I have an exceedingly simple colouring technique for photos with both light-neutral and bright colours.

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Okay, start off with an average base, already corrected for contrast, balance, etc. Open it in PS7 and copy the layer you have three times. Once you have four identical layers, change the blend mode of the top layer to hard light, the one under that to luminosity, and the one just above the background to exclusion. That's it!

I originally was using it on photos from the same set, which all had a model with pale skin, dark hair, and red clothes:

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I tried it on a bunch of other photos, and I've found that it works wonderfully on ones with combinations of light and dark with bold colours.

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You can also fool around with it - I particularly recommend experimenting with different blend types on the top layer. This also works well with illustrations. For this lovely onnagata and his client, I used the same layers but brought down the opacity on the hard light one to fifty percent so as not to wash out the faces too much.

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Unfortunately, this does not work as well on pictures of people with dark skin or tans. :(

I'd love to see what everyone else comes up with!