I adore, and highly recommend, the history brush for stuff like this... you don't use layers, so it's not like you can just adjust specific layers, but if you keep enough steps in memory, it doesn't matter... you just set the history brush back at whatever step you want to change whatever you want to change.

Here's my image, that I did really quickly... like maybe 15 minutes:

≡ Click to see image ≡

To do this, I colorize the whole image with whatever color I want for the section I'm working on (skin, eyes, lips or hair, for example), then I click the history brush in the little box in front of either the colorized or pre-colorized state, and either paint in, or paint out that color.

For example, the skin is a large area, so I colorized the whole image for the skin tone, then set the history brush for the state before I colorized, and used the history brush to "un-color" the eyes and hair. (I left the lips skin-colored, as a base hue.)

Then I colorized the whole image for the lip color, set the history brush at that state, then went back to the previous state (before colorizing for the lips), and painted in only the lips. And the same with the eyes and hair.

The great thing is that you can do this with anything... contrast, saturation, whatever, so you really get total control on every little area. If you increase saturation and everything looks great, except then the eyes look weird, for example, you just set the history brush before the increase in saturation, and paint out that extra saturation in the eyes.

And because you can use the history brush at various levels of opacity, you can pretty much achieve whatever you want in terms of subtlety.

So that's my whole tip: Play with the history brush a lot; it comes in handy.

By the way... The technique is really so simple that what you really end up spending time on are the hues... trying to adjust to get the right tones. Don't forget, if you are using "color balance" to adjust, that you can choose among "shadows", "midtones", and "highlights". This can be really helpful for difficult things like skin and hair, where sometimes if you get the overall tint as you want it, either the dark or light areas may look strange.

That's fantastic! I hate to say it, but your method is so much better than the one in the tutorial - much more realistic and more subtle. Their little girl looks like something out of a zombie flick, although their Avril Lavigne is really pretty well done.

Thanks for the tutorial. I've never ever used the history brush, can you believe?

It was love at first sight when I met history brush. It was like, intense, but cool, you know? We laughed, we talked for hours. But also, we could just be silent together, and it didn't feel awkward. And history brush loves sushi and Indian food, historical fiction, and textile art. What are the odds?

I hope you two have a long and happy life together.

Me too! But he does carry a lot of luggage...

Sometimes I just want to say, "Forget! Forget! That was then, this is now!" ... but, no-ooo

Thanks for the tutorial, taz! I agree with iconomy that the coloring you did on the little girl was much better than the one in the tutorial, although their Avril was very very cool.

Good stuff, taz! For non-PS solutions I've been playing with Recolored and it's pretty cool.

Oh, this is great, taz... I'e never played with the history brush, either, but now you've got me wanting to try it. Thanks!

Thanks for both the link and the tip, taz.