Photoshop - element of color on B&W pic

[Farclas]

Hi Weyrlady - Photoshop has a history brush in the toolbox; does Elements 6?


If so, the process is easy!

1. Open your picture:


2. Go to Image menu, select Adjustments > Hue and Saturation. Push Saturation slider to the left.


3. Select History Brush in toolbox. Use large brush size to fill large areas; decrease size to catch detail.


4. Paint. When finished, Save As (new title).


That's it!

Edit - Mods, this is probably not the place for tutorials. Please move to where you think appropriate!

[Hans]

In addition:

In case you have an original black and white photograph there's another technque...

• Load the picture
• Create an extra layer; this needs to have the mode set to colour with an opacity of around 50 (experiment with settings later)
• Choose a foreground colour
• Choose an appropriate size brush
• In the extra colour layer paint over the element you want coloured; e.g. a pair of trousers, a blouse, hair etc.

Example (I knicked Farclas' photo, let's pretend it is an old B&W one)



This method gives you the chance to have the element you want coloured in any which colour you want. Go to extremes if you want to I could have given him bright red or blue hair

[Cheryl]

PS Elements doesn't have a history brush, but certainly you can still produce the same effect by a different process. You'll just need to select the object(s) in question first (try either the magnetic lasso or selection brush), copy it to a new layer, then change the first layer to black and white.

[Hans]

Copy paste often does not give the same effect and leave the fact that something is copied for the eye to see, producing sometimes ragged and visible outlines. This might be prevented by blurring the edges.

I think you can also mask in PSe, that might produce a nice and smooth result, too.

It sudenly occurs to me that your technique can be reproduced by just selecting (lassoing) part while using the option Feather to blur the edge somewhat and then desaturate (e.g. make black and white) your selection

[Cheryl]

A good point, you do definitely need to remember to have it feather the edges of the selection for a better result.

[Weyrlady]

WOW- thanks all! I recently upgraded to PS Elements 6 and am still learning my way around; so far I like what I see.

I'm glad there are multiple ways 'keep' one element of a photo in color while the rest of it is in B&W- that;s long been something that I tried to do and never really figured it out 'til now.

[Cheryl]

If you can afford it, there are lots of books written for Elements that will give good tips on usage. Just search for it (along with your version number) on amazon, and read the reviews to get a good one.