Hi,I'm looking for some suggested techniques on colorizing USGS black/white aerial photos, such as those from Terraserver. Are there any tutorials or general methods that describe how to do this in Photoshop or other software? I did a search on the avsim forums but came up empty.I'm just starting to experiment with some software called Recolor: http://www.recolored.com/, but I'm wondering if there are better methods out there for colorizing.Thanks!

You can find a tutorial here: http://www.fs2004.com/kb/idx.php/0/022/art...a22a5916319e9a2I've been doing it a little differently, using Paint Shop Pro. I start by colorizing the entire background with the hue set to 21 and saturation at 50. Next I'll pick some darker shades and use a green for them by selecting the shades and having PSP select similar. The fill is set to color instead of overlay as mentioned in the tutorial. I've been doing the fill on a second layer and deleting some of the green where it doesn't look appropriate. Finally I go back through and draw in the roads with a medium grey color.There are two sceneries that I've done like this in the library:Sedona http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=94996Cottonwood http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=95220I'm working on another (Prescott, AZ) that's much larger. It's roughly 25 miles x 50 miles and has a water mask for the five lakes in the area.

Hi,Thanks for sharing your tips! I actually did come across your recent AZ scenery on avsim and thought you did a nice job with the colorizing. I'm also using Paint Shop Pro (version X). I'm experimenting a little with some imagery of different features in the Mojave desert, CA, including the Goldstone deep space complex near Ft. Irwin. But I'm just playing around for now....nothing too extensive.I tried the lazy approach of using PSP's Color Balance tool to give the entire image a 'warm' tone so it would appear more like a desert....but it colors *everything* to the point where it looks more like Mars...I'll have a look at the tutorials you provided and see if I can learn some tricks of the trade. Thanks for sharing!

Here's a completely different method which is worth looking at. This uses an algorithmic approach.The tool is talked about here:http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1108It takes some time to 'train' it for your particular colour requirements, but once you get a good database it does a great job quickly. I sometimes combine this with another technique, using the colour information from low-resolution satellite imagery where available. I just align the colour image over the top of the b/w image in photoshop using Color Mode. This way I can adjust the colour only without damaging the underlying b/w image which supplies the detail.Combining the two different results -- algorithmic and colour merging -- gives a good mix of tones.I used these techniques for Tauranga -- http://www.windowlight.co.nz/realnztauranga.html