How do I photoshop?

WillisK42 · Post by **WillisK42** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:29 am

How do you do those pictures where you remove the color out of the picture except on one object (like a forest, and only one tree is left in full color, while the rest is black/white).

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:31 am

I user Corel Photopaint. Corel do a photoshop, but I don't use it. The terminology and process is much the same.

One good way to do it is simply to save your image as a greyscale image, and then import it back into your original picture.

The hard part is clipping the item you want in colour. Obviously you can do this either by clipping it out of the greyscale image, leaving a transparency that the colour behind shows through, or by clipping the part you want as another separate image and pasting it over the greyscale.

In Photopaint there is are two different selection cursors to allow you to do this. One is a mouse-controlled line - you just have to trace the image as best you can. The other isolates patches of the same tone or hue. Some images would suit one cursor, others would suit the other.

My, my. What a load of jargon. Sorry for that. I hope some of it made sense.

mukade · Post by **mukade** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 10:22 am

There are many ways to do this using selection tools etc, but assuming you are using Adobe Photoshop, the quickest and dirtiest way is...

Menu
Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (turns the image black and white.)

Select the History Brush Tool from the tool bar and hand colour the area.

Mukade

ShadowBG625 · Post by **ShadowBG625** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:05 am

mukade wrote:There are many ways to do this using selection tools etc, but assuming you are using Adobe Photoshop, the quickest and dirtiest way is...

Menu
Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (turns the image black and white.)

Select the History Brush Tool from the tool bar and hand colour the area.

Mukade

I have various types of photo software on my computer, each that I use for various filters and techniques they offer. For what you're talking about, I agree that this is the most effective way, but a steady hand does indeed help.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:41 am

ShadowBG625 wrote:
mukade wrote:There are many ways to do this using selection tools etc, but assuming you are using Adobe Photoshop, the quickest and dirtiest way is...

Menu
Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (turns the image black and white.)

Select the History Brush Tool from the tool bar and hand colour the area.

Mukade
I have various types of photo software on my computer, each that I use for various filters and techniques they offer. For what you're talking about, I agree that this is the most effective way, but a steady hand does indeed help.

This indeed is the best way to acheive the effect you're looking for.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:53 am

I do a similar desaturation, but instead of hand-coloring, I use 2
layers. The bottom layer is desaturated (black-and-white), and
the top layer is an exact copy in color. Then I use the eraser to
erase the parts of the upper layer that I don't want to be in color.
The bottom, B&W, layer shows through where I erase, and I end
up with only the parts I want in color. For some reason, erasing
is easier for me than putting the color back with the History
Brush...

I use the GIMP, though I'm sure the same process is possible in
Photoshop.

DIAGONALINE · Post by **DIAGONALINE** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:26 am

PHOTOSHOP there is a more acurate method.

Choose the magnetic lasso tool and carefully select the item to remain coloured. it will show as selected with a dotted line around it.
go to Select and choose Inverse, nothing shows but now all of the rest is selected but not the front bit that is to remain coloured.
Go to Image -- adjust -- Desaturate
the colour (thats color in USA) from the new selected area, (the background) is removed.
DONE
No colouring in.

Les

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:03 pm

I'd recommend making a new layer before doing any of these. Select everything (Ctrl-A), copy it all, and paste it all. It should show as a new layer. Leave the bottom layer as a backup in case you goof. Then when you are finished you can delete the old layer.

DIAGONALINE · Post by **DIAGONALINE** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:04 am

avanutria wrote:I'd recommend making a new layer before doing any of these. Select everything (Ctrl-A), copy it all, and paste it all. It should show as a new layer. Leave the bottom layer as a backup in case you goof. Then when you are finished you can delete the old layer.

I agree never work on the original photo, first 'save as' photo B and as i proceed i might save a nice effect as photo C then D etc.

ShadowBG625 · Post by **ShadowBG625** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:20 am

I quickly did a picture this morning to fully illustrate how this works.

All in Photoshop:

Left Side: fearfaoin's Method - Using the Eraser on a dual-layer photo

Right Side: mukade's Method - Using the History Brush with a desaturated photo.

The bottom portion - the original.

The Eraser method (which can also be done in most any other photo software ) shows the closest resemblance to the original. The History Brush seems to decrease the contrast of the photo, thus enhancing the color.

DIAGONALINE's method of the Lasso selection/Inversion will work for solid objects (houses, some people) but it can get sloppy when you try to select objects with meticulous detail (flowers, hair, etc.)

In the end, both methods are very well, but will respond differently to different pictures (people do splendid with history brush...flowers...not so much, as you can see above). Test them out, see what you like.