A question to the photoshop experts

[Malte279]

Hi!
I'm trying to figure out photoshop these days. For a practice I use it to color some drawings I scanned before. In case of one drawing it doesn't work out to pick any colors for some reason. I don't know what, but no matter which color I pick the color is always switched to some gray shade. Does anyone have any idea why every color I pick (no matter whether I mix it or pick it from another picture with a pipette) is automatically turned into a gray shade and how I can fix that problem?

[DarkHououmon]

What format is the file in?

[Malte279]

Its a JPEG. There must be something about the file-format that turns it into a gray-shades only file, but I have absolutely no idea what needs to be done to change that.

[DarkHououmon]

Hmm. Did you happen to change the original file into a black and white image or something? I've noticed, in the past, when I do that, you can no longer use color on the image unless you save it again in a color format.

[Malte279]

The only thing is that it is a gray-shade scan which I mean to color. But that can hardly be the reason as I colored another scan of the same type and even though I didn't do anything different about that one it worked out just fine in case of that other scan.

[Malte279]

I tried to color the picture with paint instead, but even though it is possible to pick any color in paint it will still appear as a gray tone only in that image
It would be really awesome if anyone knew how to solve that problem.

[DarkHououmon]

Okay here's what you can try to do:

Open the image up in MS Paint. Select Save As. Change the file into a 24-bitmap (a type of bmp format). Rename the file (I do this so that the new image is easier to find) and save it.

That should enable you to use color. I've done this before and has always worked for me.

[Malte279]

Thank you Kacie
This way it is possible to color the image (guess I'm going to post both images here soon).
I still don't know what the problem was in the first place though or how else it might have been solved.

[DarkHououmon]

You're welcome.

[landbeforetimelover]

I am what you could call a image/photo/photoshop expert.  Over the years, making things in photoshop has been required for many of my LBT projects.  You could always just ask me if you have a simple question like this.  Let me explain this.  You scanned an image in greyscale mode (or black and white).  This means that to make the image as small as possible, the layers which could accept color have been deleted.  You must simply open a new document in photoshop like so:




Make sure the color is RGB and it is in a decent bit.  8bit is okay, but I would go higher for better image quality.  Also, remember to set the background to transparent to avoid difficulties.  Then, just drag the image into the new document and it will add a color layer which you can apply color to.

NOTE:  When I say color layer, I'm not talking about a layer in photoshop, but a layer in the image itself.  It cannot be directly seen in photoshop.

P.S.  I am using photoshop CS3 extended.  If your version is under CS2, the instructions may be different.  Please tell me if this doesn't work.

[action9000]

You must simply open a new document in photoshop like so:
Make sure the color is RGB and it is in a decent bit. 8bit is okay, but I would go higher for better image quality

Yep, that's the solution to the problem in Photoshop. Seems like it's been resolved though, so nothing more for me to say. B)

[Malte279]

Thank you very much for your help