a real quickie // coloring tip (Photoshop)
To get this: 
from this:
Open your base, double-click it to unlock it (make it into a layer). Create a new layer, drag it underneath your base, fill it with #E3E9E5 (which looks like this)
Set your base on Color Burn ("Burn" in PSP, to my knowledge). Voila.
This works well with most images, unless they're very bright. So don't lighten your base before. :)
I would also advise against sharpening your base first - Color Burn tends to up the contrast, so it might look jagged if you sharpen/oversharpen it before.
You may also try different hues - with your solid color background selected, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and fiddle with the Hue slider.
eta; Sometimes if the image looks too faded out, try this - set your foreground color to black, background color to the one you used for the background (#E3E9E5 in this case), or white, if you don't want the coloring to be too strong. Now create a Gradient Map (click the fourth icon from the left, located at the bottom of your Layers palette), and again set it on Color Burn.
Using the method above, too washed out, without the gradient map:
With gradient map added:
Layers palette for the second one, both top layers set on Color Burn:
from this:
Open your base, double-click it to unlock it (make it into a layer). Create a new layer, drag it underneath your base, fill it with #E3E9E5 (which looks like this)
Set your base on Color Burn ("Burn" in PSP, to my knowledge). Voila.
This works well with most images, unless they're very bright. So don't lighten your base before. :)
I would also advise against sharpening your base first - Color Burn tends to up the contrast, so it might look jagged if you sharpen/oversharpen it before.
You may also try different hues - with your solid color background selected, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and fiddle with the Hue slider.
eta; Sometimes if the image looks too faded out, try this - set your foreground color to black, background color to the one you used for the background (#E3E9E5 in this case), or white, if you don't want the coloring to be too strong. Now create a Gradient Map (click the fourth icon from the left, located at the bottom of your Layers palette), and again set it on Color Burn.
Using the method above, too washed out, without the gradient map:
With gradient map added:
Layers palette for the second one, both top layers set on Color Burn: