Combining Black & White with Colour in one photo

[Jocelyn1706]

Hi all,
I am new to Photography and Photoshop!!!
I want to make one part of a photo black and white and another part colour. How do I do this????
Please help!

[KhenG]

This may not be the answer you want... but you can certainly try using Picasa to do that.

The other way of doing it in PS (Photoshop) is to duplicate the current layer "cmd+j" in MAC or ctrl+j in windows, then convert the new layer to black and white. Now use the eraser tool to erase the area you want to appear in colour.

Hope that helps

[Jocelyn1706]

Fantastic thanks Khen!

[Kimbolina]

Well I didn't know that, thanks.

[ricktas]

Although 'selective colour' as it is referred to, can be fun and is a good learning tool. Be careful using it, is not seen as 'fashionable' any longer and certainly the more experienced you are at photography and editing, it has to be a very special selective colour photo to rate highly and get your attention.

I do agree that it can look good, but it became the 'in' thing to do a few years ago, and was done to death, so go ahead and have fun with it, and enjoy learning, but it isn't something that would often win a competition these days.

[Damo77]

Don't duplicate the layer, and don't use the eraser tool.

Make a Gradient Map adjustment layer to convert to black-and-white (there are other methods too, but Gradient Map often works well) then simply paint with black on the mask to reveal the colour.