Selective Coloring Tutorial
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Adobe PhotoShop Tutorial Overview
This tutorial will explain how to create a black and white image with parts of it colored. I'm using Adobe's PhotoShop, but this can be done with any photo software that supports layers. In this tutorial, I am assuming you are familiar with common Windows terminology such as right-clicking, etc.
Select an Image
Find a suitable picture to color. You'll see the best results if the part you are going to color has hard lines separating it from the rest of the image. For this example, we'll use a digital photo of a red flower.
Duplicate Layer
Create a duplicate layer. To do this, right-click on the background layer and click on 'Duplicate Layer'. The Duplicate Layer box will display. Click on OK. You will now have a new layer named 'Background Copy'. Make sure this is the active layer. It will be highlighted with a blue background. Click on the layer if it is not active.
Make Black and White
Next, you need to make the top layer black and white. There are different ways to do this, but I think the easiest is to change the saturation of this layer to 0%. Saturation is the amount of color in a picture. Click on Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation.
Desaturate Top Layer
The Hue/Saturation box will show up. Change Saturation to -100. Then click on OK.
Eraser
You now have one black and white layer and one color layer. Click on the eraser tool.
Zoom In
Depending on your picture, you may need to make it larger so you can see exactly where to erase. You can zoom the picture by holding down the control key and clicking on the plus sign (cntr and +) or you can select it from the menu by clicking on View -> Zoom In. For this digital photo, I am going to zoom it to 1200% because the initial image is small, and change my brush to a size of 1 pixel because the flower is delicate and it will be easy to erase too much. Your brush can be changed from the Options Window. This is usually visible by default. If it is not, make it visible by clicking on Window -> Options in the menu. The brush can be changed by clicking on the brush icon as shown in the following picture.
Erase Portions of Black and White Layer
Now that you have the right brush and you've zoomed in your image, erase the part you want 'colored'. Essentially, you are just making the colored layer show through to the top.
Save
After you have erased all that you want, save it and you're finished.
About the Author
Brian Broderick (http://www.brianbroderick.com) is a semi-pro nature photographer and the creator of The Lens Flare. His hobbies include hiking, skiing, and computer graphics, and is currently a web programmer.
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