Painting a black and white, need a answer

[Pipsmom]

After a lot of reading lately I started today on this project just for fun and practice really but something odd happened and I don't know where it all went wrong. As it's work in progress I need to know what Not to do so it doesn't happen again tomorrow.
I started off after healing then dropping in color for the sky from the blending mode Color, had it all nice and light blue, added my base and worked up the smoke effect...it was very very nice I was pleased.
Well .....long story short I was brushing the trees and wanted something a little stronger for depth...so I made a new layer and left it in the normal mode, painted as usual. At one point I changed again and picked soft light...Finished base work back in Color mode each step in its own layer for tweaking later with hue/saturation.
Somehow all the switching blending modes created a final look that wasn't nice...all my sky and smoke, trees and grass went very faint colors....., So I had to do it all over again.
Can you explain what went wrong and how Not to do that anymore so when I like the finished layer I want it to stay that way and not fade away.
Reference and WIP photo enclosed...I'd like to finish this tomarrow if I know what Not to do

 

[IamSam]

Can you explain what went wrong and how Not to do that anymore so when I like the finished layer I want it to stay that way and not fade away.

It could prove difficult to explain what went wrong without seeing your layers panel and how your going about your colorization process.

There are many ways to colorize images, one of the best ways is by using color SOLID COLOR ADJUSTMENT LAYERS and their layer masks, as well as HUE & SATURATION LAYERS and their layer masks. Each layer can be adjusted to a particular blending mode, opacity, etc,. By using the layer masking, the color mode only effects one portion of the image. For example, one solid color fill adj layer used on just the sky, the mode setting for that layer will only effect the sky and none of the rest of the image.

Here's an good example that Hawkeye posted back in 2014.........


Chris uses layers with layer masks in this THREAD.


No matter what technique you adopt, the important part is that you use layers.

Here's yet another example where I used solid color fill adj layers and their layer masks, regular layers, and curves adj layer and it's layer mask to colorize another image.
The key here being layers.

 

[Pipsmom]

I will study the links Thank You

 

[Pipsmom]

Think I'm going to leave this here, I've gone as far as my practice will let me....... Thank you for the tips yesterday also.
Funny how the color doesn't show as bright and detailed as my saved imagine, but I'm happy with it
Presenting Number 103

 

[chrisdesign]

You achieved a good result in both your posted images.
But the problem is, that you wanted to restore the original colors. In most cases this is not possible, because it just looks unreal.

A better way is to colorize the image on each layer in lighter colors. Set the layer mode to multiply, and reduce opacity if necessary.
Add a dodge an burn layer on top of the stack, set the layer mode to linear light. To darken some parts paint with a black brush (2 % opacity), to lighten some parts paint with a white brush ( 2% opacity).


This is what I've done in a quick way without retouching anything.

 

[Pipsmom]

Thank you for the advice Chris I will surely use it on the next engine.
Thats what I like so much about this forum as you tutor us Newbys to achieve and do better with expert advice the next time.
Many thanks to everyone that helped me

 

[Maria784]

This was helpful for me as well...I like the train photo BTW

 

[Pipsmom]

Applied a lot of Chris's techniques and some off the top of my head...much better and faster.

Before and after