Hand-Colored Black & White: Bridging Film and Imagination

I’ve always been fascinated by the meeting point between photography and art — that place where the camera records truth, but the artist transforms it into feeling. Over the years, I’ve found that hand-coloring my black-and-white film images allows me to inhabit that intersection fully. It’s a process rooted in tradition yet shaped by modern tools — one that bridges film, digital craft, and imagination.

My hand-colored black-and-white photographs begin long before color ever touches the frame. Each image starts on a sheet of 4×5 black-and-white film — chosen not for convenience, but for its grace and tonal depth. Large-format film slows me down, inviting me to study light, texture, and structure with patience. These subjects are often still-life flowers or landscapes that include an architectural remnant of history — a weathered building, a quiet fence line, or a small chapel beneath the trees.

I’m drawn to this process because it gives me the foundation I need — the pure essence of light and form — before I begin interpreting the scene through color. The film image is scanned, becoming a high-resolution digital negative, and from there, the transformation begins.

Inside Photoshop, I layer color over monochrome much like an artist brushing pigment onto a print. I don’t use Photoshop’s neural filters for this — the results never align with the vision I have. The filters decide what a sky or a flower should look like. I prefer the slower, more deliberate path, painting color by hand on separate layers until I find the harmony I want.

Before beginning, I select a color palette inspired by both memory and feeling. I often refer back to the original color snapshot I made on my phone — not to copy it, but to guide me. Every tone and hue is altered intentionally; that is, after all, the very reason for hand-coloring. I’m not trying to restore realism — I’m trying to express mood, history, and atmosphere through color.

The result sits between worlds — born from film, interpreted through digital craftsmanship, and finished by hand. It’s part photograph, part painting, and entirely personal. Each image carries the tactile character of film and the expressive color choices that exist only in my imagination.