idea is simple. Take a single photo, divide it into multiple sections of equal size (usually four sections), then colorize each section using a different color, or a different shade of the same color, to create interesting results. With the photo printer ads, for example, each section of the photo is usually colorized using one of the four main colors of ink (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). With the color calibration software ads, each section of the photo is tinted with a slightly different color to show how the same image can look different on different monitors when they're not properly calibrated. These are just two common examples of how this photo effect can be used, but you can colorize your image with whatever colors you like depending on the subject of your image and the mood or message you're trying to convey. Use reds, oranges and yellows to colorize an image of kids playing in the leaves in the Fall, or different shades of blue to colorize a cold, wintry landscape photo. Or colorize three of the four sections with the same color and use a different color to highlight one specific section of the photo. For such a simple effect, there's lots of different ways you can use it.

Photoshop makes creating this effect incredibly easy. First, we'll divide our photo into four sections using guides, then we'll use several Hue/Saturation adjustment layers, as well as their layer masks, to colorize each section with a different color. When we're done with the initial effect, we'll see how we can use an additional Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to quickly change all four colors at once!

Here's the image I'll be using for this tutorial. My image is a black and white photo, but a full color photo will work equally well. There's no need to convert your image to black and white first, I just happen to like this photo:

Here's how the image will look when we're done. Keep in mind that you don't need to use the same colors I'll be using. This tutorial simply shows you how to create the effect. The actual colors you use are completely up to you:

As I mentioned, at the end of the tutorial, we'll see how we can quickly change all four colors at once for different results. Let's get started!

Want a better way to learn? Download this tutorial as an easy to read, ready to print PDF eBook!

Step 1: Add A New Vertical Guide Set To 25%

Before we can begin colorizing different sections of our photo, we first need to create the sections, and for that, we'll use Photoshop's guides. Guides may not be the most exciting part of working with Photoshop, but they can definitely make your life easier. To divide our photo into four sections of equal size, we're going to need three guides. Let's add our first one. Go up to the View menu at the top of the screen and choose New Guide. This brings up the New Guide dialog box. We want to create vertical guides, so select Vertical for the Orientation option. Then, at the bottom of the dialog box, type in 25% for the Position value:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. If we look at our image in the document window, we can see that we've added our first guide running vertically from top to bottom, sitting at exactly one quarter of the way across the image from left to right:

Step 2: Add A Second Vertical Guide Set To 50%

Let's add our second guide. Go back up to the View menu at the top of the screen and once again select New Guide. When the New Guide dialog box appears, make sure Vertical is selected for the Orientation option and this time, enter a value of 50% for the Position option:

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and we can see in our document window that we've now added a second vertical guide, this one running straight down the middle of the photo:

Step 3: Add A Third Vertical Guide Set To 75%

Go back up to the View menu, select New Guide, and this time, enter a value of 75% for the Position option in the New Guide dialog box. Again, make sure Vertical is selected for the Orientation option:

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box, and we now have our third guide, this one running from top to bottom three quarters of the way across the image:

Thanks to the three guides we've added, one at 25%, one at 50%, and one at 75% of the way across the image, our photo is now divided up into four sections of equal size. We can now begin colorizing each section, which we'll do next!