hello, please help! i’m a photoshop newbie and i just need some help… I want to turn a coloured image to black-and-white image but have certain colours still. I don’t know how to say it. for example, I want to select only red or only blue colours and the rest of the image to be black and white. how do I do that? please help!
please Bob, what is the history brush? can you tell me?
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what is the history brush?"
Have a quick look at the Help Files. Look at the section on Work Area—>Tools.
Also in the Help Files, do a search for "History Brush."
The Help Files are a good place to find answers about basic questions such as where the tools are and what they do. And you’ll usually get your answers more quickly than logging in here, typing out a question, and then waiting for replies.
Robert’s method (desaturate + history brush) is one of the easiest and quickest methods but also the worst.
There are many ways to accomplish the task; one recommendable way is this:
1. If the image is a plain flat one then simply duplicate the background layer, else stamp all visible layers into a new one by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E (= Merge Visible w/ Duplicate).
2. Rename the topmost layer, e. g. to ‘B/W Image.’
3. Turn the B/W Image layer into a black-and-white image using your preferred method. Desaturating is the simplest, quickest, and worst method. It’s better to use e. g. channel calculations.
4. Add a layer mask to the B/W Image layer using Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.
5. Using black colour, paint into the B/W Image’s layer mask with a brush. Make sure to paint into the layer mask, not into the layer (click into the mask thumbnail in the layer palette to make it the target of subsequent operations). Where the layer mask is black, the original image’s colour from below the B/W Image layer will shine through. Where the layer mask is white, the image will remain black-and-white. Where the layer mask is grey, a de-saturated colour will appear—the lighter the grey, the more de-saturated the colour.
— Olaf
Olaf
Do you seriously think a person who has to ask what the history brush is is going to follow that lot?
And nowadays there are even better methods than yours!
Robert’s method (desaturate + history brush) is one of the easiest and quickest methods but also the worst.
Indeed but I was going for the former. You need to walk before you run and this was a newbie question.
Bob
Bob I hope you don’t mind if I explain the History brush to Joanna?
The history Brush paints back a snapshot of what your layers look like at the time the snapshot was taken.
You have to take a snapshot( preferably of a duplicate layer ) in the History palette BEFORE you alter anything.(click the little camera icon at the bottom of the history palette [Window > History to open the History palette])
Then if you set the history brush source to use this snapshot you can brush back the original image colours AFTER you have turned the image into black and white
(to set, click the space to the left of the snapshot thumbnail at the top of the palette so it shows the little brush icon, don’t click to the right or it will revert your whole layer back to when you took the snapshot!)
So if you now use the History brush after turning the image into black and white it will paint the colors back.
The keyboard shortcut for the history brush is Y.
If after you have painted a bit back with a continuous stroke of the history brush, you immediately go to the menu at the top of Photoshop and go Edit > Fade you will be able to fade the last brush stroke you did.
So if you had just painted a bright red jumper back to its original red, fading will let you adjust it between the black and white you changed it to and the original full red of the coloured image.
Don’t forget fade only works on the last stroke you did but you can keep repeating as desired. This is great for those Victorian looking prints.
Your history snapshots only last as long as you have the file open and won’t be saved
It’s a safe bet there are usually at least three different ways of doing the same thing in Photoshop! I’m sure John Joslin would like to share, I for one am always eager to learn!
regards
John
All I would say is that you don’t have to make a Snapshot in the history panel beforehand to use the history brush. You can select a history state in the left hand column at any time and paint back to that state using the History Brush.
For instance: convert to black and white; apply a levels adjustment and a filter, then click in the left hand column next to the "pre-conversion" history state and use the History brush to "paint" back the coloured version.
I’d be going for the simpler way of duplicating the layer(do this twice and keep one untouched as a backup), desaturating the lower one and the erasing everything except the areas i want to keep on the upper layer. use a soft edge brush so it blends a bit and doesn’t look too harsh.
BRETT
The erase to history feature pales to doing it with adj layers in my opinion. you must constantly check different states to add or remove changes to your work in progress. using adj layers involves hitting the x-key for quick changes you wish to make.
I agree Donald. I was just pointing out that you don’t need "Snapshots" made before the event.
John Joslin wrote:
Do you seriously think a person who has to ask what the history brush is is going to follow that lot?
Yes, I do. After all, it’s not soo hard to do. "That lot" looks more complex than it actually is; any twelve-year-old who is able to read can follow it.
Doing it with a layer mask is way more flexible. You can alter anything at any time, even after saving and then re-loading your work.
It doesn’t hurt, of course, to learn what the history brush is and how it can be taken advantage of. Still, for this task the history brush is an inferior (albeit viable, quick, and easy) method. And learning what a layer mask is doesn’t hurt either.
— Olaf
As I said in Post #11, I agree!
