
Inculcating the skill for this art among traditional photographers is also to enhance innovativeness and proficiency in their practice as photographers so they can impact positively on various homes in societies of Ghana. This is intended to equip digital photographers with the skill of adding aesthetic value to outmoded grayscale photographs. The authors of this paper were motivated to conduct this practical-led research ( Candy, 2006) using Adobe Photoshop “CS6” to simplify the skills for grayscale image colouration and impart the procedures to academia especially those in the new-media art profession.
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The digital photographic technology and all its image-manipulating graphic application software have provided vast dimensions of possibilities for achieving fascinating results in this subject area. However, the reverse does not come that easy even though available computer software offers the possibilities. It is evidently clear that coloured photographs can easily be converted into grayscale using the camera, a computer or on smartphones. With the advent of the colour Polaroid and coloured photography, some photographers and family members sought ways of converting copies of some of these memorable grayscale photographs into colour modes ( Jenkins, 2008).

Examples of such photographs with strong historical values are the narratives of the Asante War, the burning of Coomassie, the blown-up of the Asante palace and the pitched high roofed architecture which depicted the prosperity of pre-1874 Kumasi. Some of such grayscale photographs are also in family archives. It marked a turning point in the history of photography in Ghana because grayscale photography had dominated the industry and therefore needed a change in the printing of photographs of social and cultural significance.Ī visit to various museums in Ghana will show evidence of photographic recordings of historical events and happenings in the pre and early post-colonial era captured in grayscale mode. The technology has remained the choice of vast people of all shades of beliefs and cultures (rich and poor, young and old) for keeping memories of the past.Įven though the history of colour photography dates as far back as the 1860s, it was not until the early 1970s that James Barnor, a native of Accra whose vibrancy in photography spanned over sixty years of practice, introduced this art in Ghana ( Quaye, 2010). The technology has seen many developments from the camera obscura of the 11 th century through the sensitometry technology of the 19 th century leading to the black-and-white monochrome photography and colour photographic technology ( Wales, 2020). Photography is one of the most fascinating technologies for documenting historical events, archaeological findings and explorations. The authors have illustratively explained the techniques using the design-based and descriptive methods to simplify the procedures for easy grasping by all categories of digital photographers.

This paper, which is a practice-led research, is written to demonstrate the fundamental editing procedures and skills, to help equip digital photographers in Ghana with the capacity and the technical know-how for grayscale image colouration. Adobe Photoshop, one of the most popular software for digital imaging among graphic artists in Ghana, offers a flexible scheme for transforming grayscale photographs into colour, even though many users of the software in Ghana are not conversant with this scheme. This photographic exercise, however, requires artistic and technological expertise to accomplish.

Most of this graphic application software is also equipped with tools for transforming grayscale photographs into colour. Digital Photography as a modern trend in the photographic industry offers a wide range of software for editing and enhancing visual qualities of hue, colour saturation, vibrancy, colour balance, exposure and gamma correction among many others in images.
