Black and white with some color...how to do it

[agroni]

Once i saw a thread describing a method in Photoshop of leaving a large amount of color in a B&W photo. The person also wrote the instructions but i was not able to do it.
An example from my previous done with a lasso:

This photo was by selecting the flower with a lasso and then turning the rest of the pic into B&W.

The other method was somehow in these steps I remembered:
Addin a layer, reveal, adding layer mask.....and than with the black bruch (i think!) we added the color and with the white brush we substracted the color!!!!!
If someone know this in Photoshop Elements 3.0, please help me?!?!?!
I have a picture that with a lasso would take me a month to select the areas that i want to leave the color! So any help would be appreciated...
thanx

P.S. I hope i was clear, cause sometimes I'm able to writte stupid things ))))))))))))))

[ilanphoto]

there are many ways to select in PS one of them is the mask that you can paint and unpaint (black and white) you can also select by colour if there is a specific colour or use the selection wond. Use shift key to add to the selection and ALT to remove from the selection.

A good selection is sometimes hard to do (like hair etc)

[ihor]

Whatever you do, DO NOT use desaturate to get the black and white layer.
That's not the method seasoned users of editing software use. The best way is channel mixing or some such method.
try here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1006

[ckimmerle]

Whatever you do, DO NOT use desaturate to get the black and white layer.
That's not the method seasoned users of editing software use. The best way is channel mixing or some such method.

That's not true at all. Desaturate is a very viable method of creating a grayscale image, and sometimes gives the best results. The trick is, after desaturating, to then go into each color and adjust the brightness slider accordingly.

This is not the method I used most often, but it has occassionally given me a better set of tones than other methods. I do use Channel Mixer a lot, but it's not very intuitive and often demands too much trial and error.

The trick to Photoshop, though, is to NEVER say never.

Chuck

[road_runner]

You can try two methods that I know of, mayb moe.

1 Lasso tool:
Select the lasso tool
Then click on the little icon to exclude the portion you are to select
Draw the mask around your object (To retain its color)
Then convert to B&W

Might be a good idea to do this using a duplicate of your background.

2. Use the Eraser Tool
First make a duplicate Copy of Background.
Select the Eraser Tool; set transparency to 100%
Click on the eye of the original background (So it will not show through)
select the duplicate layer above.
Now erase the object you want to have color (It will turn white)
Convert to B&W
Click on eye of original background (Color should show through.
Colapse the layers.
Finally make any adjustments for contrast.

Good luck!

[littleheifer]

My favorite method is:

open image>image>duplicate close original
Duplicate background layer
Layer>new adjustment layer>hue/saturation
hue/saturation box opens drag saturation to left -100
click on brush tool
set foreground color to balck
paint with black brush to erase what you want in color
if you make a mistake set foreground color to white to undo.
zoom in for more control and better detail.

hope this helps

Nancy

[agroni]

hope this helps

Nancy

Thank you Nancy!!!! With your help prescribet in detail, I have managed to do what i was trying to do for a long time.
THANX

[scatts]

I find the easiest method is to "Desaturate" and then (immediately after) use the "History Brush" to paint over the areas you want to bring the colour back. These two were done that way:





If I'm just going B&W without any colour I use either "Calculations" or a plug-in I bought which both give much more choice over the final effect.

[knighty]

I do all my levels and such things, then make a selection of the area I want to keep in colour using lassos and the magic wand, invert the selection and then desaturate the new selection. I used that technique on these shots...



Ian

[gpaai]

If it hasn't been mentioned above, locate a tutorial on quick masking.

I used quick mask in this image. If you notice the sky and water is b&W yet the colors blend. In quick mask you can also use gradience, and work in transperancy in areas.

http://www.pbase.com/gpaai/image/43022512