Convert to B&W but keep some colour

"My View" <reply to > wrote in message

I would like to convert a colour image to B&W then restore only a small

part

of the image back to it’s original colour.
For example, keep a dress as red but make the rest of the image B&W. What workflow would you suggest?
regards
PeterH

Select the small part with the colours you wish to retain and inverse and apply the changes to the inversed selection.

Harry

This should be fairly straightforward. Do you know how to use the magic wand tool or the lasso tool to select the parts of the image that you want to keep in colour? . Then inverse the selection by going into select>inverse. You then have highlighted the are you want to turn to greyscale. Image>adjust>desaturate or any other filter you have

My View wrote:

I would like to convert a colour image to B&W then restore only a small part of the image back to it’s original colour.
For example, keep a dress as red but make the rest of the image B&W. What workflow would you suggest?

Duplicate your layer. Desaturate the topmost layer, and add a mask to it. Then paint on the mask with black in the areas that you want the original colour to show through.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

I would like to convert a colour image to B&W then restore only a

small

part of the image back to it’s original colour.

All of the responses you’ve received will work but some work better than others or are easier to implement or give more control.

Here are a couple of ways to do it …

Select the area of color, using something like the Magic Wand or Select

Color Range. The key is getting an accurate selection. Now invert

the selection (Select > Inverse). Now open a Hue/Sat adjustment layer and change the saturation to -100 and you’re done.

Sometimes killing the saturation makes for a dull black/white image so as an alternate, do the same selection steps and then open an adjustment layer of type Channel Mixer and check the ‘monochrome’ box. You can then play with the channels to get more or less tonality in different parts of the image, giving you more control at the cost of more fiddling around. In the Mixer note that if R,G and B add up to more than 100% the image is lightened, less than 100% the image is darkened. Of course with adjustment layers you can do this both ways (on different adjustment layers) and toggle between them to see which gives the best results.

Bill

Thanks for the great tips. I will now try them out.

"My View" <reply to >…

I would like to convert a colour image to B&W then restore only a small part of the image back to it’s original colour.
For example, keep a dress as red but make the rest of the image B&W. What workflow would you suggest?
regards
PeterH

I’d make a duplicate copy of the picture; apply grayscale to one copy of the photograph; then chose the stamper icon, change settings to color (40 to 50%) and alt-click on the color photograph (to sample color of area that I want to colorize in the B&W photograph); then I’d use the stamping tool and colorize the areas in the B&W photo that I wanted. Setting the color to 40 or 50% allows for error correction.

I would like to convert a color image to B&W then restore only a small part

of the image back to it’s original color.

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 11:51:18 -0600, "William Shaw" wrote:

I’d make a duplicate copy of the picture; apply grayscale to one copy of the photograph; then chose the stamper icon, change settings to color (40 to 50%) and alt-click on the color photograph (to sample color of area that I want to colorize in the B&W photograph); then I’d use the stamping tool and colorize the areas in the B&W photo that I wanted. Setting the color to 40 or 50% allows for error correction.

I would like to convert a color image to B&W then restore only a small part

of the image back to it’s original color.

And why would you not use layers?

My View wrote:

I would like to convert a colour image to B&W then restore only a small part of the image back to it’s original colour.
For example, keep a dress as red but make the rest of the image B&W. What workflow would you suggest?
regards
PeterH

It seems no-one uses the history brush in here. All you have to do is desaturate the image to b&w and apply curves to give it back a little punch. Then use the history brush to paint back the colour wherever you want it.

Brian.

On 3/25/05 11:48 AM, Brian uttered:

My View wrote:

I would like to convert a colour image to B&W then restore only a small part of the image back to it’s original colour.
For example, keep a dress as red but make the rest of the image B&W. What workflow would you suggest?
regards
PeterH

It seems no-one uses the history brush in here. All you have to do is desaturate the image to b&w and apply curves to give it back a little punch. Then use the history brush to paint back the colour wherever you want it.

Brian.

I use the history brush (PS 6.0.1) for a lot of things, but I wouldn’t use it for this example. It would seem a lot more time consuming trying to be accurate with the brush. Whichever method Peter uses he will have more accuracy using a path/selection of the object he wants to revert to original color. He could fill a selection from History though:)

inez

I make a duplicate layer above the original color image. I use Hue/Saturation to make it BW or sepia tone (sometimes I make this layer less than 100% opacity)

then I use the eraser on the layer above, (at low opacity like 30% down to 8%) to selectively erase until what I want shows through.

Looks like old fashioned hand colored photos and a lot less messy and smelly than Dr Marshall’s

clients love this.

"William Shaw" wrote in message

I’d make a duplicate copy of the picture; apply grayscale to one copy of the photograph; then chose the stamper icon, change settings to color (40 to 50%) and alt-click on the color photograph (to sample color of area that
I want to colorize in the B&W photograph); then I’d use the stamping tool and colorize the areas in the B&W photo that I wanted. Setting the color to
40 or 50% allows for error correction.

I would like to convert a color image to B&W then restore only a small part

of the image back to it’s original color.